War or Peace

Association Copy First Printing. Inscribed: To Paul Nitze with the high regard of John Foster Dulles April, 1950

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Dulles served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly a Republican U.S. Senator for New York in 1949. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world. This book offers a critical analysis of the American policy of containment, which was favored by the foreign policy elite in Washington, particularly in the Democratic administration of Harry S. Truman, whose foreign policy Dulles criticized and instead advocated a policy of "liberation."

Dulles tenure as Secretary was marked by conflict with communist governments worldwide, especially the Soviet Union; Dulles strongly opposed communism, calling it "Godless terrorism." Dulles's preferred strategy was containment through military build-up and the formation of alliances.

Dulles was a pioneer of the strategies of massive retaliation and brinkmanship. In an article written for Life magazine, Dulles defined his policy of brinkmanship: "The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art."

Dulles's hard line alienated many leaders of nonaligned countries when on June 9, 1955, he argued in a speech that "neutrality has increasingly become obsolete and, except under very exceptional circumstances, it is an immoral and shortsighted conception." Throughout the 1950s, Dulles was in frequent conflict with non-aligned statesmen who he deemed were too sympathetic to communism

Paul Nitze a senior State Department official, Secretary of the Navy and Deputy Secretary of Defense. He was one of the chief U.S. negotiators in strategic-weapons talks with the Soviet Union. The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies was named for him. He helped shape Cold War defense policy over the course of numerous Presidential Administrations.