FOREIGN RELATIONS: Broad-Picture Man

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During a high-level diplomatic conference in Paris last February, two U.S. State Department officials found it necessary to consult their boss after the close of the business day. When they knocked on the door of his temporary quarters in the U.S. Embassy residence, a muffled voice directed them to come in. The bedroom they entered was empty, but the voice, which seemed to be coming from the bathroom, gave them further directions: "In here." Proceeding solemnly into the bathroom, the two diplomats found Secretary of State John Foster Dulles stretched out full-length in a warm tub, his arms folded upon his chest in an attitude suggestive of the funeral effigy of Henry III in Westminster Abbey. Brushing aside his subordinates' apologies, Dulles dealt with their problem in matter-of-fact fashion, then relapsed into his yogi-like trance for a few minutes' more rest before getting out to dress for an official dinner.

The rise of the U.S. to world leadership since 1941 has made the Secretary of State a focus for the hopes, fears and frustrations of hundreds of millions of people. No man could be more relaxed and at home in this awesome job than John Foster Dulles. He spent his youth under the shadow of grandfather John Foster, a Secretary of State to Benjamin Harrison, and uncle Robert Lansing, Secretary of State to Woodrow Wilson. It is quite possible that John Foster Dulles is the only American who, since boyhood, has dreamed of becoming U.S. Secretary of State.

In the pursuit of this goal, Dulles displayed the single-mindedness of a track star training for the Olympics. Dashing family hopes that he would follow his father into the Presbyterian ministry, he built himself a dual career as one of the nation's highest-priced international lawyers and outstanding nonprofessional diplomats. As senior partner of the Wall Street law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, he worked into a practice that included half the governments of Europe. His part-time public service, which got under way at Versailles when he acted as a counsel to the World War I U.S. Peace Commission, reached its peak when he pushed through the World War II Japanese Peace Treaty almost singlehanded.

"A Change in Heart." Last January, a month before his 65th birthday, Dulles finally achieved his long-sought goal. When he came up before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for confirmation as Secretary of State, Wisconsin's Senator Alexander Wiley asked him if he had in mind any specific changes in U.S. foreign policy. Dulles squinted at the ceiling, then said: "Well, I think the change that is most needed is a change in heart." By last week John Foster Dulles' accomplishments in office left little doubt that U.S. foreign policy had undergone such a change—and that it was a matter of head as well as heart.

In Asia, where ultimate Communist triumph once seemed assured by progressive default of the West, Dulles had created new opportunities for the U.S. Items:

Formosa. President Eisenhower, with Dulles' approval, canceled the Truman order that obliged the U.S. Seventh Fleet to protect the Communist mainland from Chiang Kai-shek's troops. This change created a threat, made it more hazardous for Mao to mass strength on the Korean, and Indo-Chinese borders.