John Foster Dulles and Decolonization in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Decolonization was an issue that figured prominently in John Foster Dulles’s career as an American foreign policy maker-and Dulles was important to the course of decolonization in turn.On the one hand, Dulles saw himself as grappling with a volatile world during his years as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s secretary of state and the fate of traditional empires seemed to him to be a key source of turmoil. He had, however, actually begun contemplating the significance of imperialism more than three decades before-and the extended nature of his intellectual engagement makes his thoughts of great value in understanding the essence of his worldview.