This is a story about Dean Rusk that most likely others don't know. When he was in India, he roomed in a house with three other officers. My father, Kenneth Smith, was one of those officers. They had received passes to go to New York to see their families. So my mother was there at a dinner with the men. The army was working at the time on becoming fully intergrated, so a discussion about the relationship of blacks and whites was discussed. Dean had indicated that he felt that the blacks and whites should be totally equal. My mother and father both agreed. But, as was often in those days, interracial marriage was not approved of. So my mother told me that she leaned across the table and touched Dean's hand and said, "Dean, what would you do if someday your daughter comes to you hand in hand with a black man and says, 'Daddy. I love him. And we want to get married.'?" And Dean answered, "I would tell her, 'Honey, if you love him, then that's okay.'"

Years later, that exact situation happened. And Dean Rusk did exactly what he had said in the early 1940's that he would do. He didn't oppose his daughter's marriage to a black man. When he was tested on a very personal way on his views on recial equality, he withstood the test and stood firm.

You can't help but admire a man like that. I wish I could tell this story to his family. I think they'd like to hear it.