# The Red Skull was US Secretary of State 1961-69?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-red-skull-was-us-secretary-of-state-1961-69/613485>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 21, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-red-skull-was-us-secretary-of-state-1961-69/613485 "2012-02-21T01:28:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-red-skull-was-us-secretary-of-state-1961-69/613485/1 "2012-02-21T01:28:49Z")

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So Wikipedia seems to assert. At the end of Dean Rusk’s entry in Wikipedia:

“In an issue of Captain America, it was revealed that Dean Rusk had actually been the infamous Nazi supervillian, the Red Skull, in disguise.”

Surely they mean to say that some dumbass comic-book scripter asserted this idiocy into a comic-book, not that it is actually true.

Or is it?

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**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-red-skull-was-us-secretary-of-state-1961-69/613485/2 "2012-02-21T01:45:00Z")

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It’s in a paragraph labelled [In Popular Culture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Rusk#In_Popular_Culture) – I think it’s only making a statement about a fact in the Captain America universe, not about real life.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-red-skull-was-us-secretary-of-state-1961-69/613485/3 "2012-02-21T01:45:45Z")

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The worst part was that Kennedy kept calling him _Ghost Rider_ by mistake.\* Or to rile him.

\*yeah, I know the motorcycle-riding incarnation didn’t come out until 1972.

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**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-red-skull-was-us-secretary-of-state-1961-69/613485/4 "2012-02-21T01:51:31Z")

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It was _Dell_ Rusk (note the anagram), and he was Secretary of _Defense_. Until he got his ass handed to him by the Avengers. [Cite.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Skull#Cosmic_resurrection)

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-red-skull-was-us-secretary-of-state-1961-69/613485/5 "2012-02-21T19:13:01Z")

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Wikipedia has all sorts of these little-known facts to teach us. For example, I’ll bet nobody reading this thread was aware of the full history of the beverage known as [hot chocolate](http://nick-number.livejournal.com/93936.html), or of the public figures [Benjamin Franklin](http://nick-number.livejournal.com/97934.html) and [Walter Cronkite](http://nick-number.livejournal.com/94304.html).

Note that the linked LiveJournal entries contain NSFW language. The truth is profane sometimes.

Also, good job to whoever just [removed](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dean_Rusk&action=historysubmit&diff=478089398&oldid=477962952) the spurious Red Skull information from the Dean Rusk article. Hopefully some silly person won’t start an edit war over it.