The Brothers

The narrative begins by contrasting the immense national grief following Secretary of State John Foster Dulles’s death in 1959 with his subsequent historical obscurity. At the time, President Eisenhower eulogized him as a great man, and the new airport in Washington was named in his honor. Decades later, however, his bust is removed from the airport’s main concourse to a little-used conference room, a symbol of his faded legacy. The book introduces Foster and his brother, Allen Dulles, the Director of Central Intelligence, as uniquely powerful siblings who together directed the overt and covert foreign policy of the United States during the Cold War, setting in motion events that continue to shape global conflicts.

John Foster Dulles, born in 1888, and Allen Welsh Dulles, born in 1893, grow up in Watertown, New York, under the influence of their stern Presbyterian minister father, Reverend Allen Macy Dulles, and their powerful maternal grandfather, John Watson Foster, a former Secretary of State who orchestrated the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. Their uncle, Robert Lansing, also serves as Secretary of State, cementing the family’s deep ties to American power. The brothers develop distinct personalities early on, with Foster being solemn and self-righteous, while Allen is outgoing and adventurous. Foster attends Princeton and, after a brief diplomatic apprenticeship at the 1907 Hague Peace Conference, joins the powerful Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. Allen also attends Princeton, then travels the world, becoming captivated by espionage after reading Rudyard Kipling’s Kim.

During World War I, Allen joins the State Department and becomes a spymaster in Bern, Switzerland, where he runs intelligence operations and engages in what he calls “unmentionable happenings.” Foster, meanwhile, uses his position at Sullivan & Cromwell to advance American corporate interests abroad, leveraging his family connections to influence U.S. foreign policy. Both brothers attend the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where they are deeply influenced by President Woodrow Wilson’s missionary diplomacy and develop a profound fear of Bolshevism. After the war, Foster rises to become a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, specializing in global finance, while Allen serves in diplomatic posts before growing restless with his career.

In 1926, Foster becomes the managing partner of Sullivan & Cromwell, and Allen leaves the State Department to join him at the firm. Foster becomes one of America’s highest-paid lawyers, arranging massive international loans, particularly for German corporations. During the 1930s, the brothers clash over the rise of Nazism. Foster, viewing Germany as a bulwark against Communism, cultivates a close relationship with Hitler’s economics minister, Hjalmar Schacht, and helps German industry secure American financing. Allen, disturbed by the Nazi regime, persuades the firm’s partners to close their Berlin office in 1935 over Foster’s objections. Both brothers become influential members of the Council on Foreign Relations, promoting a pro-business, internationalist foreign policy. As World War II approaches, Allen is recruited by William “Wild Bill” Donovan to help build a new American intelligence service.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Allen joins the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In late 1942, he travels across enemy lines to run the OSS station in Bern, where he orchestrates a highly successful intelligence network that culminates in Operation Sunrise, the secret surrender of German forces in Italy in 1945. During the war, Foster shifts his focus to religious activism, leading a prominent church commission from which he advocates for international cooperation and denounces nationalism. After the war, however, he undergoes a dramatic transformation, becoming a fervent anti-Communist who promotes a worldview of a monolithic Soviet threat. The OSS is disbanded, leaving Allen restless until the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is created in 1947. After Thomas Dewey’s unexpected loss in the 1948 presidential election dashes Foster’s immediate hopes of becoming Secretary of State, he serves a brief, appointed term in the U.S. Senate. In August 1951, Allen is appointed Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, the agency's number-two position.

The 1952 election of Dwight D. Eisenhower brings both brothers to the height of their power. Eisenhower names Foster his Secretary of State and Allen his Director of Central Intelligence. Eisenhower’s “New Look” foreign policy, which relies on nuclear deterrence and covert action, provides the framework for the brothers to wage a secret global war against leaders they deem threats to American interests.

Their first target is Mohammad Mossadegh, the nationalist Prime Minister of Iran. The brothers’ animosity stems from their time at Sullivan & Cromwell, when Mossadegh’s political movement blocked a lucrative development contract Allen had negotiated and later nationalized the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. In early 1953, they persuade Eisenhower to authorize a coup. Allen oversees Operation Ajax, a joint CIA-MI6 plot commanded in the field by Kermit Roosevelt. The first attempt in August 1953 fails, but Roosevelt persists, using CIA funds to orchestrate street riots and bribe military officers. Mossadegh is overthrown, and the Shah is restored to power, beginning a 25-year reign of repressive rule that ends with the anti-American revolution of 1979.

Immediately after their success in Iran, the brothers target Jacobo Arbenz, the democratically elected president of Guatemala. Arbenz’s land reform program threatens the interests of the United Fruit Company, a longtime Sullivan & Cromwell client. Foster secures a resolution from the Organization of American States condemning international Communism, providing diplomatic cover. Allen then launches Operation PB/Success, a large-scale psychological warfare campaign that includes a fake rebel radio station, bombing raids, and the manipulation of the Catholic Church to turn the populace against Arbenz. In June 1954, under intense pressure, the Guatemalan military forces Arbenz to resign, ending a decade of democracy and ushering in a long period of brutal military rule.

The brothers’ third target is Ho Chi Minh, the Communist and nationalist leader of Vietnam. At the 1954 Geneva Conference, an accord is reached to temporarily partition Vietnam pending a 1956 reunification election. Convinced Ho Chi Minh will win, Foster refuses to accept the settlement, and the U.S. instead backs the creation of a permanent anti-Communist state in South Vietnam and installs Ngo Dinh Diem as its leader. Allen dispatches operative Edward Lansdale to Saigon to prop up Diem’s fragile regime through bribery, propaganda, and other covert actions. In 1955, Diem holds a fraudulent referendum to consolidate his power and, with U.S. support, cancels the planned 1956 reunification election, cementing the division of Vietnam and setting the stage for a long and devastating war.

The fourth target is Sukarno, the charismatic, neutralist president of Indonesia. Angered by Sukarno’s friendly relations with Communist nations and his tolerance of Indonesia’s own Communist Party, the brothers launch Operation Archipelago in late 1956. This major covert operation involves arming and training a rebel army of dissident colonels on the islands of Sumatra and Sulawesi. The CIA provides weapons, funding, and a fleet of B-26 bombers flown by American pilots. The operation collapses in May 1958 when CIA pilot Allen Pope is shot down and captured, exposing the secret U.S. role. The failed coup backfires, strengthening Sukarno’s political position and discrediting moderate forces in Indonesia.

In May 1959, John Foster Dulles dies of cancer. Allen continues their secret war alone, and his fifth target becomes Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo. Lumumba’s fiery anti-colonial nationalism and his appeal for Soviet aid after taking office in June 1960 lead President Eisenhower to give a veiled order for his assassination. Allen directs the CIA station in Leopoldville to destabilize Lumumba’s government and plan his murder. The CIA backs a coup led by army chief Joseph Mobutu, and Lumumba is captured. On January 17, 1961, he is handed over to his enemies in the secessionist province of Katanga and brutally murdered. While Belgian and Congolese figures bear primary responsibility, the CIA is deeply complicit in the events that lead to his death, paving the way for Mobutu’s corrupt, decades-long dictatorship.

The brothers’ final target is Fidel Castro, who takes power in Cuba in 1959. After Castro nationalizes American businesses and allies with the Soviet Union, Eisenhower authorizes a CIA plan for his overthrow in March 1960. Allen delegates the operation to his deputy, Richard Bissell, and remains strikingly disengaged from its planning. The plan evolves into a full-scale invasion by a brigade of CIA-trained Cuban exiles. President John F. Kennedy inherits the plan and, despite his misgivings, approves a modified version. The invasion at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, is a catastrophic failure. The disaster is a profound humiliation for the CIA and the United States, and Kennedy fires Allen in November 1961.

The book concludes by reflecting on the brothers’ legacy. Their actions were driven by a worldview shaped by missionary Calvinism, a belief in American exceptionalism, and a lifetime of service to corporate interests. They consistently misinterpreted Third World nationalism through a rigid Cold War lens, leading to interventions with devastating long-term consequences. The author argues that the Dulles brothers were not an aberration but rather quintessential products of the American national character, its historical impulses, and its preference for action over understanding. Their story is presented as America’s story, and confronting their legacy is positioned as a necessary step for Americans to understand their country’s role in the world.