Editing Allen Dulles (section)

==CIA career==
[[File:Colonel Edward Lansdale at The Pentagon in 1955.jpg|left|thumb|222x222px|(from l. to r.) [[Director of Central Intelligence|C.I.A. Director]] Allen Dulles with C.I.A. [[Counter-insurgency]] expert Colonel [[Edward Lansdale]], [[Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force|United States Air Force Chief of Staff]] General [[Nathan F. Twining]], and [[Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency|C.I.A. Deputy Director]] Lieutenant General [[Charles P. Cabell]] at the Pentagon in 1955.]]

In the [[1948 United States presidential election|1948 Presidential election]], Dulles was, together with his brother, an advisor to Republican nominee [[Thomas E. Dewey]]. The Dulles brothers and [[James Forrestal]] helped form the [[Office of Policy Coordination]]. During 1949 he co-authored the [[Dulles–Jackson–Correa Report]], which was sharply critical of the Central Intelligence Agency, which had been established by the [[National Security Act of 1947]]. Partly as a result of the report, Truman named a new Director of Central Intelligence, Lieutenant General [[Walter Bedell Smith]].{{cn|date=August 2024}}

Smith recruited Dulles into the [[CIA]] to oversee the agency's covert operations as [[Deputy Director for Plans]], a position he held from January 4, 1951. On August 23, 1951, Dulles was promoted to deputy director of Central Intelligence, second in the intelligence hierarchy. In this capacity, in 1952–53 he was one of five members of the [[State Department Panel of Consultants on Disarmament]] during the last year of the [[Truman administration]].<ref name="b-141">{{cite magazine |jstor=2538857 |title=Crossing the Rubicon: A Missed Opportunity to Stop the H-Bomb? |first=Barton J. |last=Bernstein |pages=132–160 |publisher=[[MIT Press]]/[[Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs]] ([[Harvard University]]) |volume=14 |issue=2 |magazine=International Security |via=[[Project MUSE]] |issn=1531-4804 |oclc=44911437 |publication-place=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], USA |editor1-first=Steven E. |editor1-last=Miller |s2cid=154778522 |doi=10.2307/2538857 |date=October 1, 1989 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/446829 |access-date=September 27, 2021}}</ref>

After the election of Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, Bedell Smith shifted to the Department of State and Dulles became the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence. Dulles played a role in convincing Eisenhower to follow one of the conclusions of the State Department Panel report, that the American public deserved to be informed of the perils of possible nuclear war with the Soviet Union, because even though America held numerical nuclear superiority, the Soviets would still have enough nuclear weapons to severely damage American society regardless of how many more such bombs the United States might possess or how badly those U.S. weapons could destroy the Soviets.<ref name=b-141/>

The Agency's covert operations were an important part of the [[Eisenhower administration]]'s new Cold War [[national security]] policy known as the "[[New Look (policy)|New Look]]".

At Dulles's request, President Eisenhower demanded that Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] discontinue issuing [[subpoena]]s against the CIA. In March 1950, McCarthy had initiated a series of investigations into potential [[communism|communist]] subversion of the Agency. Although none of the investigations revealed any wrongdoing, the hearings were potentially damaging, not only to the CIA's reputation but also to the security of sensitive information. Documents made public in 2004 revealed that the CIA, under Dulles's orders, had broken into McCarthy's Senate office and fed disinformation to him in order to discredit him, in order to stop his investigation of alleged communist infiltration of the CIA.{{sfn|Weiner|2007|pp=105–106}}

[[File:Identification Card of Allen W. Dulles.jpg|thumb|CIA ID card of Allen Dulles|alt=|222x222px]]In the early 1950s, the [[United States Air Force]] conducted a competition for a new photo reconnaissance aircraft. [[Lockheed Aircraft Corporation]]'s [[Skunk Works]] submitted a design number called the CL-282, which married sailplane-like wings to the body of a supersonic interceptor. This aircraft was rejected by the Air Force, but several of the civilians on the review board took notice, and [[Edwin Land]] presented a proposal for the aircraft to Dulles. The aircraft became what is known as the [[Lockheed U-2|U-2]] 'spy plane', and it was initially operated by CIA pilots. Its introduction into operational service in 1957 greatly enhanced the CIA's ability to monitor [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] activity through overhead photo surveillance. The aircraft eventually entered service with the Air Force.<ref name=Powers>{{cite book |last=Powers |first=Francis |title=Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-57488-422-7 |page=324}}</ref> The Soviet Union [[1960 U-2 incident|shot down and captured a U-2]] in 1960 during Dulles's term as CIA chief.<ref name=EB1970YB/>

Dulles is considered one of the creators of the modern United States intelligence system and was a guide to clandestine operations during the Cold War. He established intelligence networks worldwide to check and counter Soviet and eastern European communist advances as well as international communist movements.{{sfn|Srodes|1999|p=22}}{{sfn|Grose|1994|p=121}}{{sfn|Dulles|Armstrong|1939a}}{{page needed|date=September 2011}}

===Coup in Iran===
In 1953, Dulles was involved, along with [[Frank Wisner]],{{sfn|Trento|2001}}{{page needed|date=September 2011}} in [[Operation Ajax]], the covert operation that led to the removal of democratically elected prime minister of [[Iran]], [[Mohammad Mossadegh]],<ref>Loretta Capeheart and Dragan Milovanovic, ''Social Justice: Theories, Issues, and Movements'' (Rutgers University Press, 2007; {{ISBN|0813540380}}), p. 186.</ref> and his replacement with [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], Shah of Iran. Rumors of a Soviet takeover of the country had surfaced due to the nationalization of the [[Anglo-Iranian Oil Company]].<ref>{{cite news |title=With Sten guns and sovereigns Britain and US saved Iran's throne for |date=March 15, 1997 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/with-sten-guns-and-sovereigns-britain-and-us-saved-iran-s-throne-for-the-shah-1272932.html |url-access=limited |url-status=live |access-date=April 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106201615/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/with-sten-guns-and-sovereigns-britain-and-us-saved-iran-s-throne-for-the-shah-1272932.html |archive-date=November 6, 2021}}</ref> By coincidence, on August 18, 1953, Dulles was taking a vacation in Rome while the Shah fled there after a setback in the coup, and the two met while checking in to the [[The Westin Excelsior Rome|Hotel Excelsior]]. The meeting turned out to be fortuitous for the United States and the coup. CIA and independent historians say that the meeting was happenstance, but conspiracy theories abound.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/iran/2018-02-12/cia-declassifies-more-zendebad-shah-internal-study-1953-iran-coup |title=CIA declassifies more of "Zendebad, Shah!" – internal study of 1953 Iran coup |work=[[National Security Archive]]}}</ref>

===Coup in Guatemala===
President [[Jacobo Arbenz Guzman]] of [[Guatemala]] was removed in 1954 in a [[1954 Guatemalan coup d'état|CIA-led coup]] carried out under the code name Operation PBSuccess.{{sfn|Immerman|1982|pp=133-160}}

[[Eduardo Galeano]] described Dulles as a former member of the [[United Fruit Company]]'s Board of Directors.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Galeano |first1=Eduardo |title=Open Veins of Latin America |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=1-58367-311-3 |page=113 |date=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XPFzV9VRFuEC |access-date=June 26, 2018}}</ref> However, in a detailed examination of the connections between the United Fruit Company and the Eisenhower Administration, Immerman makes no mention of Dulles being part of the United Fruit Company's Board, although he does note that Sullivan & Cromwell had represented the company.{{sfn|Immerman|1982|pp=124}}

===Congo===
Dulles was strongly opposed to Congolese Prime Minister [[Patrice Lumumba]]. In 1960 a plan to kill Lumumba was considered and Dulles allocated $100,000 to the plan, but it never materialised.<ref>{{cite journal| first= Herbert F.| last= Weiss| title= Review "INSIDE THE CIA: CONGO IN THE 1980s", of book by Larry Devlin. Chief of Station, ''Congo: A Memoir of 1960–67''. New York: Public Affairs| date= 2007| journal= African Studies Review| volume= 51| issue= 2| pages= 143–145| doi= 10.1353/arw.0.0078| s2cid= 145650236| doi-access= free}}</ref> Dulles believed that Lumumba posed "a grave danger as long as he was not disposed of".<ref>{{cite book |author1=Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities |title=Alleged assassination plots involving foreign leaders |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=62}}</ref>

===Bay of Pigs===
Several failed assassination plots utilizing CIA-recruited operatives and anti-Castro Cubans directly against Castro undermined the CIA's credibility. The reputation of the agency and its director declined drastically after the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]] fiasco of 1961. President Kennedy reportedly said he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds."{{cn|date=April 2025}} However, following a "rigorous inquiry into the agency's affairs, methods, and problems&nbsp;... [Kennedy] did not 'splinter' it after all and did not recommend Congressional supervision. Instead, President Kennedy transferred the CIA's command of foreign paramilitaries to the Department of Defense under the close supervision and control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff which would also report on CIA plans and operations to the President."<ref name=NYTimes/>

===Dismissal===
[[File:Allen Dulles appointed DCI, 26 February 1953.jpg|thumb|180px|Kennedy presents the National Security Medal to Dulles, November 28, 1961.]]
During the Kennedy administration, Dulles faced increasing criticism.<ref name=EB1970YB/> In autumn 1961, following the Bay of Pigs incident and the [[Algiers putsch of 1961|Algiers putsch]] against [[Charles de Gaulle]], Dulles and his entourage, including [[Deputy Director for Plans]] [[Richard M. Bissell Jr.]] and Deputy Director [[Charles Cabell]], were forced to resign. On November 28, 1961, Kennedy presented Dulles with the [[National Security Medal]] at the CIA Headquarters in [[Langley, Virginia]].<ref>John F. Kennedy. [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8461 Remarks Upon Presenting an Award to Allen W. Dulles] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017041752/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8461 |date=October 17, 2016}}, November 28, 1961 (Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project).</ref> The next day, November 29, the White House released a resignation letter signed by Dulles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-029-021.aspx |title=Dulles, Allen W., June 1959-November 1962 |publisher=Jfklibrary.org |access-date=November 5, 2014}}</ref> He was replaced by [[John McCone]].

Dulles referred to the Bay of Pigs failure as "the worst day of my life"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rorabaugh |first1=W.J. |title=Kennedy and the Promise of the Sixties |date=2002 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=29}}</ref> and developed a strong dislike of Kennedy, later telling journalist [[Willie Morris]] "that little Kennedy, he thought he was a god".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Willie |title=New York Days |date=1993 |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]] |page=36}}</ref> Dulles found life outside the CIA difficult, with his friend [[James Angleton]] recalling "He had a very difficult time to decompress".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holzman |first1=Michael Howard |title=James Jesus Angleton, the CIA, and the Craft of Counterintelligence |date=2008 |publisher=[[University of Massachusetts Press]] |page=332}}</ref>