Our news is very important. But I think books play a critical role in being informed.
I might post a book from time to time if there’s interest.
The Devil’s Chessboard is a biography of Allen Dulles — from being close to Nazis in WWII to Director of the CIA during its worst misdeeds.
Most people have a vague sense of Nazis being protected or brought to the US after WWII by the US. This book tells several of the important stories.
It discussed how the Dulles brothers had sympathies for the Nazis right up to the US war, and developed close relations, and helped some be in intelligence work after the war.
One of the more memorable phrases I recall from the book was that Dulles betrayed every president he served. This included working at odds against FDR’s policies against Nazis.
The book reports on the powerful establishment network of lawyers, Wall Street, and others the Dulled brothers were in the middle of, with the law firm they worked for.
This group was quite influential, including pushing the politician who served them loyally, Richard Nixon, onto Eisenhower.
This same group would encourage many of the aggressive CIA actions overseas under Dulles.
It writes about who Dulles was — a man with a long-time wife and mistress who became good friends and referred to him as “the shark” for his cold persona; a man who took pride into being able to send others to be killed without any hesitation. The book tells one sad story of Dulles causing the brutal imprisonment and torture of an innocent family by the Soviets by convincing the Soviet one was his mole, in order to create disruption and suspicions within the Soviet side.
I find this part of our history to be important and feel every American should have familiarity with it. For too many, it’s a vague ‘calm 1950’s’ era.
Practically, the Dulles brother close to ran foreign policy under Eisenhower, including overthrowing democracy in Iran and Guatemala, where many administration figures had financial interests.
In another horrible story, the dictator of the Dominican Republic was a brutal leader and an ally of Dulles.
A young man had seen the horrors, and moved to the US, objecting to them. He became a professor in New York, and was working on a Ph.D exposing the terrible acts.
When the dictator’s offer to buy his silence was refused, he turned to Dulles, and a group at the CIA’s request kidnapped the young man and covertly flew him to be delivered to the dictator.
There, he was beaten, tortured, and lowered into boiling water.
(Later, the young pilot from Oregon for the mission who had been misled about it recognized the man’s photo and threatened to talk; he was killed.)
The culture, the history, are reported. Eventually, JFK becomes president, where even before he takes office, Dulles has the African leader, Patrice Lumumba, assassinated to prevent Kennedy’s plan to work with him ending the colonization of Africa. Dulles quickly moved on to try to manipulate Kennedy into invading Cuba in the Bay of Pigs operation, which Robert Kennedy described as “virtually treason”.
He goes on to make his case for the likelihood Dulles was likely behind Kennedy’s assassination; you can take or leave the theory, but it’s devastating how plausible it is either way.
Recommended for this important part of our history.
