Diamonds and Rusk?
by Bruce Baker
Fellow Joan Baez fans will no doubt see the reference in the title of this article. Released in 1975, her album “Diamonds and Rust” went Gold, with the title track representing the bittersweet mixed emotions of looking back, with diamonds symbolizing precious memories and rust signifying the decay of relationships over time.
In the same year the album was released, the Cherokee County Historical Society held its first organizational meeting on April 17. In 1976 they held their first annual meeting at the Pinecrest Inn. The keynote speaker was former Secretary of State David Dean Rusk, whose name graces one of our County’s middle schools.
Rusk was born here in Cherokee County in 1909 and served this nation laudably after graduating from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Among his achievements, he had a hand in establishing the 38th Parallel as the border between North and South Korea and was highly instrumental in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis. Eventually, his support for the Vietnam War would bring an end to his political career.
Dean Rusk’s life is far too complex to outline here; I’d encourage you all to read any of several synopses of his life, including one online at the UGA Law School website. And just as Joan’s song implies, when we look back over his life and career we can see both diamonds and rust. For this piece, I’m going to focus on one of the brighter spots in his record; namely, his staunch opposition to racism, which many say resulted in part from eyewitness experiences in Germany shortly before the start of World War II.
Image: Munden, Hanover, Germany, circa 1890. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
After graduating from Oxford, Dean Rusk enrolled in Hannover University. He was in Berlin on that day in March 1933 when Adolf Hitler seized power. Prior his graduation in 1934, Rusk attended a Nazi rally nearby along with a friend from India. The soldier at the gate informed his friend that only Aryans were allowed inside. Rusk responded by stating that his friend was, in fact, the purest form of Aryan, explaining the Aryan invasion of northwestern India in 1,800 - 1,500 B.C.
Not only was the soldier unimpressed; he considered Rusk’s commentary an insult to the Fuhrer. Rusk was hauled off and questioned for several hours before finally dismissing him as a crazy American who had no idea what he was talking about. Before his departure, Rusk saw firsthand Nazi inhumanity caused by a belief in their racial superiority. It was a lesson he would never forget, and his stance on the equality of all men would, later in his life, put him at odds with many of his fellow Southerners.
While serving in the U.S. Department of State, Rusk discovered that ambassadors and U.N. delegates from African countries were refused service in many Washington D.C. businesses and weren’t allowed to dine with their White counterparts in several restaurants. Rusk assigned State Department personnel to field complaints and meet with local businessmen, restauranteurs, and realtors to address the problem.
Rusk testified in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and voiced strong support for many civil rights demonstrations, stating, “If I were denied what our negro citizens are denied, I would demonstrate.” Rusk also made a point to ensure that our nation’s immigration policies reflected racial tolerance, and that quota systems were applied evenly to every nation. He publicly stated his opposition to the practice of apartheid in South Africa in the 1960’s, some twenty-five years before the U.S. Government finally imposed economic sanctions in 1986.
The 1967 "Scandal"
In 1967, his stance on equality became very personal. The Supreme Court had just struck down miscegenation laws prohibiting interracial marriages in their decision, Loving vs. Virginia. In September of that year, his daughter Peggy married US Army officer Guy Smith, who was Black. When their wedding photo appeared on the cover of Time Magazine with the title “Mr. and Mrs. Guy Smith / An Interracial Wedding” and the father of the bride going on record as “well pleased,” Rusk was aware of the controversy it would cause. He approached President Lyndon Baines Johnson, and offered his resignation as Secretary of State if it proved to be a distraction or in any way damaging to the President’s ability to serve. Rusk had once earlier tried to resign after the Kennedy assassination; on both occasions Johnson’s terse response was “I want you as Secretary of State as long as I am President.” Rusk continued in the post, eventually serving the second longest tenure as Secretary of State in U.S. History.
After stepping down from office, he would go on to teach international law at the University of Georgia for over a decade. Rendered blind in 1984, Rusk dictated his memoirs to his son Richard, which were eventually published under the title “As I Saw It.” He passed away ten years later, in 1994, and is buried in Athens, Georgia.
Joan Baez summed up her thoughts on the bittersweet emotions that come whenever we look back, with words that Dean Rusk would have agreed with as he looked back on his service to this nation: “And if you’re offering me diamonds and rust—I’ve already paid.”