As children, John Foster Dulles and his brother, Allen, who would serve Eisenhower as the first civilian chief of the CIA, spent a lot of time in the Dupont Circle mansion of their grandfather, John W. Foster, surrounded by mementos of his days as a lobbyist for the Qing dynasty. Yet neither acquired an interest in the Far East. In 1927, Allen resigned from the State Department rather than accept a posting to Beijing. And when President Truman tried to appoint John Foster Dulles ambassador to Japan, Dulles resisted what he called “exile” in Asia.
