Editing Dean Rusk (section)

===Assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs===
In 1950, Rusk was made assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs, at his own request, arguing that he knew Asia the best.<ref name="Langguth, A.J. p.65"/> He played an influential part in the US decision to become involved in the [[Korean War]], and in Japan's postwar compensation for victorious countries, as shown in the [[Rusk documents]]. Rusk was a cautious diplomat and always sought international support. Rusk favored support for Asian nationalist movements, arguing that European imperialism was doomed in Asia, but the [[Atlanticist]] Acheson favored closer relations with the European powers, which precluded American support for Asian nationalism.<ref name="Langguth, A.J. p.65"/> Rusk dutifully declared it was his duty to support Acheson.<ref name="Langguth, A.J. p.65"/>

====French Indochina====
When question arose as to whether the United States should support France in maintaining control over Indochina against the Communist Viet Minh guerrillas, Rusk argued for support of the French government, stating that the Viet Minh were just the instruments of Soviet expansionism in Asia and to refuse to support the French would amount to appeasement. Under strong American pressure, the French granted nominal independence to the State of Vietnam in February 1950 under the [[Emperor Bao Dai]], which the United States recognized within days.<ref>Stanley Karnow, ''Vietnam: A History'' (New York: Viking, 1983) pp. 179–180</ref> However, it was widely known that the State of Vietnam was still in effect a French colony as French officials controlled all of the important ministries and the Emperor bitterly remarked to the press: "What they call a Bao Dai solution turns out to be just a French solution."<ref>Karnow, Stanley ''Vietnam: A History'', 1983 p.175</ref> In June 1950, Rusk testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "This is a civil war that has been in effect captured by the [Soviet] Politburo and, besides, has been turned into a tool of the Politburo. So it isn't a civil war in the usual sense. It is part of the international war&nbsp;... We have to look at in terms of which side we are on in this particular kind of struggle&nbsp;... Because Ho Chi Minh is tied with the Politburo, our policy is to support Bao Dai and the French in Indochina until we have time to help them establish a going concern."<ref name="Vietnam: A History 179">Karnow, Stanley ''Vietnam: A History'', New York: Viking, 1983 p.179</ref>

====Korean War====
In April 1951, Truman sacked [[General Douglas MacArthur]] as the commander of the American forces in Korea over the question about whether to carry the war into China. At the time, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Omar Bradley, called war with China "the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy".<ref name="Langguth, A.J. p.69">Langguth, A.J. ''Our Vietnam 1954–1975'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000 p.69</ref> In May 1951, Rusk gave a speech at a dinner sponsored by the China Institute in Washington, which he had not submitted to the State Department in advance, where he implied the United States should unify Korea under [[Syngman Rhee]] and should overthrow [[Mao Zedong]] in China.<ref name="Langguth, A.J. p.69"/> Rusk's speech attracted more attention than he expected, as the columnist Walter Lippmann ran a column reading "Bradley vs. Rusk", accusing Rusk of advocating a policy of unconditional surrender in the Korean war.<ref name="Langguth, A.J. p.69"/> For embarrassing Acheson, Rusk was forced to resign and went into the private sector as the director of the Rockefeller Foundation.<ref name="Langguth, A.J. p.69"/>