The brothers
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.
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3recommend
5mentions
3people
2018–2023years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I'd say it's plenty polemical, throughout. In and of itself, I don't have a problem with that, regardless of whether I disagree with the polemic. But the mass of self-contradictions (what non-null portrait is being drawn here: sub-wastrel ne'er-do-well with a successful private practice who can't navigate the real world and who has servants and an elegant summer house?), and the jaded and listless manner in which those polemics are doled out, each one basically amounting to just "but what do you expect these days, everything is X, Y, Z", makes it a real trudge to get through.
Kennan is an interesting subject. I think that is safe to say, but I also think that is pretty much the limit of what I can say in unqualified agreement with the essay. In a much more qualified way, I share his criticism of the neoconservatives who still run US foreign policy, in both major parties.
I would also recommend Stephen Kinzer's book, The Brothers, about Allen and John Foster Dulles, two figures who played far more active and significant roles, the consequences of which mark the world to this day.
- "Devil's Chessboard" is a good overall view of the CIA although not specifically about the postwar period. Stephen Kinzer has some good books which touch on the subject including "The Brothers" and "Poisoner in Chief." Christopher Simpson's "Forbidden Trilogy" (esp. "Blowback") is very good as well.
- Yeah if Operation Paperclip is your particular interest then I would say start with Simpson and then move on to Kinzer.
There have also been some books written specifically about Sullivan & Cromwell, which was the investment banking firm where the Dulles Brothers worked and established financial ties to the Nazis, but I haven't read any of them.
- Post WWII (and even before the end) the US quickly pivoted towards the "cold war" with the Soviet Union. From the interview you linked:
"...Dulles was one of the intelligence titans of the 1950s, one of the original cold warriors. And he was someone who believed that there were, quote-unquote, “moderate Nazis,” his words, who the U.S. could use to its advantage in the Cold War. And he actively recruited them himself and, in a number of cases, intervened on their behalf when they were facing accusations about their past, about their involvement in Nazi war crimes. And he and J. Edgar Hoover were really the two linchpins in this, in developing this strategy of recruiting ex-Nazis as cold warriors, as anti-Soviet assets who, they believe, could gather intelligence for the U.S."
Dulles was not a perfect man, and holds much of the blame when it comes to US/corporate colonialism but to suggest the CIA was "built with" Nazis is taking it too far. To suggest that the Nazi legacy of the CIA somehow is connected to current day abuses of power is an even further leap of logic. Dulles saw former Nazis as valuable tools in his war/wars - there's not much else to it.
Recommended reading if you're curious about the CIA and it's origins, and how it effected/effects US policy: https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Foster-Dulles-Allen-Secret/d...
- Dear young, super smart Googlers: If your knowledge of the Middle East and terrorism goes back to ISIS/Al Qaeda - stop coding (or selling ads) and visit your local library. The history section is chalk full of wonderfully informative books that will inform your opinions.
You might find that Internet tropes about terrorism to be less than accurate.
For example, I just finished "Rise and Kill First" [1] a rather enlightening book about Israel's use of targeted assassinations going back almost 100 years. When I started reading Israel wasn't in the news, but then the whole Iran/US nuclear deal fiasco hit, and it made Netanyahu's actions all the more clear. Note, I'm not saying justified but rather that I now understand why Israel thinks and acts the way it does, and how sometimes this clashes with their normally close allies like the US.
1: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Kill-First-Targeted-Assassinatio...
Before that, I read "Ghost Wars" [2] another beast of a book that covers US involvement in the Middle East going back to the late 1970's up to 9/11. Fascinating book about the struggle to dominate Afghanistan by regional and world powers.
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wars-Afghanistan-Invasion-Septe...
Before that, it was "The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War" [3] about the history of the CIA and the US's foreign policy in the last 100+ years.
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Foster-Dulles-Allen-Secret/d...
Key point - These books look past recent events to provide an mostly complete understanding of these conflicts that you can't get with 20 minute Google searches and Wikipedia snippets.
