Allen Welsh Dulles (, ; April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was the first civilian
Director of Central Intelligence
The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency from 1946 to 2005, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Security C ...
(DCI), and its longest-serving director to date. As head of the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA) during the early
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
, he oversaw the
1953 Iranian coup d'état
The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état ( fa, کودتای ۲۸ مرداد), was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of ...
, the
1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état was the result of a CIA covert operation code-named PBSuccess. It deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954. It installed the mi ...
, the
Lockheed U-2
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "''Dragon Lady''", is an American single- jet engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides d ...
aircraft program, the
Project MKUltra
Project MKUltra (or MK-Ultra) was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intended to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in interrogations to weak ...
mind control program and the
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
. He was fired by
John F. Kennedy over the latter fiasco.
Dulles was one of the members of the
Warren Commission investigating the
assassination of John F. Kennedy. Between his stints of government service, Dulles was a corporate lawyer and partner at
Sullivan & Cromwell
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Known as a white-shoe firm, Sullivan & Cromwell is recognized as a leader in business law, and is known for its impact on international affairs, such ...
. His older brother,
John Foster Dulles, was the
Secretary of State during the
Eisenhower Administration
Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1953, and ended on January 20, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican from Kansas, took office following a landslide victory ...
and is the namesake of
Dulles International Airport.
Early life and family
Dulles was born on April 7, 1893, in
Watertown, New York,
one of five children of
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
minister Allen Macy Dulles, and his wife, Edith ( Foster) Dulles. He was five years younger than his brother,
John Foster Dulles,
Dwight D. Eisenhower's
Secretary of State and chairman and senior partner of
Sullivan & Cromwell
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Known as a white-shoe firm, Sullivan & Cromwell is recognized as a leader in business law, and is known for its impact on international affairs, such ...
, and two years older than his sister, diplomat,
Eleanor Lansing Dulles
Eleanor Lansing Dulles (June 1, 1895 – October 30, 1996) was an American writer, professor, and United States Government employee. Her background in economics and her familiarity with European affairs enabled her to fill a number of importan ...
. His maternal grandfather,
John W. Foster, was Secretary of State under
Benjamin Harrison, while his uncle by marriage,
Robert Lansing
Robert Lansing (; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wi ...
was Secretary of State under
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
.
Dulles was uncle to Catholic convert
Avery Dulles
Avery Robert Dulles (; 1918–2008) was an American Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal of the Catholic Church. Dulles served on the faculty of Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974, of the Catholic University of America from 1974 to 1988, an ...
, a
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
priest and
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...
of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
, who taught
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...
at
Fordham University
Fordham University () is a private Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its original campus is located, Fordham is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit un ...
from 1988 to 2008.
Dulles graduated from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, where he participated in the
American Whig–Cliosophic Society
The American Whig–Cliosophic Society (Whig-Clio) is a political, literary, and debating society at Princeton University and the oldest debate union in the United States. Its precursors, the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society, wer ...
, and entered the diplomatic service in 1916. In 1920, he married Martha "Clover" Todd (March 5, 1894 – April 15, 1974). They had three children: daughters Clover "Toddy" (Mrs.) Jebsen and Joan (Mrs. Buresch, formerly Molden),
and son Allen Macy Dulles II (1930–2020), who was wounded and permanently disabled in the
Korean War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Korean War
, partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict
, image = Korean War Montage 2.png
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
and spent the rest of his life in and out of medical care. According to his sister, Eleanor, Dulles had "at least a hundred" extramarital affairs, including some during his tenure with the CIA.
In 1921, while at the US Embassy in
Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
, he helped expose the ''
Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' as a forgery. Dulles unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the
US State Department to publicly denounce the forgery.
Early career
Initially assigned to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, he was transferred to
Bern
german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese
, neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen
, website ...
, Switzerland, along with the rest of the embassy personnel shortly before the U.S. entered the First World War. Later in life Dulles said he had been telephoned by
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
, seeking a meeting with the American embassy on April 8, 1917, the day before Lenin left Switzerland to travel to
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
aboard a German train. After recovering from the
Spanish flu
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...
he was assigned to the American delegation at the
Paris Peace Conference, along with his elder brother Foster. From 1922 to 1926, he served five years as chief of the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
division of the
Department of State.
In 1926, he earned a law degree from
George Washington University Law School
The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest top law school in the national capital. GW Law offers the largest range of co ...
and took a job at
Sullivan & Cromwell
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Known as a white-shoe firm, Sullivan & Cromwell is recognized as a leader in business law, and is known for its impact on international affairs, such ...
, the New York firm where his brother, John Foster Dulles, was a partner. He became a director of the
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...
in 1927, the first new director since the Council's founding in 1921. He was the Council's secretary from 1933 to 1944.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, he served as legal adviser to the delegations on arms limitation at the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference th ...
. There he had the opportunity to meet with
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
,
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...
, Soviet Foreign Minister
Maxim Litvinov, and the leaders of Britain and France. In April 1933, Dulles and
Norman Davis met with Hitler in Berlin on
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...
duty. After the meeting, Dulles wrote to his brother Foster, reassuring him that conditions under Hitler's regime "are not quite as bad" as an alarmist friend had indicated. Dulles rarely spoke about his meeting with Hitler, and
future CIA director Richard Helms hadn't even heard of their encounter until decades after the death of Dulles, expressing shock that his former boss had never told him about it. After meeting with
Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Dulles stated he was impressed with him, citing his "sincerity and frankness" during their interaction.
In 1935, Dulles returned from a business trip to Germany concerned by the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
treatment of
German Jews and, despite his brother's objections, led a movement within the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell to close their Berlin office. As a result of Dulles's efforts, the Berlin office was closed and the firm ceased to conduct business in Nazi Germany.
As the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
* Republican Party (Liberia)
*Republican Party ...
began to divide into
isolationist
Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entan ...
and
interventionist factions, Dulles became an outspoken interventionist, running unsuccessfully in 1938 for the Republican nomination in New York's
Sixteenth Congressional District on a platform calling for the strengthening of U.S. defenses. Dulles collaborated with
Hamilton Fish Armstrong, the editor of ''
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...
'' magazine, on two books, ''Can We Be Neutral?'' (1936), and ''Can America Stay Neutral?'' (1939). They concluded that diplomatic, military, and economic isolation, in a traditional sense, were no longer possible in an increasingly interdependent international system. Dulles helped some German Jews, such as the banker Paul Kemper, escape to the United States from Nazi Germany.
OSS posting to Bern, Switzerland, in World War II
Dulles was recruited into the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
by
William J. Donovan
William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat, best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bur ...
in October 1941, after the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe, and on November 12, 1942, he moved to Bern, Switzerland, where he lived at
Herrengasse 23 for the duration of World War II. As Swiss Director of the
OSS
OSS or Oss may refer to:
Places
* Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands
* Osh Airport, IATA code OSS
People with the name
* Oss (surname), a surname
Arts and entertainment
* ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...
,
Dulles worked on intelligence about German plans and activities, and established wide contacts with German émigrés, resistance figures, and anti-Nazi intelligence officers. He was assisted in intelligence-gathering activities by
Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz, a German emigrant. Dulles also received valuable information from
Fritz Kolbe, a German diplomat, one whom he described as the best spy of the war. Kolbe supplied secret documents about active German spies and plans for the
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: " Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: " Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Ge ...
jet fighter.
Dulles was in contact with the Austrian resistance group around the priest
Heinrich Maier, who collected information through many different contacts with scientists and the military. From 1943 onwards, he received very important information from this resistance group about
V-1,
V-2 rocket
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develop ...
s,
Tiger tanks,
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...
,
Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft and the related factories. Allied bombers were thus able to target war-decisive armaments factories. In particular, Dulles then had crucial information for
Operation Crossbow and
Operation Hydra. The group reported to him about the mass murder in Auschwitz. Through the Maier Group and Kurt Grimm, Dulles also received information about the economic situation in the Nazi sphere of influence. After the resistance group was uncovered by the Gestapo, Dulles sent American agents to Austria to contact any surviving members.
Although Washington barred Dulles from making firm commitments to the plotters of the 20 July 1944
attempt to assassinate Hitler, the conspirators nonetheless gave him reports on developments in Germany, including sketchy but accurate warnings of plans for Hitler's
V-1 and
V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
missiles.
Dulles was involved in
Operation Sunrise, secret negotiations in March 1945 to arrange a local surrender of German forces in northern Italy. His actions in Operation Sunrise have been criticized by historians for offering German SS General
Karl Wolff protection from prosecution at the Nuremberg trial, and creating a diplomatic rift between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. After the war in Europe, Dulles served for six months as the
OSS
OSS or Oss may refer to:
Places
* Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands
* Osh Airport, IATA code OSS
People with the name
* Oss (surname), a surname
Arts and entertainment
* ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...
Berlin station chief and later as station chief in Bern. The Office of Strategic Services was dissolved in October 1945 and its functions transferred to the State and War Departments.
In 1947, Dulles served as a senior staffer on the
Herter Committee.
In the
1948 Presidential election, Dulles was, together with his brother, an advisor to Republican nominee
Thomas E. Dewey
Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: although ...
. The Dulles brothers and
James Forrestal helped form the
Office of Policy Coordination. During 1949 he co-authored the
Dulles–Jackson–Correa Report, which was sharply critical of the Central Intelligence Agency, which had been established by the
National Security Act of 1947
The National Security Act of 1947 ( Pub.L.br>80-253 61 Stat.br>495 enacted July 26, 1947) was a law enacting major restructuring of the United States government's military and intelligence agencies following World War II. The majority of the pro ...
. Partly as a result of the report, Truman named a new Director of Central Intelligence, Lieutenant General
Walter Bedell Smith.
CIA career
DCI Smith recruited Dulles to oversee the agency's covert operations as Deputy Director for Plans, a position he held from January 4, 1951. On August 23, 1951, Dulles was promoted to Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, second in the intelligence hierarchy. In this capacity, in 1952–53 he was one of five members of the
State Department Panel of Consultants on Disarmament during the last year of the
Truman administration.
After the election of Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, Bedell Smith shifted to the Department of State and Dulles became the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence. Dulles played a role in convincing Eisenhower to follow one of the conclusions of the State Department Panel report, that the American public deserved to be informed of the perils of possible nuclear war with the Soviet Union, because even though America held numerical nuclear superiority, the Soviets would still have enough nuclear weapons to severely damage American society regardless of how many more such bombs the United States might possess or how badly those U.S. weapons could destroy the Soviets.
The Agency's covert operations were an important part of the
Eisenhower administration
Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1953, and ended on January 20, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican from Kansas, took office following a landslide victory ...
's new
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
national security
National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military att ...
policy known as the "
New Look".
At Dulles's request, President Eisenhower demanded that
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarth ...
discontinue issuing
subpoenas against the CIA. In March 1950, McCarthy had initiated a series of investigations into potential
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
subversion of the Agency. Although none of the investigations revealed any wrongdoing, the hearings were potentially damaging, not only to the CIA's reputation but also to the security of sensitive information. Documents made public in 2004 revealed that the CIA, under Dulles's orders, had broken into McCarthy's Senate office and fed disinformation to him in order to discredit him, in order to stop his investigation of communist infiltration of the CIA.
In the early 1950s, the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...
conducted a competition for a new photo reconnaissance aircraft.
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's
Skunk Works
Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, beginning with the P-38 Lightning in ...
submitted a design number called the CL-282, which married sailplane-like wings to the body of a supersonic interceptor. This aircraft was rejected by the Air Force, but several of the civilians on the review board took notice, and
Edwin Land presented a proposal for the aircraft to Dulles. The aircraft became what is known as the
U-2 'spy plane', and it was initially operated by CIA pilots. Its introduction into operational service in 1957 greatly enhanced the CIA's ability to monitor
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
activity through overhead photo surveillance. The aircraft eventually entered service with the Air Force.
The Soviet Union
shot down and captured a U-2 in 1960 during Dulles's term as CIA chief.
Dulles is considered one of the essential creators of the modern United States intelligence system and was an indispensable guide to clandestine operations during the Cold War. He established intelligence networks worldwide to check and counter Soviet and eastern European communist advances as well as international communist movements.
Coup in Iran
In 1953, Dulles was involved, along with
Frank Wisner, in
Operation Ajax
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
, the covert operation that led to the removal of democratically elected prime minister of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Mohammad Mossadegh
Mohammad Mosaddegh ( fa, محمد مصدق, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, after appointment by the 1950 Iranian legislative election ...
, and his replacement with
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, title = Shahanshah Aryamehr Bozorg Arteshtaran
, image = File:Shah_fullsize.jpg
, caption = Shah in 1973
, succession = Shah of Iran
, reign = 16 September 1941 – 11 February 1979
, coronation = 26 Octob ...
, Shah of Iran. Rumors of a Soviet takeover of the country had surfaced due to the nationalization of the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Coup in Guatemala
President
Jacobo Arbenz Guzman of
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...
was removed in 1954 in a
CIA-led coup carried out under the code name Operation PBSuccess.
Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Hughes Galeano (; 3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "global soccer's pre-eminent man of letters" and "a literary giant of the Latin American left".
Galea ...
described Dulles as a former member of the
United Fruit Company's Board of Directors. However, in a detailed examination of the connections between the United Fruit Company and the Eisenhower Administration, Immerman makes no mention of Dulles being part of the United Fruit Company's Board, although he does note that Sullivan & Cromwell had represented the company.
Bay of Pigs
Several failed assassination plots utilizing CIA-recruited operatives and anti-Castro Cubans directly against Castro undermined the CIA's credibility. The reputation of the agency and its director declined drastically after the
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
fiasco of 1961. President Kennedy reportedly said he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds." However, following a "rigorous inquiry into the agency's affairs, methods, and problems ...
ennedydid not 'splinter' it after all and did not recommend Congressional supervision."
Dismissal
During the
Kennedy Administration, Dulles faced increasing criticism.
In autumn 1961, following the
Bay of Pigs incident and the
Algiers putsch against
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...
, Dulles and his entourage, including
Deputy Director for Plans
The deputy director of the CIA for operations is a senior United States government official in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency who serves as head of the Directorate of Operations. The position was established December 1, 1950 and from Janua ...
Richard M. Bissell Jr.
Richard Mervin Bissell Jr. (September 18, 1909 – February 7, 1994) was an American Central Intelligence Agency officer responsible for major projects such as the U-2 spy plane and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. He is seen as one of the most im ...
and Deputy Director
Charles Cabell
Charles Pearre Cabell (October 11, 1903 – May 25, 1971) was a United States Air Force general and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1953–1962).
Early life
Charles P. Cabell was born in Dallas, Texas on October 11, 1903, ...
, were forced to resign. On November 28, 1961, Kennedy presented Dulles with the
National Security Medal at the CIA Headquarters in
Langley, Virginia. The next day, November 29, the White House released a resignation letter signed by Dulles. He was replaced by
John McCone.
Later life
On November 29, 1963, President
Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed Dulles as one of seven commissioners of the
Warren Commission to investigate the
assassination of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The appointment was later criticized by some historians, who have noted that Kennedy had fired him, and he was therefore unlikely to be impartial in passing the judgments charged to the Warren Commission. In the view of journalist and author
Stephen Kinzer, Johnson appointed Dulles primarily so that Dulles could "coach" the Commission on how to interview CIA witnesses and what questions to ask, because Johnson and Dulles were both anxious to ensure that the Commission did not discover Kennedy's secret involvement in the administration's illegal plans to assassinate Castro and other foreign leaders.
In 1966,
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
's
American Whig-Cliosophic Society
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
awarded Dulles the
James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service.
Dulles published the book ''The Craft of Intelligence'' in 1963, and edited ''Great True Spy Stories'' in 1968.
He died on January 29, 1969, of
influenza, complicated by
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...
, at the age of 75, in
Georgetown, D.C.
Georgetown is a historic neighborhood, and commercial and entertainment district located in Northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751 in the Province of Maryland, the port of Georgetown predated the establish ...
He was buried in
Green Mount Cemetery in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore wa ...
.
Fictional portrayals
*''
Liberation
Liberation or liberate may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War
* "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode
* "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode
Gaming
* '' Liberati ...
'' (1970–71), a multinational fictional film series that shows Dulles in a photograph torn apart by
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...
in ''
Film IV: The Battle of Berlin''.
*''
Seventeen Moments of Spring'' (1973), a Soviet television miniseries in which Vyacheslav Salevich depicts Dulles's role in
Operation Sunrise during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
*In the ''
Blackford Oakes'' novels (1976–2005), a spy series written by
William F. Buckley Jr., Dulles is portrayed in several books, acting in his role as director of the CIA.
*''
JFK'' (1991), a film that depicts
Jim Garrison, a
District Attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a ...
, as suspecting Dulles as a participant in the cover-up surrounding Kennedy's assassination and attempts to
subpoena him.
*''The Commission'' (2003), a fictional film that depicts Dulles, played by
Jack Betts
Jack Fillmore Betts, also credited as Hunt Powers, is an American character actor and playwright. He has acted in film, on stage, and on television.
Career
Betts portrayed Chris Devlin in the CBS mystery series ''Checkmate'' (1960-1962). He a ...
, as a participant in the
Warren Commission and investigator into the Kennedy assassination.
*''
The Good Shepherd'' (2006), a fictional film in which
William Hurt portrays the fictional head of the CIA, Phillip Allen, who appears to be based on Dulles.
*''
The Company
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' (2007), an American miniseries based on the novel ''
The Company: A Novel of the CIA'' (2002) by American novelist
Robert Littell.
*''
The Honor of Spies'' (2009) in the ''
Honor Bound series'' and also the ''
Men At War series'', a novel series written by
W.E.B. Griffin and his son. Dulles is portrayed as part of the European Head of the OSS and the Swiss Agent in Charge respectively.
*''Nick and Jake'' (2012), a novel co-written by
Tad Richards
James (Tad) Richards (born March 31, 1940) is an American writer and visual artist. He is also artistic director and former president of Opus 40, the sculpture park in Saugerties, New York.
Richards was born in Washington, D.C. in 1940. In 1943, ...
and
Jonathan Richards and published by
Arcade Publishing. Allen Dulles is depicted as plotting a coup to overthrow the government of France.
*The ''
FX'' cartoon comedy ''
Archer'' mentions Dulles in a 2012 episode while discussing
Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine " stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies durin ...
,
as well as in a 2016 episode centered around
Project MKUltra
Project MKUltra (or MK-Ultra) was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intended to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in interrogations to weak ...
.
*''
Bridge of Spies'' (2015), a movie about the exchange of
Rudolf Abel and
Francis Gary Powers
Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 in ...
, depicts a conversation between
James B. Donovan (portrayed by
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...
) and Dulles (portrayed by
Peter McRobbie
Peter McRobbie (born 31 January 1943) is a Scottish-born American character actor, best known for his roles as John C. Twist in the 2005 romantic drama film ''Brokeback Mountain'', Mike Sheenan in the 2006 action film ''16 Blocks'', Pop Pop Ja ...
).
Publications
Articles
* "The Power of the President Over Foreign Affairs." ''
Michigan Law Review
The ''Michigan Law Review'' is an American law review and the flagship law journal of the University of Michigan Law School.
History
The ''Michigan Law Review'' was established in 1902, after Gustavus Ohlinger, a student in the Law Departmen ...
'', vol. 14, no. 6 (Apr. 1, 1916), pp. 470–478.
University of Michigan Law School. . .
* "New Uses for the Machinery for the Settlement of International Disputes: Discussion." ''
Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science'', vol. 13, no. 2 (1929), pp. 100–104. . .
*
*
*
*
Book reviews
*
Books
*
*
*
* ''The Marshall Plan''. Co-authored by Michael Wala. Providence, RI: Berg, 1993.
*
*
*
Books edited
*
''Great True Spy Stories''. New York:
Harper & Row (1968).
Book contributions
*
Foreword to
''To the Bitter End: An Insider's Account of the Plot to Kill Hitler'', by Hans B. Gisevius. New York:
Da Capo Press
Da Capo Press is an American publishing company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is now an imprint of Hachette Books.
History
Founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers, it had additional of ...
(1998). .
See also
*
John Foster Dulles
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
Hastings, Max (2015). ''The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas, 1939–1945''. London:
William Collins.
* Peyrefitte, Alain (2011). ''C'etait de Gaulle''. Distribooks.
* Sharp, Tony (2014)
''Stalin's American Spy: Noel Field, Allen Dulles and the East European Show-Trials'' Hurst.
*
Talbot, David (2015). ''The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government''.
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...
.
*
von Lingen, Kerstin (2013)
''Allen Dulles, the OSS, and Nazi War Criminals: The Dynamics of Selective Prosecution'' Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pr ...
.
External links
Allen Dullesat
Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fi ...
Allen Dullesat
Open LibraryAllen Dullesat
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
Works available online
Works by Allen Dullesat
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Works by Allen Dullesat ''
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...
''
Works by Allen Dullesat
JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
Works by Allen Dullesat
Online Books Page
The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 2 million books and has several fe ...
Archival materials
References to Allen Dullesat
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
Personal papersat the
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
*
FBI file on Allen Dulles“The Role of Intelligence in Policy Making”(RAM). Audio recording of a lecture given by Dulles.
, -
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dulles, Allen Welsh
1893 births
1969 deaths
American spies
World War II spies for the United States
Burials at Green Mount Cemetery
Deputy Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency
Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency
Dulles family
George Washington University Law School alumni
Guatemalan Revolution
Members of the Warren Commission
New York (state) lawyers
New York (state) Republicans
People of the Congo Crisis
People of the Office of Strategic Services
Presidents of the Council on Foreign Relations
Princeton University alumni
Project MKUltra
Rockefeller Center
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Deaths from influenza
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