ALLEN DULLES: A GREAT AMERICAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100040100-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2000
• Sequence Number: 100
• Publication Date: February 3, 1969
• Content Type: NSPR

COLD' L Iiia S.C. FOIAb3b
RECORD
Approved For Release 2000/05/24': CIA-RDP75-00001 R0001 000401
L -- 31,813
FEB 31969
An. is
CPY.RGHT
America has lost one of its great
civil servants in the death of former
Central Intelligence Agency director
Allen W. Dulles. He was the brother
of the late John Foster Dulles, secre-
tary of state under Eisenhower.
Of the two brothers, Foster was
the more celebrated because of his
governmental position. Clandestine
operations are necessarily more
shrouded in secrecy and. heads of
such agencies, like Allen Dulles,
must take public beatings in silence
without anger in a free society.
He ran the country's intelligence
establishment during one of .its
formative and most dangerous peri-
ods, the Cold War of the 1950's. He
brought to the job a gregarious,
friendly and warm personality quite
unlike that of his brother.
All who knew him well respected
him. Ted Sorenson records that
John Kennedy, even when he had
determined to change the q direct
torship, was never angry at Mr.'
Dulles.
The manifold successes of the
CIA under his leadership (which was
quite a personal one) will never be
known because of the nature of co-
vert operations. Mr. Dulles once ob-
served, "I don't spend my time
worrying about things I can't do
anything about. If something goes
wrong, that's too bad. If it goes':
right, I just hope we can keep it a
secret as long as possible."
Although some o b s e r v e r s in.
America's open society find ALL se-.
cret international operations dis-
tasteful, the CIA is an obligatory
agency of a modern government,
Having served in the Office of Stra-.
tegic Services, Allen Dulles had the
background to assume command of
the CIA during the critical years
when it assumed its present func-
tional nature. Mistakes were made;
the United States was new at the
massive international e s p i o n a g e
imam s
There were individual operi
Lions always okayed by civilian
presidents, that can be marked a
"successes": the World War II net-,
work reaching into the German hier-
archy that saved thousands of lives,
by earlier surrender of German ar-
mies in Northern Italy; Guatemala;
Iran.
There was the-Cuban "failure" at
the Bay of Pigs. In keeping with his
nature, Mr. Dulles did not dodge,;.
any of his responsibility for any er- ;:-
rors in that still beclouded opera-;",
Lion. Even the closest of the Kenne-
dyites, who believed firmly that
"Kennedys never make err. ors," give
Mr. Dulles a clean bill of health,
even though some of the Clan had
snipped at his heels from the day.
John Kennedy was elected Presi-
dent. They wanted the late martyred
President to remove two men 'at
once: J. Edgar Hoover and Mr.
Dulles. He retained them both as.
one of his first acts.
If Allen Dulles sits now with
Saint Peter, one can easily imagine
that they rock in front of a Heaven-
ly fire. Said Mr. Dulles in life: "I
have always tried to have important
meetings around a fireplace. There
is' some subtle influence in a wood
fire which makes people feel at ease
and less inhibited in their conversa-
tion; and if you are asked a question,;;
which you are in no hurry-td an-
swer, you can stir up the fire, and
study the patterns the flames make
until you have shaped your answer.
If I needed more time to answer, I
always had my pipe handy to' fill
and light."
system was the best to copy. Ilow-
Apprd i 1cFor Release 2000/05/24,;: C IA-RDP75=00001 R000100040100-2