John Foster Dulles Quotes
We are pursuing what I trust is a correct course from the point of international law, and we are not intervening in the internal affairs of this country …
Dulles lied to Congress. The CIA at the time was supplying planes and American pilots in support of an anti-Sukarno Government faction that was in armed revolt. It is not clear whether or not Dulles knew the truth when he had so testified.
John Foster Dulles, 1888-1959, U.S. Secretary of State (Republican), U.S. Senator (Republican, NY), Congressional Testimony about Foreign Policy in Indonesia, March 1958
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The CIA was supplying planes and pilots to assist anti-Government rebels in their efforts to overthrow Sukarno. Meanwhile, the Secretary of State and other American officials were insisting that America had no involvement in the Indonesian civil war. See {591337}.
The President was reacting to the accusation made by Indonesian President Sukarno that the United States was sponsoring and supporting a civil war against his administration {591336}. The Secretary of State had testified before Congress that there was no U. S. involvement in Indonesia. However the CIA was financing the revolution and supplying war planes and pilots to the insurgents. See {591337}.
The plan was to have an American agent with a few marines make an alliance with a rival to the throne of Algiers and depose the existing ruler with American “special forces”.
What makes this quotation important is that the Central Intelligence Agency disobeyed the order and implemented a number of covert operations in Indonesia and CIA Director Alan Dulles did not tell the President. See {634612} for his rationale.
Under the Kissinger Foreign Policy this was his oft stated policy. The United States however gave a great deal of advice about their internal affairs to foreign leaders. Those that did not take it, did not get as much foreign or military aid, and sometimes found themselves ousted in a coup which resulted in a regime change or with their country being boycotted.
The Congressman was being critical of the George W. Bush Administration and their tendency to decide which leaders and countries were legitimate and moral and which were not, and then invading the “bad” and executing the leaders as with Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
England in this quotation claims the right to interfere in the internal affairs of another nation if there is mismanagement or crises AND her national interests are affected.
The “proofs” were diplomatic assurances—treaties—that England would guarantee the territorial integrity of Belgium. The British made strong diplomatic efforts to persuade Germany not to occupy Belgium. The German’s none the less send armies in under the excuse that if they did not, the French would occupy the country and have a strategic advantage over them. Diplomacy could do no more good. England had to send troops or renege on its obligations. So England was in WWI.
- Born: February 25, 1888
- Died: May 24, 1959
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Public Servant
John Foster Dulles was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly a 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.
