 Armed force and world peace are two sides of the same coin".The journalist Stanley Karnow described Rusk as being like a character from a Horatio Alger story, the boy who rose up from poverty of the rural South to high positions of power via his hard work, determination and intelligence.Rusk's rise up from poverty made him into a passionate believer in the "American Dream", and a recurring theme throughout his life was his often expressed pride in his nation, a place that he believed that anyone, no matter how modest their circumstances, could rise up to live the "American Dream".