The Foreign Service Journal, May 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2021 55 staffer with close personal ties to McCarthy, had been named security chief at the State Department where, according to Dulles’ biographer Townsend Hoopes, he zealously pursued suspected “drunkards, homosexuals, incompetents or incompatibles” (real spies being in short supply). In a few short weeks, he fired several hundred Foreign Service officers. Dulles personally reinforced his message: Assembling his senior officials on the front steps of the State Department in a chill January wind, he told them in “words as cold and raw as the weather,” Bohlen recalled, that the new administration expected not just their loyalty but “positive loyalty.” Morale in the State Department sank to a new low. Bohlen’s nomination was forwarded to the Senate on Feb. 26, 1953. On March 2, he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Republican senators—particularly Homer Fergu- son of Michigan, whose campaign slogan had been “betrayal at Yalta”—pressed him hard on the wartime conference. Bohlen held his ground, however, giving detailed, factual answers and refusing to admit wrongdoing. The Yalta agreements had failed, he argued, because the Russians had not lived up to their commitments; moreover, the effort to cooperate with the Russians was a political necessity of wartime. After the hearing was over, Bohlen felt it had gone fairly well and didn’t “anticipate trouble.” He was spectacularly wrong. His defense of Yalta, which made headlines the next day, came as an unwelcome surprise to the Republicans; overnight, his nomination became an issue. The big guns of the Republican right—Senators Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, William Knowland of California and, most ominously, Joseph McCarthy—came out in full revolt. Dulles was deluged with demands that the nomination be withdrawn. Simultaneously, rumors began to circulate that derogatory information about Bohlen’s personal life had been found dur- ing his FBI background security check (astonishingly, the first of Bohlen’s career). Never a strong supporter of Bohlen, Dulles favored withdrawing the nomination. Eisenhower, however, as noted in the State Department’s Foreign Relations of the United States series, told Dulles firmly in a phone call that “he had not the slightest intention of withdrawing Bohlen’s name,” and instructed him to pass the message to Senate Majority Leader Robert Taft. At stake now was not just Bohlen’s nomination, but also the president’s ability to run his own foreign policy and choose his own appointees. Meanwhile, a quick check with Bohlen’s Foreign Service colleagues put to rest any doubts about his moral charac- ter. Unsettling matters still further, the death of Joseph Stalin on March 5, 1953, was creating new uncertainty on the international scene and redoubled the urgency of getting Bohlen to Moscow as quickly as possible. Bohlen, who was then inopportunely quarantined with Ger- man measles (“Lucky it wasn’t the red variety,” he quipped to friends and family), offered to withdraw. Dulles not only assured him of the president’s continued support, Bohlen recalled, but for reasons that would soon become clear, Dulles asked Bohlen to promise that “no matter what happened or might be revealed,” he would not quit and leave the president in the lurch. Bohlen gave his solemn word. When, later that same day, Dulles read the summary of the completed FBI background check, he dismissed the personal allegations against Bohlen as “spotty and unsubstantiated” hear- say, according to Hoopes. (To give just one example of the flimsy charges used to destroy careers in the early 1950s: One openly gay source, who claimed to have an infallible sixth sense for spotting “queers,” is quoted in Bohlen’s FBI file as saying that he “walks, acts and talks like a homosexual” and believed him to be one.) Quid Pro Quo On March 18, both Dulles and Bohlen were scheduled to tes- tify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Dulles told Bohlen it would be better if they rode separately to Capitol Hill and were not photographed together. Bohlen, astonished and offended, wondered whether Dulles would have the guts to stand up to the senators. But, in fact, the Secretary of State gave strong and decisive support to the nomination. In a private meeting, he reassured the Republican senators that nothing in Bohlen’s FBI report put into question his loyalty to the United States or his personal character. Before the full committee, Dulles lauded Bohlen’s qualifi- cations and Soviet expertise, and emphasized the urgency of getting him to Moscow in this critical period after Stalin’s death. He reassured the doubters that the ambassadorship to Moscow was not a policymaking role. Bohlen then testified again, going over much the same ground, after which the committee voted A Note on Sources All quotations from Charles E. Bohlen are from his memoir, Witness to History, 1929-1969 (Norton, 1973), unless otherwise noted. Quotes from Charles Thayer are from his diary or letters, housed in the archives at the Harry S Truman Library and Museum. The material on Dulles can be found in The Devil and John Foster Dulles by Townsend Hoopes (Little, Brown, 1973). Quotations from Scott McLeod came from his diary, portions of which are in my possession. — A.B.