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¶ Threw the whole weight and wealth of U.S. influence behind the big European surge toward private enterprise and middle-class prosperity that mocked the basic Communist doctrine of class struggle, worked continually to bring to Western Europe some form of political-economic unity;
¶ Proclaimed a peaceful Western offensive in the doctrine of liberation—a doctrine, as he wrote in 1952, by which he did not envisage bloody uprisings but hoped to keep alive the nationalist hopes of captive peoples, to the point where the Russians would have to yield increasing amounts of independence to dampen restlessness (setbacks for the doctrine: the 1956 bloodletting in Hungary);
¶ Attempted "new approaches" to the surging neutralist nations of Asia, Africa, Latin America, but failed—over the short run—to convince them that there could be no neutralism in a universal struggle, was less effective in handling crises in which Communism was not directly involved, e.g., his blow-hot, blow-cold performance on U.S. help for Egypt's Aswan Dam.
As he followed his guidelines, Dulles was a superb tactician. Traveling an astonishing 559,988 miles in six years, he worked tirelessly to keep diverse peoples and leaders united in common purpose and also to educate himself; he negotiated skillfully at scores of world conferences. When he moved out ahead of public opinion, as he did in trying to push the European Defense Community and to save Quemoy and Matsu, he could yield with a lawyer's tactical skill, always returning to his theme when the times had caught up with him.
But above all, Dulles was the clear, stern conscience of freedom. Said Dulles: "Our nation must stand as a solid rock in a storm-tossed world . . . Rededication to the faith of our fathers is . . . what is needed to make apparent the futility of any world program based on the suppression of freedom."
Brinks of War
From this sure base Dulles faced up to his times with an unusual diplomatic consistency. His first battleground: the Far East. His first decision: the scores of struggles under way along Red China's borders and from Korea to Malaya should be rated and met as one. His first move: the U.S. ordered the Seventh Fleet, then under orders by President Truman to neutralize the Formosa Strait, to desist from protecting Red China against any Nationalist China attack. At once his critics derided President Eisenhower for "unleashing Chiang," but Dulles had the argument of later events on his side. Red China shifted thousands of troops from the North China-Korea theater to the newly threatened coast.