Allen
Dulles,
the son of a Presbyterian minister, and the brother of John
Foster Dulles, was born in Washington in 1893. His grandfather
was John Watson Foster, Secretary of State under President Benjamin
Harrison. His uncle, Robert Lansing,
was Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Woodrow
Wilson.
After attending Princeton University he joined the diplomatic service
and served in Vienna, Berne, Paris, Berlin and Instanbul. In 1922
he was appointed as chief of Division of Near Eastern Affairs.
During
the Second World War Dulles served in Europe
with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
under William Donovan.
The organization that was given the responsible for espionage and
for helping the resistance movement
in Europe. Dulles was stationed in
Switzerland and was able to use his
base in this neutral country to obtain important information on Nazi
Germany and the Gestapo.
As
soon as the Second World War ended President
Harry S. Truman
ordered the OSS to be closed down. However, it provided a model for
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established
in September 1947. Dulles joined the
CIA and became director of the organization in 1953.
Under
his leadership the CIA had success in assisting right wing coups in
Guatemala and Iran. His attempts to oust against Fidel
Castro ended in failure and was forced
to resign after the Bay
of Pigs disaster.
Dulles
published The Craft of Intelligence
(1963). After the death of John F. Kennedy
Dulles served on the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination.
Allen
Dulles died
of cancer in 1969.
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