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Photograph of Dean Rusk

Rusk, Dean 1909- 1994

David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Biography

Photograph of Dean Rusk

Dean Rusk was born in Cherokee County, Georgia. He was educated in Atlanta, leaving school in 1925 to work for two years for a lawyer. Rusk then went to Davidson College in North Carolina, graduating in 1931 and then went to St. John's College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, he received the Cecil Peace Prize in 1933. From 1934 to 1940 he taught at Mills College in Oakland, California. He studied law at the University of California, Berkeley, class of 1940. In World War II he joined the infantry as a reserve captain (he had been a ROTC Cadet Lieutenant Colonel), he served in Burma and ended the war a colonel with the Legion of Merit and Oak Leaf Cluster.

He returned to America to work briefly for the War Department in Washington. He joined the Department of State in February 1945 working for the office of United Nations Affairs. He was made Deputy Under Secretary of State in 1949. He was made Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs in 1950 and played a influential part in the US decision to become involved in the Korean War. However he was a cautious diplomat and always sought international support. Rusk had become a Rockefeller Foundation trustee in April 1950 and in 1952 he left the Department of State in 1952 to succeed Chester L. Barnard as president of the Foundation. On December 12, 1960, Rusk was named Secretary of State, assuming his office in January, 1961.

As Secretary of State he was consistently hawkish, a believer in the use of military action to combat Communism. During the Cuban missile crisis he initially supported an immediate military strike, but he soon turned towards diplomatic efforts. His public defense of US actions in the Vietnam War made him a frequent target of anti-war protests. Outside of communism he continued his Rockefeller Foundation ideas of aid to developing nations and also supported low tariffs to encourage world trade.

Following his retirement, he taught international law at the University of Georgia in Athens (1970-1984).

He was the longest serving Secretary of State other than Cordell Hull.

He married Virginia Foisie in 1937 and they had three children.

Popular Documents

October 20, 1962

Telegram from Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko to the CC CPSU

Gromyko relays the results of a meeting with Dean Rusk where the two discuss Cuba, issues in Latin America and American acts or aggression toward Cuba.

January 16, 1963

Diary Entry of Amintore Fanfani for 16 January 1963

Fanfani covered the events of the day in this journal entry, noting that he told Kennedy he would make no commitment on the Jupiter-Polaris replacement until he spoke with McNamara. With McNamara, Fanfani emphasized the point about using the Jupiter base for space launches. Both Kennedy and McNamara denied that there was a trade with the USSR, with McNamara emphasizing the risks posed by the Jupiters during the Missile Crisis.

October 28, 1966

The Issue of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in the Conversations of Comrade Gromyko with US Government Officials During the 21st Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA)

This document includes accounts of several conversations between Soviet officials and US diplomats, including Andrei Gromyko for the Soviets, and Dean Rusk and Arthur Goldberg for the Americans. The most pressing topic discussed during these meetings was figuring out mutually acceptable language to mollify Soviet demands that the NPT contain explicit prohibitions on the transfer of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear countries not just directly but through a military alliance, namely, NATO, remembering previous US attempts to nuclearize NATO through the Multilateral Force (MLF). Some attention is paid to fears not just of the Soviet Union but the US and other NATO allies as well about the FRG acquiring nuclear weapons. In addition to the focus on the semantic differences in the Soviet and American drafts of the NPT, the document emphasizes that one key area of common ground between the Soviets and Americans is the importance that an agreement be reached sooner rather than later before more countries acquire nuclear capabilities.

May 10, 1966

Telegram from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Regarding the Conversation of Petre Balaceanu with Dean Rusk Referring to the War in Vietnam

This telegram, sent from the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Romanian Embassy in Beijing, informs the ambassador of US Secretary of State Dean Rusk's assertion that the US does not wish to extend the Vietnam War, but will not tolerate the occupation of South Vietnam by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

March 30, 1963

Department of State Telegram 1905 to the American Embassy Rome

The State Department instructs the embassies in Ankara and Rome of the importance of avoiding “fallacious comparison between Jupiter dismantling and withdrawal Soviet missiles from Cuba.” To help do that, the embassies should ensure that “no official facilitation will be given press or photo coverage of missile dismantling.” In response to any press queries, the embassies could state that “dismantled missiles will be transported over period several weeks.” To avoid an “air of mystery” around the dismantling, the Department opposed efforts to block media coverage of missiles in transit. The embassies should approach Italian and Turkish officials “along [those] lines.”