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Dillon went back to investment banking as Dillon, Read's board chairman, soon took on the added job of handling the huge U.S. & Foreign Securities Corp. Dillon managed both jobs with apparent ease—and actually doubled Dillon, Read's investment portfolios in six years. "Anybody else who treated Dillon, Read as a part-time job would have been a drag on us," recalls a partner in the firm. "But Douglas would sit down with all the documents of a transaction, and in 20 minutes he'd have a real grasp of the problem. It was incredible."
Victory's Spoil. Another growing interest of Dillon's was politics. "I imagine he was bored as hell with banking," says a friend. A lifelong Republican, Dillon worked with John Foster Dulles on the 1948 presidential campaign of New York's Tom Dewey; a year later he won an election as a G.O.P. state committeeman. In 1952 he helped secure New Jersey's Republican delegation for Presidential Candidate Dwight Eisenhower, contributed heavily to Ike's campaign chest. After the election, on Dulles' recommendation, Dillon got an impressive spoil of victory: the ambassadorship to Paris.
To many, he did not seem an auspicious choice. Despite his love of France and his connection with Chateau Haut-Brion, Dillon spoke schoolbook French. He also seemed too young (43) and inexperienced to handle a post made all the more touchy by the growing troubles of France's Fourth Republic.
Dillon made a doubtful start as a diplomat. "Whenever a difficult problem came up." recalls one former embassy staffer, "he got a cold in the head." But as France's problems—notably in Indo-China and with the European Defense Community—grew worse, Dillon stepped up to the challenge of his assignment. He and Phyllis spent an hour daily with a French tutor; within weeks Dillon was visiting the Quai d'Orsay without an interpreter. In a social swim where lavish entertainment was a matter of courses, the
Dillon dinners were worth a star, perhaps two, in the Guide Michelin. Dillon was what bureaucrats call a "quick briefer." He read every cable that left the embassy, demanded hyperaccurate reporting from subordinates. He had a habit (as he still does) of catching up aides on small—but often significant—errors. Eventually, even the Foreign Service pros gave him their respect.
Unifying a Tangle. In 1957 Dillon was called home to take over the post of Deputy Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (later upgraded to Under Secretary), and put to unifying the U.S.'s well-meaning but tangled foreign aid problems. Secretary of State Dulles relied heavily on Dillon's fiscal experience; so did Dulles' successor, Christian Herter.