America's 54th secretary of state and second only to Cordell Hull in length of service, Dean Rusk (1909-1994) presided over the Department of State during the turbulent Kennedy-Johnson years of the Vietnam War.

The life and career of David Dean Rusk, 54th Secretary of State of the United States, is a textbook case of barefoot poverty to black tie success. It must almost inevitably begin: "Where else but in America ..."" This judgment should be modified, however, by recognition of the family, character, and personality traits which marked his life and by the nebulous but indispensable final element luck which often accounts for greatness.

Early Years

On February 9, 1909, David Dean Rusk was born to school teacher Frances (Clotfelter) Rusk and her minister-farmer husband Robert Rusk. The latter, a Presbyterian minister, had taken up farming in Georgia's Cherokee county after a throat condition forced him to retire from his vocation...