Dulles: A Biography of Eleanor, Allen & John Foster Dulles & Their Family Network

by Leonard Mosley

s/t: A Biography of Eleanor, Allen & John Foster Dulles & Their Family Network
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Man Upstairs
Cradle Marks
Breaking Out
Two Abroad
Foster Father
Mixed Marriage
Enter Wild Bill
Pontificating American!
Swiss Role
Dumbarton Acorns
Frustration
Sunrise
Lucky Rear
Thwarted
Call to Battle
The Gospel According to Luke
Beetle Juice
All Aboard
Bread & Circuses
Double Deals
Double Agents
Spy in the Sky
Nile Boil
Not Worth a Dam
A Very Sloppy Performance
Spies in the Stratosphere
Final Call
Nose in the Trough
Siempre Fidel
Such Other Functions
Envoi
Appendix: Letters from a Spy
Source Notes
Index

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Politics

542 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Leonard Oswald Mosley OBE OStJ (11 February 1913 – June 1992) was a British journalist, historian, biographer and novelist. His works include five novels and biographies of General George Marshall, Reich Marshall Hermann Göring, Orde Wingate, Walt Disney, Charles Lindbergh, Du Pont family, Eleanor Dulles, Allen Welsh Dulles, John Foster Dulles and Darryl F. Zanuck. He also worked as chief war correspondent for London's The Sunday Times.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up a while ago at a thrift store, had picked it up and put it down for over a year.

An interesting study in a family that had its hands on the levers of American foreign policy for the better part of the first half of the 20th Century. Foster Dulles, Eisenhower's Secretary of State, Allen Dulles, director of the CIA, and their sister, Eleanor.

Long on detail, somewhat short on analysis except towards the end, when the author's correspondence with the double-agent Kim Philby puts an interesting spin on the various characters. Philby assuredly has his biases, but with nothing to lose (already a traitor and an exile), his assessments are stronger: Foster as the determined, if often obstinate, author of our Cold War policy in the 1950s -- think "liberation" as opposed to "containment" -- and Allen, the gregarious, bumbling mechanic who tried to put that policy into practice, and was directly involved with some of this country's most problematic actions in the middle of last century: the Árbenz and Mossadegh coups, both of which I think most dispassionate scholars can agree achieved little lasting benefit to the US, apart from the short-term interests of powerful American corporations (think BP was only up to dirty deeds in 2010?); and the Bay of Pigs invasion, the last bit of Allen Dulles' CIA chicanery, which cost him his job.

The contrast to these two larger-than-life (and dangerous) personalities is their sister, Eleanor who, because of her gender, was kept in lower levels of government, but worked just as hard as they did, and thrived in the positions she held. The shame is that because of her name, once Allen became persona non grata, she had to go too.

A good overview of the diplomatic history of the United States between the end of World War II and the Bay of Pigs.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The foreign policy of the United States during the Eisenhower administration was, as represented by this joint biography, run by three Dulles siblings. Foster, the elder, ran the State Department. Allen ran the C.I.A. Eleanor was Minister to Germany. Eisenhower, represented as more interested in golf than in government, was basically an expedient tool of others, the popular ticket to power for Allen and Foster, Eleanor having made, despite much resistance owing to her gender, her own way. When he went, so did they.

The Cold War wasn't begun by the Dulles'. That began with the Truman and Churchill administrations. But the Dulles brothers ran most of it until things began to warm up under Kennedy and Kruschev. They overthrew the fledgling democracies of Guatemala and Iran, bringing in pro-American dictatorships. They tried to overthrow Egypt and Cuba, the latter failure tarnishing their records in the eyes of those who judge administrations by such accomplishments.

Beyond being a tripartite biography and a history of the Cold War, this book is also, like the author's study of the DuPonts, a representation of America's ruling class. The Presbyterian Dulles family had already given the USA two cabinet members and it was on the basis of such connections and the money that came with such that they entered the doors of government and rose to power.

Of the three, Eleanor was the most attractive, the most humane. Owing to the sexism of the era, she rose on her own merit, which was considerable. Her brothers, sharing the prejudices of the time, may indeed have hurt her career more than they helped it. She was the most academically accomplished of the three, the writer of the most technical books. Foster wrote too, but they were mostly political opinion pieces, and Allen, with the help of a ghost writer, did produce some material towards the end of his life. Eleanor's works in economics, however, were products of serious research, so good as to garner the praise of Keynes, the greatest establishment economist of the era.

Allen, the playboy spymaster, and his neurotic Jungfrau of a wife are the most entertaining to read about, though the entertainment is often rather dark as it involves clandestine murders on the one hand and infidelities on the other.

Foster, the senior Dulles, coming across as dreadfully serious and plodding, was the most important of the three, both historically and personally. The others, like Eisenhower himself, deferred to him. Unlike his younger brother, his marriage was a stable one, though none of the siblings succeeded as parents.

A welcome appendix contains the correspondence of the author with Kim Philby, the Soviet mole in British intelligence, who puts the whole spying business in some perspective: spies sometimes having more in common with one another than they do with their own governments.

Although I know this period of history, the period leading up to my time as it were, pretty well, having a good general outline of events and their chronology, I still learned a lot I hadn't known from this book--details maybe, but some quite important. This is, after all, an insider account and the author did quite a bit of original research.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: I admit to many SPOILERS, but can there be spoilers in a biography?

This is a very strange book. The information is excellent, it is well-written and moves right along. In order to enjoy the book, however, you have to accept the premise: John Foster Dulles is very, very IMPORTANT!

John Foster Dulles is so very important that you have to accept that his uncle, the Secretary of State under Wilson, was right exert his influence to get him a job that he had failed to get himself at a top Wall Street Firm. You have to believe that it is his destiny to be Secretary of State one day, so that the years he spent supporting Dewey, who kept losing election after election against the Democrat, was just a shame. You have to believe that the lying, sneaky, villainous machinations he undertook to keep himself in power, and make himself important (constantly leaking secrets of national negotiations to the press, comes to mind) is just fine, even honorable, because he has a duty to fulfill his destiny, to become Secretary of State like his uncle and grandfather before him.

Then, when John Foster Dulles finally does become Secretary of State under Eisenhower (since, according to Mosley, John convinced Eisenhower to run), he acts like he's doing Eisenhower a favor. He makes policy without consulting the President. He gives the president orders (ordering him to uninvite the prime minister of Great Britain when he'd just invited him to come and talk, comes to mind.) But what did John Foster Dulles actually accomplish? Besides proving that he's very, very important (partly by dying in office). Well, he was a complete hard-liner against the communists, believing to the bone that taking the world to the brink of war over and over again was a good idea if it will stop those lousy terrifying commies . . .

Several actions of U.S. foreign policy comes about because Dulles is taking out his personal animosity on someone; the way the U.S. screw President Nasser of Eqypt over the Anwar dam is one instance. The book states that the purpose was the entangle Nasser in the net of debt. Nasser negotiates like a fiend to get what he wants without being wholly ensnared, and Mosley seems to think this is unseemly. So does Dulles, who waits for Nasser's ambassador to come to see him, with Nasser's agreement in his pocket, to tell him that the deal is off (leaving the U.S. ambassador in Egypt to twist in the wind). Using the power of the United States to pay off a grudge seems just in keeping with the ego of the Secretary of State.

Allen Dulles always wanted to be a spy. He met a spy when he was a young man, a dashing British intelligence officer, and always wanted to be that. Sort of like Zorro on a huge budget, plus wine and chicks. During WWI Allen was posted to Bern, Switzerland, where all the western world's spies gathered at the time, and was the (junior) intelligence officer for the U.S. Embassy. His most famous act is to refuse to see Lenin, when Lenin came to advise the U.S. Embassy that he was leaving for Russia at the behest of Germany to overthrow the revolutionary government. Allen wanted to close early that day to go on a date, so he told Lenin to come back the next day. Which Lenin did not.

Between the wars Allen was an unhappy low-paid state department employee, still sleeping around, so he had marital problems and money problems (expensive habits, wife who also had expensive habits). Allen's brother gets Allen a job at said top Wall Street firm, where Allen wasn't expected to do anything but go to parties, meet people, and supposedly in this manner get clients for the firm. (Top Wall Street firm needs young never-done-nothing to get clients for them?) Nonetheless, Allen made partner in four years. It's only a coincidence that his older brother John Foster is head of the firm at this time!

Then, WWII comes, and Allen once again gets posted to Switzerland, and this time he is the U.S. intelligence officer. He's given a million dollars to spend (back when a million dollars was a whole lot of money). He rents an expensive apartment, hangs out a shingle so that everyone knoes he's the intelligence officer for the U.S. (How else will they know to bring him information?) He hires a cook (who turns out to be a Nazi spy). He goes to the British and French intelligence bosses, and expects them to greet him as a brother, and cooperate with him. Here's the first really strange thing that Mosley says about this:

"The first meeting of (the British intelligence officer) should have demonstrated to him that Allen Dulles was anything but a go-go Yank of the James Cagney school, and the reciprocal luncheon that Allen gave him at [his apartment] should have shown him that the American served better food, superior wines, and could more than match him in the depth, knowledge, and sophistication of his conversation."

Huh? Since when does your qualifications as an intelligence officer have anything to do with your ability to supply expensive food and wine, or "more than match" someone else's sophistication in conversation? Oh, wait -- spying is an old boy's school game. I get it. But setting a sophisticated table, in wartime, seems like a misuse of funds.

What is mind-blowing about the sections on Allen Dulles, is that the CIA, right from the start, set U.S. foreign policy by its actions. It fixed the Italian election after WW2 with bags of cash and tons of vicious propaganda (and doesn't that sound familiar?), overthrew the Guatemalan government, bribed every leader on the planet, and their opposition, just in case they came to power . . . and very often Allen Dulles marched in to the president's office, and lied his head off about what the CIA was doing. I mean, I knew the CIA did some bad stuff, but I was under the impression that it was an arm of the White House. But no. The White House hadn't a clue half the time, nor the resources to keep up with all the stuff the CIA was doing. That was a revelation.

One example. Three years after Stalin died, Kruschev gave a 6-hour speech to top party members from around the world, totally repudiating Stalin and all his works. Echoes of this speech are heard. Allen Dulles (CIA chief) puts up a reward. One of his guys brings him a copy. Allen says, "By golly, I am going to make a policy decision!" He leaks the speech to the NYT. On his own authority. Without consulting his brother, who was Secretary of State at the time, or the President. And because of this, a bunch of Soviet satellites revolt; Hungary, Czechoslavakia, Poland. The CIA has been encouraging this with their $400 million Voice of America radio programs. "Hold on. Your friends in the west are coming" it said. But they did not. We weren't ready to help them. The revolts were crushed. The revolutionaries died.

Frank Wisner was in charge of Eastern European operations. He sent the message of hope. He could not convince Dulles to back up his words with actions. He had a blow-up. His wife reported that he'd take out his gun and talk to it. Here's another strange thing Mosley says:

"Allen passed the word to the Agency medical staff, which had handled this sort of emergency before. Arrangements were made for Frank Wisner's hospitalization."

What? The CIA routinely handles agents disintegrations? How many agents have this kind of breakdown? (Forrestal comes to mind, who was hospitalized after a breakdown and then jumped out a 16th floor window after tying the cord of his bathrobe around his neck.)

Eleanor turns out to be the only redeemable Dulles. Everywhere she goes, she does good work. She goes to Paris in WWI (uncle secratary did bail her out when they first wouldn't let her in the country), and works for an organization serving the needs of refugees, everything from organizing supplies to nursing. After, she worked for the state department; after WW2 she helped rebuild Germany. She is hardworking and industrious, and makes the world a better place everywhere she goes. Then when Allen is let go after Bay of Pigs, two years before her retirement, she is let go too.

Mosley does not have proper sources. His sources appendix is a narrative, and some points of information he simply skips, so you have to take his word for stuff, which is curious in a journalist who has written 18 biographies. But there it is.

This is a fascinating book. It raises many questions, especially if you do not accept the premise. And I used to think U.S. History was boring!

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have read this, and it wasn't what you thought the story of Dulles family was going to be, then read The Devils Chessboard, by David Talbot. The Devil's Chessboard is without a filter. The Dulles Biography was extremely interesting, but I wonder how many books I will have to read to get all the sugar coating off the facts that were presented. This book, is extremely slanted to make the Dulles family look good. After reading both books, one thing is for sure, if it wasn't for the Dulles brothers, the world would be a better and much different place. How two brothers had enough control to run the world, and build an organisation that still runs the world today is beyond me.

[Stephen Bauer]

I couldn't put the book down. Prior to reading, of course, I knew of John Foster Dulles and Allan Dulles but not Eleanor. The three siblings largely ran American foreign policy during the Eisenhower era. Eleanor was at least as talented as her brothers--she had the brains, education, contacts, and more than they, heart. In terms of women pursuing a profession in an almost all-male world, she was a generation ahead. Many feminists have mentioned Eleanor Roosevelt as a leader in the women's liberation movement, but I have never read of Eleanor Dulles mentioned as such, though this male author does. She did write a memoir, but there are no biographies. That's an opportunity for some writer out there.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leonard Mosley was a British journalist, whose biographical blurb on the back cover of this book reads like an adventure story in and of itself. Mosley met, interviewed, and wrote biographies of a number of 20th Century icons, from Walt Disney to, in this instance, the three most famous members of the Dulles family. It should not be surprising that this book, written in 1978 by an Englishman, is extremely well researched and written. Mosley even went so far as to initiate a brief correspondence with, of all people, Kim Philby, to glean Philby's views on the Dulles family, those they worked with, and the affairs of state in which they were involved. Anyone interested in 20th century American politics would benefit greatly from reading this book, especially since those in power in Washington today remain as unethical and hypocritical as the people discussed in this book. This book was a joy to read, and I look forward to reading other books by Mosley.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to question the honesty of this book or the accuracy of the quotes the author claims to have been made by the various people mentioned in the book.. It was so easy to tell which people he liked and those he did not like. It is just what you have to expect from most bios. But it was well written and easy to follow

[Colby]

After seeing Bridge of Spies for the second time I remembered this unread book in the deep recesses of my personal library. Allen Dulles as head of the CIA sends Jim Donovan (Tom Hanks) on his mission to East Berlin to negotiate the prisoner exchange. The Dulles family seems so mysterious, powerful and clandestine ... right up my alley. So far it is a good read.