born Feb. 25, 1888, Washington, D.C., U.S.
died May 24, 1959, Washington, D.C.
U.S. secretary of state (1953–59).
He was counsel to the American Peace Commission at Versailles, France, and later helped oversee the payment of World War I reparations. He helped prepare the charter of the UN and was a delegate to its General Assembly (1946–49). He negotiated the complex Japanese peace treaty (1949–51). As secretary of state under Pres. Eisenhower Doctrine . His critics considered him inflexible and harsh and a practitioner of "brinkmanship" for raising international tensions and bringing the country to the brink of war; later assessments credit his firmness in checking communist expansion.