As Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles came to personify the shortcomings of American foreign policy. This collection of essays, representing the first archivally based reassessment of Dulles's diplomacy, examines his role during one of the most critical periods of modern history-a period of intensifying conflict between the United States and Soviet Union, deepening divisions between East and West Germany, deteriorating relations between the two Chinas, challenges to the world trading order from newly developing nations, and widespread fears of nuclear attack and massive retaliation by the superpowers. Rejecting familiar Cold War stereotypes, this volume reveals the hidden complexities in Dulles's conduct of foreign policy and in his own personality.