Allen Welsh Dulles
Allen Welsh Dulles (April 23, 1893 - January 29, 1969) was an influential director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1953 to 1961 and a member of the Warren Commission. Dulles was also the younger brother of John Dulles, the contemporary Secretary of State.Dulles was active in the Office of Strategic Services in Berne, Switzerland during World War II. He worked on intelligence regarding Germany plans and activities. Dulles's career was jump-started by the information provided by Fritz Kolbe, a German diplomat and a foe of the Nazis. Kolbe supplied secret documents regarding active German spies and plans regarding the Messerschmitt ME-262 jet fighter. After the war, Dulles was became the first director of the newly-formed Central Intelligence Agency.
Under Dulles's direction the agency succeeded in its first attempts at removing foreign leaders by covert means. Notably, the elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran was deposed in 1953, and President Arbenz of Guatemala was removed in 1954. These covert operations constituted an important part of the Eisenhower administration's new Cold War national security policy known as the "New Look". Dulles also promoted Operation Mockingbird, a program with a goal to influence American media companies.
In March of 1953, Senator Joseph McCarthy began a series of investigations into potential communist subversion within the CIA. Although none of the investigations revealed any wrongdoing, the hearings were still potentially damaging, not only to the CIA's reputation, but to the security of sensitive information as well. At Dulles's request, President Eisenhower demanded that McCarthy discontinue issuing subpoenas against the CIA.
During the Kennedy Administration, Dulles faced increasing criticism. The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion undermined the CIA's credibility, and pro-American but unpopular regimes in Iran and Guatemala were widely regarded as brutal and corrupt. Dulles was finally fired by Kennedy for his part in drafting the audacious Operation Northwoods document, which called for the CIA to kill Americann citizens and frame Cubans, in order to gain popular support for a war with that country.
Dulles published The Craft of Intelligence (ISBN 1592282970) in 1963. After the John F. Kennedy assassination Dulles served as a controversial appointee to the Warren Commission. In 1969 Dulles died of influenza, complicated by pneumonia, at the age of 75.