Allen Dulles

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Allen Dulles
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Plans
In office
January 4, 1951 – August 23, 1951
PresidentHarry S. Truman
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byFrank Wisner
Personal details
Born
Allen Welsh Dulles

(1893-04-07)April 7, 1893
Watertown, New York, U.S.
DiedJanuary 29, 1969(1969-01-29) (aged 75)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting placeGreen Mount Cemetery
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Martha "Clover" Todd
(m. 1920)
Children3
Relatives
Avery Cardinal Dulles (nephew)
Dulles family
EducationPrinceton University (BA)
George Washington University (LLB)

Allen Welsh Dulles (

Project MKUltra mind control program and the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. As a result of the failed invasion of Cuba, Dulles was fired by President John F. Kennedy
.

Dulles was a member of the Warren Commission that investigated the Kennedy's assassination. A conspiracy theory suggesting that Dulles and the CIA were somehow involved in Kennedy's assassination and its potential cover up in the Warren Commission have been subject to popular debate among historians, political commentators and conspiracy theorists. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that the CIA was not involved in the assassination of Kennedy.[1]

Between his stints of government service, Dulles was a corporate lawyer and partner at

Eisenhower administration and is the namesake of Dulles International Airport.[2]

Early life and family

Dulles was born on April 7, 1893, in

parsonage, Dulles was made to attend church daily. As his parents distrusted public education, Dulles was homeschooled by various private tutors.[5][6]

Dulles graduated from Princeton University, where he participated in the American Whig–Cliosophic Society.[7] He taught school in India before entering the diplomatic service in 1916.[8] In 1920, he married Martha "Clover" Todd (March 5, 1894 – April 15, 1974). They had three children: daughters Clover and Joan,[9] and son Allen Macy Dulles II (1930–2020), who was wounded and permanently disabled in the Korean War and spent the rest of his life in and out of medical care.[10]

According to his sister, Eleanor, Dulles had "at least a hundred" extramarital affairs, including some during his tenure with the CIA.[11]

Early career

Initially assigned to

Paris Peace Conference, along with his elder brother Foster.[13]

In 1921, while at the US Embassy in

US State Department to publicly denounce the forgery.[14][15]

From 1922 to 1926, Dulles served as chief of the Near East division of the Department of State. He then earned a law degree from George Washington University Law School and took a job at Sullivan & Cromwell, the New York firm where his brother, John Foster Dulles, was a partner. He became a director of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1927, the first new director since the Council's founding in 1921. He was the Council's secretary from 1933 to 1944 and its president from 1946 to 1950.[16]

During the late 1920s and the early 1930s, he served as legal adviser to the delegations on arms limitation at the League of Nations. He met with Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov, and the prime ministers of Britain and France.[17] In April 1933, Dulles and Norman Davis met with Hitler in Berlin on State Department duty. After the meeting, Dulles wrote to his brother Foster and reassured 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 had not even heard of their encounter until decades after the death of Dulles and expressed shock that his former boss had never told him about it. After meeting with German Information Minister Joseph Goebbels, Dulles stated he was impressed with him and cited his "sincerity and frankness" during their interaction.[18]

In 1935, Dulles returned from a business trip to Germany concerned by the

Nazi 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.[19][20] The effort was successful, and the firm ceased to conduct business in Nazi Germany.[21]

As the Republican Party began to divide into isolationist 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.[21] Dulles collaborated with Hamilton Fish Armstrong, the editor of Foreign Affairs 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.[22][page needed] Dulles helped some German Jews, such as the banker Paul Kemper, escape to the United States from Nazi Germany.[23]

World War II and OSS career

Dulles was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services by William J. Donovan in October 1941, after the outbreak of the World War II 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.[24] As Swiss Director of the OSS,[3] 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 jet fighter.

Allen Dulles used information from Heinrich Maier's resistance group for the very important Operation Crossbow.

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 onward, he received very important information from this resistance group about V-1, V-2 rockets, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, and other aircraft and the related factories. This helped Allied bombers 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.[25][26][27][28][29]

Although Washington barred Dulles from making firm commitments to the plotters of the July 20, 1944

V-2 missiles.[30]

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 Berlin station chief and later as station chief in Bern.[31] 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.[32]

CIA career

at the Pentagon in 1955.

In the 1948 Presidential election, Dulles was, together with his brother, an advisor to Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey. 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. Partly as a result of the report, Truman named a new Director of Central Intelligence, Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith.

Smith recruited Dulles into the

Truman administration.[33]

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.[33]

The Agency's covert operations were an important part of the

Eisenhower administration's new Cold War national security policy known as the "New Look
".

At Dulles's request, President Eisenhower demanded that Senator Joseph McCarthy discontinue issuing subpoenas against the CIA. In March 1950, McCarthy had initiated a series of investigations into potential communist 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 alleged communist infiltration of the CIA.[34]

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 activity through overhead photo surveillance. The aircraft eventually entered service with the Air Force.[35] The Soviet Union shot down and captured a U-2 in 1960 during Dulles's term as CIA chief.[3]

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.[36][23][37][page needed]

Coup in Iran

In 1953, Dulles was involved, along with

Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.[40] By coincidence, on August 18, 1953, Dulles was taking a vacation in Rome while the Shah fled there after a setback in the coup, and the two met while checking in to the Hotel Excelsior. The meeting turned out to be fortuitous for the United States and the coup. CIA and independent historians say that the meeting was happenstance, but conspiracy theories abound.[41]

Coup in Guatemala

President

Jacobo Arbenz Guzman of Guatemala was removed in 1954 in a CIA-led coup carried out under the code name Operation PBSuccess.[42]

Eduardo Galeano described Dulles as a former member of the United Fruit Company's Board of Directors.[43] 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.[44]

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 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 ... [Kennedy] did not 'splinter' it after all and did not recommend Congressional supervision. Instead, President Kennedy transferred the CIA to the Department of Defense under the close supervision and control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff which would also report on CIA plans and operations to the President."[45]

Dismissal

Kennedy presents the National Security Medal to Dulles, November 28, 1961.

During the

John McCone
.

Later life

Later, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, on November 29, 1963, President

assassination of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Some historians later criticized the appointment, noting that Kennedy fired him. Therefore, he was 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.[48][49] Robert F. Kennedy also urged Lyndon Johnson to put Allen Dulles on the Warren Commission most likely fearing revelation of Kennedy's clandestine involvement in Cuba.[50]

In 1966,

Dulles published the book The Craft of Intelligence in 1963,[52] and edited Great True Spy Stories in 1968.

He died on January 29, 1969, of

Baltimore, Maryland.[53]

Fictional portrayals

Publications

Articles

Book reviews

Books

Books edited

  • Harper & Row
    (1968).

Book contributions

See also

References

  1. ^ "Table of Contents". National Archives. August 15, 2016. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  2. ^
    OCLC 1645522
    . Retrieved September 27, 2021.
  3. ^
  4. ^ "Allen Welsh Dulles – CIA director". CNN. Archived from the original on January 7, 2008. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
  5. ^ "Q&A with Stephen Kinzer | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  6. ^ Blake, Henry (March 14, 2024). "Meet the Kleptocrats: How Two Brothers Undermined Democracy in America and the World". Medium. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  7. ISSN 0885-7601
    . Retrieved September 27, 2021 – via Princeton University Library.
  8. ^ says, Mark Patrick (December 15, 2023). "OSS Spymaster Allen Dulles". Warfare History Network. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  9. ^ "FRITZ MOLDEN DIVORCED; Former Joan Dulles Charges Cruelty -- Will Be Wed Again". The New York Times. February 4, 1954. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  10. ^ Grose 1994, pp. 457.
  11. ^ "When a C.I.A. Director Had Scores of Affairs". The New York Times. November 10, 2012. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
  12. ^ a b Grose 1994, pp. 26.
  13. ^ Grose 1994, pp. 36, 46.
  14. [Accessed April 20, 2016]. page 25
  15. ^ Grose 1994, pp. 65, 80–81.
  16. ^ Historical Roster of Directors and Officers, Council on Foreign Relations
  17. ^ Grose 1994, pp. 100, 112.
  18. ^ Grose 1994, pp. 111–116.
  19. ^ Mosley 1978, pp. 91–92.
  20. ^ Grose 1994, pp. 121–122.
  21. ^ a b Srodes 1999, pp. 189–190.
  22. ^ Dulles & Armstrong 1936a.
  23. ^ a b Grose 1994, p. 121.
  24. ^ Dulles & Petersen 1996, p. 563, Notes.
  25. ^ Hansjakob Stehle "Die Spione aus dem Pfarrhaus (German: The spy from the rectory)" In: Die Zeit, January 5, 1996.
  26. ^ Fritz Molden "Fires In The Night: The Sacrifices And Significance Of The Austrian Resistance" ((2019).
  27. ^ Helga Thoma "Mahner-Helfer-Patrioten: Porträts aus dem österreichischen Widerstand" (2004), pp 150.
  28. , pp. 299–305.
  29. ^ Christoph Thurner "The CASSIA Spy Ring in World War II Austria: A History of the OSS's Maier-Messner Group" (2017), pp 187.
  30. ^ Grose 1994, pp. 214.
  31. Executive Office of the President
    of the United States (EOP). p. 1. Retrieved September 27, 2021 – via Marshall Foundation.
  32. ^
    Project MUSE
    .
  33. ^ Weiner 2007, pp. 105–106.
  34. .
  35. ^ Srodes 1999, p. 22.
  36. ^ Dulles & Armstrong 1939a.
  37. ^ Trento 2001.
  38. ), p. 186.
  39. ^ "With Sten guns and sovereigns Britain and US saved Iran's throne for". The Independent. March 15, 1997. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  40. ^ "CIA declassifies more of "Zendebad, Shah!" – internal study of 1953 Iran coup". National Security Archive.
  41. ^ Immerman 1982, pp. 133–160.
  42. . Retrieved June 26, 2018.
  43. ^ Immerman 1982, pp. 124.
  44. OCLC 1645522
    . Retrieved September 27, 2021.
  45. ^ John F. Kennedy. Remarks Upon Presenting an Award to Allen W. Dulles Archived October 17, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, November 28, 1961 (Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project).
  46. ^ "Dulles, Allen W., June 1959-November 1962". Jfklibrary.org. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
  47. ^ "The Dulles brothers and their secret wars". Radio National. December 6, 2013. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
  48. ^ Shenon, Philip (October 6, 2015). "Yes, the CIA Director Was Part of the JFK Assassination Cover-Up". Politico.com. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  49. ^ Shenon, Philip (October 6, 2015). "Yes, the CIA Director Was Part of the JFK Assassination Cover-Up". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
  50. UN Office of the Secretary-General. Letter to Kofi Annan. New York City, New York, USA: Princeton University/United Nations. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on December 26, 2012.
  51. ^ Dulles 1963.
  52. OCLC 1645522
    . Retrieved September 27, 2021.
  53. ^ "Arcade Publishing". Arcadepub.com. September 1, 2012. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  54. ^ Emily VanDerWerff (February 16, 2012). "AV Club". AV Club. Retrieved July 27, 2019.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Works available online

Archival materials

Government offices
New office
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Plans

1951
Succeeded by
Preceded by Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
1951–1953
Succeeded by
Preceded by Director of Central Intelligence
1953–1961
Succeeded by