Brothers

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

Introduction 1

PART I: TWO BROTHERS
1. Unmentionable Happenings 7
2. The Taint of My Environment 37
3. Dull, Duller, Dulles 63
4. That Fella from Wall Street 86

PART II: SIX MONSTERS
5. A Whirling Dervish with a College Education 119
6. The Most Forthright Pro-Communist 147
7. A Matchless Interplay of Ruthlessness and Guile 175
8. The Self-Intoxicated President 216
9. The Tall, Goateed Radical 247
10. The Bearded Strongman 284
PART III: ONE CENTURY
11. A Face of God 311
Notes 329
Bibliography 368
Acknowledgments 383
Index 385