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The word is closely associated with [[John Foster Dulles]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]]'s secretary of state. He did not use the word "brinkmanship," but he did use the word "brink" in a ''Life Magazine'' article:
The word is closely associated with [[John Foster Dulles]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]]'s secretary of state. He did not use the word "brinkmanship," but he did use the word "brink" in a ''Life Magazine'' article:
:You have to take chances for peace, just as you must take chances in war. Some say that we were brought to the verge of war. Of course we were brought to the verge of war. The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art. If you cannot master it, you inevitably get into war. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost. We've had to look it square in the face—on the question of enlarging the Korean war, on the question of getting into the Indo-China war, on the question of Formosa. We walked to the brink and we looked it in the face.<ref>As quoted in subsequent a ''Time'' magazine article, [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,861876,00.html "Uproar Over a Brink"] - Monday, Jan. 23, 1956</ref>
:You have to take chances for peace, just as you must take chances in war. Some say that we were brought to the verge of war. Of course we were brought to the verge of war. The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art. If you cannot master it, you inevitably get into war. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost. We've had to look it square in the face—on the question of enlarging the [[Korean war]], on the question of getting into the [[Indo-China]] war, on the question of [[Formosa]]. We walked to the brink and we looked it in the face.<ref>As quoted in subsequent a ''Time'' magazine article, [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,861876,00.html "Uproar Over a Brink"] - Monday, Jan. 23, 1956</ref>
It tended to be used by his critics, with the implication that Dulles was a reckless sabre-rattler, particularly of nuclear sabres. [[Adlai Stevenson]], for example, chided Dulles for "boasting of his brinkmanship—the art of bringing us to the edge of the nuclear abyss."
It tended to be used by his critics, with the implication that Dulles was a reckless sabre-rattler, particularly of nuclear sabres. [[Adlai Stevenson]], for example, chided Dulles for "boasting of his brinkmanship—the art of bringing us to the edge of the nuclear abyss."