Which U.S. Secretary of State's law firm represented the United Fruit Company?

John Foster Dulles’s law firm represented the United Fruit Company.

Before becoming U.S. secretary of state in 1953, Dulles was a senior partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, a powerful New York law firm. The firm represented United Fruit in business and legal dealings in Central America, including negotiations involving Guatemala and Honduras.

The connection became historically controversial because Dulles later helped shape U.S. policy toward Guatemala. During the Eisenhower administration, the CIA-backed 1954 coup overthrew President Jacobo Árbenz after his government introduced land reforms that threatened United Fruit’s holdings. Dulles’s brother, Allen Dulles, was CIA director at the time and had also worked at Sullivan & Cromwell.

A common mix-up is to name Allen Dulles rather than John Foster Dulles. Allen was the intelligence chief; John Foster was the secretary of state. The firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, represented United Fruit, rather than the individual secretary acting in his official government role.