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58 reviews for:
The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
Stephen Kinzer
4.06 AVERAGE
58 reviews for:
The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
Stephen Kinzer
4.06 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
medium-paced
These days, the John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles are almost forgotten in a parade of more colorful Cold War figures. There's an airport, notably mainly for still not being hooked up to DC public transit, and that's it. They deserve to be remembered, because the pattern of foreign intervention that they set in place still echoes in a legacy of blowback and forever war.
The Dulles were American aristocracy, grandsons and newphews of Secretaries of State, raised on flinty Yankee valeus, and clearly aimed for great things. Foster was a dry lawyer and theologian, who helped negotiate the settlement to the First World War as a diplomatic attache. Allen was a philanderer and gentleman scoundrel, who ran intelligence out of Switzerland at the same time. Both brothers were partners at Sullivan & Cromwell, the original Wall Street law firm, where they made fortunes and developed the principle that what was good for America's biggest companies was good for the world. To them, the interests of United Fruit were the same as the interests of Guatemala, despite all evidence to the contrary. During the 1930s and 40s, Foster cultivated friends in conservative circles, while Allen helped found the OSS.
Both of them acceded to great power with the election of Eisenhower in 1952. Foster became Secretary of State; Allen first director of the CIA. Ike believed in the effectiveness of covert action from his time as commanding general in the Second World War. The Dulles believed in aggressive confrontation against Communism. The potential of a handful of American advisers leading local armies to victory against pro-Communist leaders was too much for the three to avoid, particularly when the other options seemed either Communist victory or expensive commitment of ground troops. Together, they overthrew governments worldwide, from Latin America to the Middle East and Pacific, taking bigger and bigger risks until a new president, and Foster's death in 1959, left Allen out to hang with the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
The Dulles brothers were guided by a Manichean view of the world, a 'with us or against us' mentality that alienated potential allies. They sponsored coups where soft power would have been more effective, and ignored a chance to de-escalate the Cold War following the death of Stalin. Their interventions created legacies of corruption and legitimate anti-American feelings, while leaving the basic problems of the Third World unresolved. Poverty, suffering and war were the result. Even in 2018, the asymmetric war between the United States and Iran is a legacy of their blowback, and the revolution against the Shah they installed in a coup.
Kinzer opens the book looking for a bust of Dulles that once sat in an entrance hall in the airport that bears his name. He closes it looking for a Diego Rivera mural that depicts the brothers as ghouls. He suggests the two works of art should be displayed together. The Dulles made Cold War policy as firm and unyielding as iron. We still live in the cage they crafted.
The Dulles were American aristocracy, grandsons and newphews of Secretaries of State, raised on flinty Yankee valeus, and clearly aimed for great things. Foster was a dry lawyer and theologian, who helped negotiate the settlement to the First World War as a diplomatic attache. Allen was a philanderer and gentleman scoundrel, who ran intelligence out of Switzerland at the same time. Both brothers were partners at Sullivan & Cromwell, the original Wall Street law firm, where they made fortunes and developed the principle that what was good for America's biggest companies was good for the world. To them, the interests of United Fruit were the same as the interests of Guatemala, despite all evidence to the contrary. During the 1930s and 40s, Foster cultivated friends in conservative circles, while Allen helped found the OSS.
Both of them acceded to great power with the election of Eisenhower in 1952. Foster became Secretary of State; Allen first director of the CIA. Ike believed in the effectiveness of covert action from his time as commanding general in the Second World War. The Dulles believed in aggressive confrontation against Communism. The potential of a handful of American advisers leading local armies to victory against pro-Communist leaders was too much for the three to avoid, particularly when the other options seemed either Communist victory or expensive commitment of ground troops. Together, they overthrew governments worldwide, from Latin America to the Middle East and Pacific, taking bigger and bigger risks until a new president, and Foster's death in 1959, left Allen out to hang with the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
The Dulles brothers were guided by a Manichean view of the world, a 'with us or against us' mentality that alienated potential allies. They sponsored coups where soft power would have been more effective, and ignored a chance to de-escalate the Cold War following the death of Stalin. Their interventions created legacies of corruption and legitimate anti-American feelings, while leaving the basic problems of the Third World unresolved. Poverty, suffering and war were the result. Even in 2018, the asymmetric war between the United States and Iran is a legacy of their blowback, and the revolution against the Shah they installed in a coup.
Kinzer opens the book looking for a bust of Dulles that once sat in an entrance hall in the airport that bears his name. He closes it looking for a Diego Rivera mural that depicts the brothers as ghouls. He suggests the two works of art should be displayed together. The Dulles made Cold War policy as firm and unyielding as iron. We still live in the cage they crafted.
http://maybesbooks.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-brothers-john-foster-dulles-allen.html
This was a great read. It's not my favorite biography ever, but it was comprehensive, not boring, and really illuminating about the power of the Dulles brothers. I saw a lot of commonalities with the ways in which certain leaders try to yield power in the modern age and I take comfort in the failures of the Dulles brothers and our country's ability to make it through their reign.
If you're interested in better understanding why the USA is viewed negatively by many other countries, you should read this book. The Dulles brothers were Secretary of State and CIA director during the Eisenhower administration, and were the architects of covert operations like the overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala, Mossadegh in Iran, the failed attempt to overthrow Sukarno in Indonesia, and the grotesque murder of Lumumba in the Congo - all of which resulted (directly and indirectly) in major consequences in these areas of the world that continue to cause suffering and instability.
If you're interested in becoming frustrated when you realize that US foreign policy hasn't changed much since the 1950s (when Eisenhower became the first US president to order the assassination of a democratically elected foreign head of state, the assassination of a second foreign head of state, and the overthrow of numerous foreign governments), you should read this book. In the 1950s, the fearmongering centered on the mostly made-up monster of the USSR and communism. Today, it centers on vaguely-defined Islamic fanaticism. Either way, the USA government seems to refuse to learn from past mistakes and determined to continue down the path of economic colonialism and ideological imperialism.
If you're interested in becoming frustrated when you realize that US foreign policy hasn't changed much since the 1950s (when Eisenhower became the first US president to order the assassination of a democratically elected foreign head of state, the assassination of a second foreign head of state, and the overthrow of numerous foreign governments), you should read this book. In the 1950s, the fearmongering centered on the mostly made-up monster of the USSR and communism. Today, it centers on vaguely-defined Islamic fanaticism. Either way, the USA government seems to refuse to learn from past mistakes and determined to continue down the path of economic colonialism and ideological imperialism.
While there’s not much new here, Kinzer’s written a concise and incisive history of the some of the worst episodes of U.S. Cold War foreign policy centered on the roles of Foster and Allen Dulles. Especially for those less familiar with those episodes, it’s an object lesson in the nefarious zealotry and stupidity of the policies that governed our presence in the world for nearly half a century.
This is not the type of book that makes you proud to be an American. I had no idea who these men were (other than having heard the funny song by Carol Burnett about Foster) and became intrigued by them while reading a book on JFK's assassination. Wow. They had their fingers in so many pies--pies that have a bearing on the world in which I now live. I don't know that either one of the Dulles understood the future ramifications for what they were doing in so many countries.
I thoroughly enjoyed this dual biography. My only criticisms deal with the author's occasional lack of objectivity. The reader, at times, feels the distaste or disgust the author has for his subjects. Also, at times, Kinzer creates conspiracies where they may not be. And makes the Dulles brothers seem like they had super powers, with no one assisting them in their dirty work (like a Commander-in-Chief). But these are minor quibbles. I actually loved the book.
Re the movie Shane: ...unfolds in a frontier valley where thugs are threatening peaceable people. One good man with a gun appears. Nobody has invited him, but decent folk understand that he has come to free them. He kills the thugs, and with that violent act brings peace to the valley. His service complete, he rides away. All are grateful. Crowds thronged to Radio City during the film's four-week run, and it turned out to be an Oscar-winning triumph. The New York Times called it 'a disturbing revelation of the savagery that prevailed in the hearts of the old gun-fighters, who were simply legal killers under the frontier code.' It was that and more. The hero acts precisely as many Americans believe their country acts in the world. He is an enforcer of morality and a scourge of oppressors; he comes from far away but knows instinctively what must be done; he brings peace by slaying wrongdoers; he risks his life to help others; and for all this he wishes no reward other than the quiet satisfaction of having done what was right. Shane reinforced a cultural consensus that steadied America's self-image during the disorienting early years of the Cold War. Whether Foster or Allen saw it is unrecorded, but they imagined themselves like its hero: a morally centered warrior who assumes burdens--even the moral burden of murder--in order to ensure the ultimate triumph of justice. Another film classic of the early 1950s became Eisenhower's favorite: High Noon, starring Gary Cooper as a peaceable lawman who is forced to confront criminals alone because no one else can or will. Eisenhower watched it three times. He cannot have avoided seeing himself and the United States in the sheriff's role: reluctant to fight, but moved to do so because otherwise good people will suffer. (137-138)
Re the JFK assassination: Johnson [Lyndon B.] told friends in Congress that the Kennedy assassination had "some foreign complications, CIA and other things." Placing Allen on the Warren Commission ensured that these "complications" would remain secret. Allen never told the other members of the Warren Commission that the CIA had plotted to kill Castro, or revealed what it knew about Kennedy's accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. He advised other members of the commission about ways to question CIA officers while at the same time advising the officers how to reply. By one account he "systematically used his influence to keep the commission safely within bounds, the importance of which only he could appreciate....From the start, before any evidence was reviewed, he pressed for the final verdict that Oswald had been a crazed gunman, not the agent of a national and international conspiracy." Allen was in a unique position: the former director of central intelligence, dismissed by President Kennedy, helping to investigate Kennedy's murder while guarding the CIA's own murder plots. Some have found this suspicious. (305)
On the Dulles legacy: John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles guided their country through the world during an era of extremes. The passage of time, and the end of the Cold War, make it difficult to grasp the depth of fear that gripped many Americans during the 1950s. Foster and Allen were chief promoters of that fear. They did as much as anyone to shape America's confrontation with the Soviet Union. Their actions helped set off some of the world's most profound long-term crises. The brothers' lives uniquely suited them to the roles they played. From their remarkable family they absorbed the belief that Providence had ordained a special global role for the United States. They were also immersed in missionary Calvinism, which holds that the world is an eternal battleground between saintly and demonic forces. Finally, both brothers spent decades serving the global interests of America's richest corporations, and fully absorbed Wall Street's view of the world. (312-313)
I thoroughly enjoyed this dual biography. My only criticisms deal with the author's occasional lack of objectivity. The reader, at times, feels the distaste or disgust the author has for his subjects. Also, at times, Kinzer creates conspiracies where they may not be. And makes the Dulles brothers seem like they had super powers, with no one assisting them in their dirty work (like a Commander-in-Chief). But these are minor quibbles. I actually loved the book.
Re the movie Shane: ...unfolds in a frontier valley where thugs are threatening peaceable people. One good man with a gun appears. Nobody has invited him, but decent folk understand that he has come to free them. He kills the thugs, and with that violent act brings peace to the valley. His service complete, he rides away. All are grateful. Crowds thronged to Radio City during the film's four-week run, and it turned out to be an Oscar-winning triumph. The New York Times called it 'a disturbing revelation of the savagery that prevailed in the hearts of the old gun-fighters, who were simply legal killers under the frontier code.' It was that and more. The hero acts precisely as many Americans believe their country acts in the world. He is an enforcer of morality and a scourge of oppressors; he comes from far away but knows instinctively what must be done; he brings peace by slaying wrongdoers; he risks his life to help others; and for all this he wishes no reward other than the quiet satisfaction of having done what was right. Shane reinforced a cultural consensus that steadied America's self-image during the disorienting early years of the Cold War. Whether Foster or Allen saw it is unrecorded, but they imagined themselves like its hero: a morally centered warrior who assumes burdens--even the moral burden of murder--in order to ensure the ultimate triumph of justice. Another film classic of the early 1950s became Eisenhower's favorite: High Noon, starring Gary Cooper as a peaceable lawman who is forced to confront criminals alone because no one else can or will. Eisenhower watched it three times. He cannot have avoided seeing himself and the United States in the sheriff's role: reluctant to fight, but moved to do so because otherwise good people will suffer. (137-138)
Re the JFK assassination: Johnson [Lyndon B.] told friends in Congress that the Kennedy assassination had "some foreign complications, CIA and other things." Placing Allen on the Warren Commission ensured that these "complications" would remain secret. Allen never told the other members of the Warren Commission that the CIA had plotted to kill Castro, or revealed what it knew about Kennedy's accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. He advised other members of the commission about ways to question CIA officers while at the same time advising the officers how to reply. By one account he "systematically used his influence to keep the commission safely within bounds, the importance of which only he could appreciate....From the start, before any evidence was reviewed, he pressed for the final verdict that Oswald had been a crazed gunman, not the agent of a national and international conspiracy." Allen was in a unique position: the former director of central intelligence, dismissed by President Kennedy, helping to investigate Kennedy's murder while guarding the CIA's own murder plots. Some have found this suspicious. (305)
On the Dulles legacy: John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles guided their country through the world during an era of extremes. The passage of time, and the end of the Cold War, make it difficult to grasp the depth of fear that gripped many Americans during the 1950s. Foster and Allen were chief promoters of that fear. They did as much as anyone to shape America's confrontation with the Soviet Union. Their actions helped set off some of the world's most profound long-term crises. The brothers' lives uniquely suited them to the roles they played. From their remarkable family they absorbed the belief that Providence had ordained a special global role for the United States. They were also immersed in missionary Calvinism, which holds that the world is an eternal battleground between saintly and demonic forces. Finally, both brothers spent decades serving the global interests of America's richest corporations, and fully absorbed Wall Street's view of the world. (312-313)