Allen Dulles

Robert D. Novak

Journalist and biographer James Srodes does justice to this remarkable career in Allen Dulles: Master of Spies....Srodes concludes that Dulles today would call for "a new elite" to enter the CIA to confront "a thousand smaller virulent tumors of terror" that have succeeded the Soviet menace. —The Weekly Standard

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In a conventionally organized but somewhat superficially sourced biography governed by a subtle patriotic tone, Srodes takes a generally approving view of the man who, more than anybody else, defined the mission of the Central Intelligence Agency. The book's organization is strictly chronological, touching on Dulles's prominent (but not wealthy) ancestry before it chronicles his life (1893-1969). A Washington, D.C., journalist, Srodes (Dream Maker: The Rise and Fall of John Z. De Lorean) undertook the Dulles biography at the urging of the spymaster's sister Eleanor, herself a well-known economist and diplomat until her death at age 101. Dulles has received less attention than his more famous brother, John Foster Dulles, secretary of state under President Eisenhower at the same time Allen was forming the CIA. While Dulles's contemporaries took his extramarital escapades, low profile and sense of humor as signs of frivolity, Srodes sees these actions and traits as just the exterior of a complex man. Furthermore, Srodes argues against the conventional wisdom that Dulles was largely a failure because of U.S. policy toward Cuba (especially the Bay of Pigs), Iran, Indonesia and Vietnam. Rather, Srodes presents Dulles as a capable, moral, loyal, persistent man who left the world a better place. Less notable for its insight into policy than into character, the book is distinguished largely by the access Srodes had to previously restricted family papers, access that gave him an advantage over Dulles's two previous biographers, Leonard Mosley and Peter Grose, neither of whom is mentioned in the bibliography. (June)

Library Journal

Thirty years after Allen Dulles's death, journalist Srodes presents a biography of one of our country's foremost spymasters, a man who set the standard for espionage. Dulles came from an Ivy League background and got an early start in diplomacy at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Service in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II gave him the experience and the connections to become head of the new Central Intelligence Agency in 1953. During the next decade, he shaped it in his own image, supporting uprisings in Iran and Guatemala and failures in Vietnam and the Bay of Pigs. Forced out in 1961 by Kennedy, he finished his remarkable career serving on the Warren Commission that investigated Kennedy's assassination. Srodes covers the material well, helping us understand his mercurial and exuberant subject. But Peter Grose's magisterial Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles (LJ 12/94) is better researched and perhaps better written. All libraries should possess at least one of these biographies for their collections.--Edward Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Robert D. Novak

Journalist and biographer James Srodes does justice to this remarkable career in Allen Dulles: Master of Spies....Srodes concludes that Dulles today would call for "a new elite" to enter the CIA to confront "a thousand smaller virulent tumors of terror" that have succeeded the Soviet menace.
— The Weekly Standard