The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

Stephen Kinzer

Macmillan, Oct 1, 2013 - History - 416 pages

A joint biography of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who led the United States into an unseen war that decisively shaped today's world

During the 1950s, when the Cold War was at its peak, two immensely powerful brothers led the United States into a series of foreign adventures whose effects are still shaking the world.

John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the background of American culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?

The Brothers explores hidden forces that shape the national psyche, from religious piety to Western movies—many of which are about a noble gunman who cleans up a lawless town by killing bad guys. This is how the Dulles brothers saw themselves, and how many Americans still see their country's role in the world.

Propelled by a quintessentially American set of fears and delusions, the Dulles brothers launched violent campaigns against foreign leaders they saw as threats to the United States. These campaigns helped push countries from Guatemala to the Congo into long spirals of violence, led the United States into the Vietnam War, and laid the foundation for decades of hostility between the United States and countries from Cuba to Iran.
The story of the Dulles brothers is the story of America. It illuminates and helps explain the modern history of the United States and the world.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - rivkat - LibraryThing

Biography of Alan and John Foster Dulles, head of the CIA/State Department during a big chunk of the post-WWII period. They were terrible human beings convinced of their Christian, pro-American big ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - kukulaj - LibraryThing

That the USA played... plays... these kinds of nasty games, yeah I had some vague awareness. But to be walked through the sordid details is still shocking. What was most amazing about this book was to ...

Contents

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About the author

Stephen Kinzer is the author of Reset, Overthrow, All the Shah's Men, and numerous other books. An award-winning foreign correspondent, he served as the New York Times's bureau chief in Turkey, Germany, and Nicaragua and as the Boston Globe's Latin America correspondent. He is a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, contributes to The New York Review of Books, and writes a column on world affairs for The Guardian. He lives in Boston.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
• Author: Stephen Kinzer
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2013
• ISBN: 1429953527, 9781429953528
• Length: 416 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Political; History / United States / 20th Century; Political Science / Intelligence & Espionage