Allen Dulles

Allen Welsh Dulles was director of the CIA from 26 February 1953 to 29 November 1961.

Background

Dulles was born in Watertown, New York in 1893. His grandfather and uncle had both served as US Secretaries of State.

At the end of World War Two, Dulles rejoined Sullivan & Cromwell, the New York law firm where his brother John Foster Dulles was a partner.

Dulles briefed a Congressional Committee considering the formation of the CIA.

CIA Deputy Director for Plans

CIA director Walter Bedell Smith appointed Dulles Deputy Director of Plans, responsible for covert operations, on 4 January 1951.

In May 1952 Dulles held a secret conference at the Princetown Inn to consider the scope for covert action in Eastern Europe. Chip Bohlen was among those present.

Project Ultra

Dulles and Frank Wisner were briefed on Project Artichoke, the CIA's experimental program on the use of LSD and other drugs for interrogation purposes on 12 May 1952. Dulles approved an expanded program, Project Ultra, a few months later.

CIA Director

Dulles was appointed Director of the CIA in the new Dwight D. Eisenhower administration on 26 February 1953.

In a letter to Eisenhower in May 1954, CIA officer Jim Kellis wrote that Dulles was "a ruthless, ambitious and utterly incompetent governmnt administrator.

Dulles was reappointed as CIA director following the election of John F. Kennedy in 1961. According to Tim Weiner, this was influenced by Joseph Kennedy's awareness that Dulles had been told by J. Edgar Hoover about a World War Two-era sexual relationship between the new president and a suspected German spy.

Dulles retired as head of the CIA in September 1961.

Iran

On 18 February 1953, Dulles met the new British MI6 chief, Sir John Sinclair, who briefed him on Operation Boot, Britain's plan to overthrow the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Sinclair proposed Kim Roosevelt as field commander for the project, which Dulles renamed Operation Ajax.

Dulles' warning of a communist threat in Iran was initially rebuffed by Eisenhower at a National Security Council meeting on 4 March. However, on 18 March Frank Wisner, passed on Dulles' initial approval to Roosevelt and Montague Woodhouse. Dulles dismissed the CIA station chief in Tehran, Roger Goiran, for opposing a coup.

Dulles travelled to Europe during the operation itself, where he bumped into the Shah, who had fled to Rome.

Guatemala

Dulles approved Operation Success, the CIA plan to overthrow the government of Guatemala, on 9 December 1953. He appointed Al Haney as field commander and Tracey Barnes as head of political warfare.

Hungary

On 1 November 1956, during the Hungarian uprising, Dulles wrongly briefed Eisenhower that "armed force could not effectively be used" by the Soviet Union. On 5 November, however, he told the president that the Soviets were ready to send 250,000 troops to Egypt to defend the Suez Canal.

Indonesia

Eisenhower ordered the CIA to overthrow the Sukarno government on 25 September 1957.Dulles failed to obey the President's order that no American personnel were to be involved, and CIA pilots began bombing in support of US-backed rebels on 19 April 1958. Hower, American pilot Al Pope was captured on 18 May. Dulles ordered the operation stood down the next day.

Japan

Dulles had a secret meeting in his office 6 February 1959 with Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, a convicted war criminal, and according to Tim Weiner, a recruited CIA agent.

Cuba

On 11 September 1959, Richard Bissell sent Dulles a memo proposing the elimination of Fidel Castro. Dulles crossed out the word elimination, replaced it with removal from Cuba and approved the proposal.

On 8 January 1960, Dulles ordered Bissell to organise a task force to overthrow Castro.

Dulles briefed Vice-President Richard Nixon on the CIA's covert operations in Cuba on 2 March 1960. He and Bissell presented detailed plans to Eisenhower and Nixon on 17 March. These called for the infiltration of agents into Cuba rather than an outright invasion.

Eisenhower agreed to train a covert paramilitary unit to overthrow Castro at a meeting with Dulles and Richard Bissell on 18 August 1960. In the same month, Dulles allowed Bissell to take out a Mafia contract on Castro.

At a meeting with President-Elect Kennedy on 18 November 1960, Dulles and Bissell failed to tell Kennedy that Eisenhower had not given final approval for an invasion of Cuba.

On 22 April 1961, following the the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy ordered Dulles to step up coverage of Cuban operations in the United States, an activity outside the CIA's charter. Dulles told the Taylor inquiry the same day: "I'm first to recognize that I don't think that the CIA should run paramilitary operations."

A report by the CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick concluded that Dulles had failed to keep the Eisenhower or Kennedy accurately informed about the operation. Dulles destroyed all but a single copy of the report, which was locked away for 40 years.

Tibet

Eisenhower approved an operation to support Tibetan guerrillas against the Chinese following a briefing by Dulles and Desmond FitzGerald in February 1960.

Congo

At a meeting of the National Security Council on 18 August 1960, Eisenhower ordered Dulles to eliminate the Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba. At another NSC meeting on 21 September, Dulles told Eisenhower that Joseph Mobutu was "the only man in the Congo able to act with firmness".

Affiliations

• Sullivan & Cromwell
• Century Group
• Fight For Freedom Committee
• Office of Strategic Services
• American Committee for a United Europe
• National Committee for a Free Europe
• Central Intelligence Agency
• Council on Foreign Relations

Connections

• John Foster Dulles - Brother
• Eleanor Dulles - Sister

External Resources

• NameBase DULLES ALLEN WELSH
• History Commons Profile: Allen Welsh Dulles