Volume 29, Number 16 · October 21, 1982
On the Brink of Dulles
By Ronald Steel
John Foster Dulles: The Road to Power
by Ronald W. Pruessen
The Free Press, 575 pp., $19.95
He was the living symbol of the cold war: dour, grim, narrow lips perpetually turned down in a scowl, eyes bulging fishlike and impassive from behind wire-rimmed glasses. His life seemed to be spent getting in and out of airplanes, tirelessly circumnavigating the globe in pursuit of the international communist conspiracy. One never saw a photo of him smiling, let alone playing tennis. Compared to Stalin, who always managed to kiss a few babies for the cameras while building his gulags, he seemed a pitiless avenger, talking of 'agonizing reappraisals' and 'massive retaliation.' Mention his name and what comes to mind? A Puritan redeemer brandishing the Bomb in the name of a higher morality.
Review, 2686 words
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