University of Virginia Library

Former Secretary Of State

Legal Forum To Sponsor Rusk

By BARBARA BROWNELL
and HANK EVANS

Former Secretary of State
Dean Rusk, who has been
described by Life columnist
Hugh Sidey as "a man of
singular personal devotion and
honor in his emergence from
the innumerable pages of the
"Pentagon Papers," will speak
tomorrow night at 8:30 in
Cabell Hall. The speech is
sponsored by the Legal Forum.

Mr. Rusk began his State
Department career in 1946 as
an assistant chief of
international security. He later
served as Assistant Secretary of
War, Director of the Office of
United Nations Affairs and
Assistant Secretary of State for
Far Eastern Affairs. From
1953-1961 he was president of
the Rockefeller Foundation.

With the advent of the
Kennedy administration, Mr.
Rusk began his eight year
career as Secretary of State. In
his early months as Secretary,
the Laotian war, the Berlin
crisis, and the Bay of Pigs
controversy were major issues.

Although Mr. Kennedy
overshadowed Mr. Rusk
because of his active
participation in foreign affairs,
the Secretary of State was
instrumental in the formation
of U.S. policy concerning the
Cuban missile crisis and
strongly urged the signing of
the nuclear test ban treaty.

After Mr. Kennedy's
assassination, President Johnson
retained Mr. Rusk as Secretary
of State, though Mr. Kennedy
had considered dismissing him.

Mr. Rusk was more active in
the Johnson administration
and is often referred to as
"Johnson's man." "The thing
that is so intriguing about
Rusk," said Mr. Sidey, "is that

he, more than any other living
man except for LBJ, was there
when it really happened."

The major events of the
Johnson years which Mr. Rusk
dealt with were the revolution
in the Dominican Republic,
which led to U.S. involvement,
the withdrawal of France from
NATO and the escalation of
the Vietnam war.

Response To Proposal

In response to General
Maxwell Taylor's proposal to
send 8,000 troops to Vietnam
in 1961 to boost morale,
provide support for the South
Vietnamese army and secure
American prestige in the U.N.,
Mr. Rusk reasoned that the
U.S. could still pull out at that
early stage. However, with the
initiation of Mr. Taylor's
proposals, Washington would
be forced to support its
commitments, carrying the
guerrilla struggle into a full scale
war.

Necessary Commitment

The government was
severely criticized in 1964 for
the escalation of the war. Mr.
Rusk's response to this was,
"We felt we had to make a
commitment to take steps to
'meet a common danger' in the
words of the SEATO Treaty,
because we felt the security of
Southeast Asia was of vital
importance to the security of
the U.S. and world peace.
People can say that's not true
anymore, but that was the
basis we were working on."

After having taken a
"hawkish" view of the war for
several years, Mr. Rusk
supported Mr. Johnson's
de-escalation policy in 1968.
He claims he had always been
primarily concerned with the
welfare of the Vietnamese
citizens, and now believed that
a pacifistic policy was the
quickest way to end the war.

With the publication of the
"Pentagon Papers," Mr. Rusk
was criticized for failing to
adequately publicize American
war policy. He said, however,
that the policies exposed in the
Papers were not the true U.S.
policies, but solely thoughts on
the subject that had been
written down as memoranda.

Since leaving the State
Department, Mr. Rusk has
taught law at the University of
Georgia.