Dean Rusk
was born in Georgia in 1909. Educated at Davidson College, North Carolina and
at Oxford University, he was appointed as Associate
Professor of Government and Dean of Faculty at Mills College.
Rusk
served in the United
States Army during
the Second World War. A member of the Democratic
Party, Rusk
was appointed by President Harry
S. Truman as
Special Assistant to the Secretary of War in 1946. He also served as Special Assistant
for Far Eastern Affairs (1950-51).
Rusk
lost office when Dwight
Eisenhower was
elected president in 1951 and served as head of the Rockefeller Foundation until
being appointed as Secretary of State by President John
F. Kennedy in
1961. In this post he had to deal with the Cuban
Missile Crisis and
the country's growing involvement in the Vietnam
War.
He remained as Secretary of State under President Lyndon
B. Johnson and
remained in the post until Richard
Nixon and
the Republican
Party gained
power in 1969.
After
his retirement Rusk published several books including Waging
Peace and War: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy and Johnson Years (1988)
and As I Saw It: A Secretary of State's Memoirs
(1990).
Dean
Rusk died in 1994.
The Vietnam War and the Assassination of JFK
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
