Stephen Kinzer

A joint biography of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who led the United States into foreign adventures that decisively shaped today's world as the Cold War was at its peak.

The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

Andrew John Kinney

Many people have reviewed this book, so I'll keep this relatively short. John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, with the support of Eisenhower, arguably did more damage to the international reputation of the United States than any other major figures of the Twentieth Century. They almost singlehandedly wrecked the US' relationship with Central and South America, ruined US-Iranian relations in the long term, directed the initial steps into Vietnam, and generally soured US relations with all nations that were emerging from colonial rule. On top of all this, the CIA under Dulles was a notably incompetent organization that failed in every major mission it attempted after Iran, and provided precious little valuable information to policymakers. Both Allen and Foster believed that the US should be able to bully smaller nations into following the US' lead, and if the leader of a smaller nation resisted, he had to be gotten rid of, because (obviously) he must be a Communist. They established as "fact" that there was an international Communist movement, and neutrality on the part of small nations simply meant they were secretly Communist. It was a crazy idea in retrospect, and it gave no credence to the clearly quite reasonable idea that small nations simply wanted to determine their own futures, regardless of what the US wanted. In fairness, the brothers reflected their era, and the 1950's was a distinctly paranoid time.

One wonders how different history might have been if Dean Acheson could have stayed on as Secretary of State (not possible because he was a Democrat), or if George Marshall, calm, prudent, selfless George Marshall could have come back as Secretary of State under Eisenhower. Oh well.

The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

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