|First World War||Second World War||The Cold War| John Foster
Dulles John Foster Dulles, the son of a Presbyterian minister,
was born in Washington on 25th February, 1888. His brother was
Allen Dulles and his grandfather was John Watson Foster,
Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison. His uncle,
Robert Lansing, was Secretary of State in the Cabinet of
President Woodrow Wilson. After attending Princeton University
and George Washington University he joined the New York law firm
of Sullivan and Cromwell, where he specialized in international
law. He tried to join the United States Army during the First
World War but was rejected because of poor eyesight. In 1918
Woodrow Wilson appointed Dulles as legal counsel to the United
States delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. Afterwards
he served as a member of the War Reparations Committee. Dulles,
a deeply religious man, attended numerous international
conferences of churchmen during the 1920s and 1930s. He also
became a partner in the Sullivan