Allen Dulles

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Allen Welsh Dulles was director of the CIA from 26 February 1953 to 29 November 1961.[1]

Background

Dulles was born in Watertown, New York in 1893. His grandfather and uncle had both served as US Secretaries of State.[2]

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.[3]

Dulles briefed a Congressional Committee considering the formation of the CIA.[4]

CIA Deputy Director for Plans

CIA director Walter Bedell Smith appointed Dulles Deputy Director of Plans, responsible for covert operations, on 4 January 1951.[5]

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.[6]

CIA Director

Dulles was appointed Director of the CIA in the new Dwight D. Eisenhower administration on 26 February 1953.[7][8]

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.[9]

Dulles retired as head of the CIA in September 1961.[10]

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.[11]

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.[12]

On 8 January 1960, Dulles ordered Bissell to organise a task force to overthrow Castro.[13]

Dulles briefed Vice-President Richard Nixon on the CIA's covert operations in Cuba on 2 March 1960.[14] 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.[15]

Eisenhower agreed to train a covert paramilitary unit to overthrow Castro at a meeting with Dulles and Richard Bissell on 18 August 1960.[16] In the same month, Dulles allowed Bissell to take out a Mafia contract on Castro.[17]

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.[18]

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."[19]

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.[20]

Tibet

Eisenhower approved an operation to support Tibetan guerrillas against the Chinese following a briefing by Dulles and Desmond FitzGerald in February 1960.[21]

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.[22]

Affiliations

Connections

External Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ Allen Welsh Dulles, Directors and Deputy Directors of Central Intelligence, CIA, accessed 23 February 2010.
  2. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.26.
  3. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.13.
  4. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.26.
  5. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.59.
  6. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, pp.70-71.
  7. ↑ Allen Welsh Dulles, Directors and Deputy Directors of Central Intelligence, CIA, accessed 23 February 2010.
  8. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, pp.78-79.
  9. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.191.
  10. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.206.
  11. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.151.
  12. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.180.
  13. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.180.
  14. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.181.
  15. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.181.
  16. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.187.
  17. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.186.
  18. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.191.
  19. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.204.
  20. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.206.
  21. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.349.
  22. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.187.
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