Early Life
Born in Washington, D.C., he was one of five children and the eldest son born to Presbyterian minister Allen Macy Dulles and his wife Edith (Foster). His paternal grandfather, John Welsh Dulles, had been a Presbyterian missionary in India. He attended public schools in Watertown, New York. After graduating from Princeton University (Phi Beta Kappa, 1908), where he competed on the American Whig-Cliosophic Society debate team, and graduating from The George Washington University Law School, he joined the New York City law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, where he specialized in international law. He tried to join the United States Army during World War I but was rejected because of poor eyesight. Instead, Dulles received an Army commission as Major on the War Industries Board.
Both his grandfather, John W. Foster, and his uncle, Robert Lansing, had served as Secretary of State. His younger brother Allen Welsh Dulles served as Director of Central Intelligence under President Eisenhower, and his younger sister Eleanor Lansing Dulles was noted for her work in the successful economic rebuilding of post-war Europe during 20 years with the State Department.
Read more about this topic: John Foster Dulles
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