The Devil's Chessboard

"A Chilling Look Behind the Curtain: The Devil's Chessboard Took me longer to read this than it should have. It started a little slow, I'm not gonna lie, but stick with it. Seriously, stick with it. By the end, I couldn't put it down. This book dives deep into the CIA, specifically the Dulles brothers (Allen and John Foster, total power players), and how they basically shaped American foreign policy. And let me tell you, it's eye-opening. I already kinda side-eyed the CIA, but this book? Whoa. It's not just about spies and secrets, it's about how these guys were pulling the strings behind the scenes, influencing everything from coups to assassinations. It's like a real-life thriller, except it's all true (or at least, Talbot makes a VERY compelling case). And the stuff about the Kennedys? 🤯 It's seriously messed up. It made me question EVERYTHING about what we're told about Dallas on 11/22/63. Like, seriously question it. I'm still thinking about it days later. If you want a book that'll make you rethink everything you thought you knew about American history, this is it. Five stars, easy. Just be prepared to have your trust in, well, pretty much everything, completely shattered. You've been warned! Definitely a must-read if you're into history, politics, or just want a good, mind-bending read. "

"Full review and highlights at <a href="https://books.max-nova.com/devils-chessboard">https://books.max-nova.com/devils-chessboard</a><br/><br/>When Eisenhower became president, two brothers ascended to the commanding heights of the US foreign policy establishment. One brother, John Foster Dulles, was appointed Secretary of State. The other, Allen Dulles, became the head of the CIA. Or as he himself sinisterly called it, "the secretary of state for unfriendly countries." In "The Devil's Chessboard", David Talbot, founder of Slate Magazine, writes a biography of Allen Dulles and his covert actions at the height of secret power in America. The first two-thirds of the book is a relatively straightforward account of Dulles's life and the highlights of his intelligence career. Talbot documents Dulles's early days as a spy in Europe who collaborated with Nazis to combat the Soviet menace - a controversial and possibly treasonous maneuver. "Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, who as a young lawyer served with Allen in the OSS, later declared that both Dulleses were guilty of treason." But Dulles knew how power worked - he used his connections and influence to reach ever higher in America's security establishment until he was able to begin to remake the world according to his vision. He (unsurprisingly) took a Machiavellian view of the world and insisted that it was better to be feared than loved - a perspective that directly clashed with JFK's and was the source of serious conflict between them. This perspective is on chilling display in a CIA handbook produced during Dulles's reign titled A Study of Assassination. His greatest "successes" were regime change in Iran and Guatemala, but he was humiliated by the failure of the Bay of Pigs operation in Cuba. And it's at this point that the book shifts from a standard biography to something a bit more... conspiracy theory.<br/><br/>The last third of the book is devoted to Talbot's theory that Allen Dulles was behind the Kennedy assassination. And to be sure - Kennedy and Dulles hated each other. Kennedy even fired Dulles as head of the CIA. It's also strange that Dulles ran the Warren Commission that "investigated" the Kennedy assassination. Talbot documents all sorts of suspicious coincidences and connections between the CIA Bay of Pigs operation and the Kennedy assassination, but it's hard to know what evidence is cherry-picked and what's real. This part of the book isn't nearly as strong as the first two thirds, but it is plenty of fun. Of course, the CIA doesn't think so, according to their review of Talbot's book...<br/><br/>A spidery network of intrigue connected the Dulles story to much of the other reading I've done. The Guatemalan escapades with the United Fruit Company were extensively documented in The Fish that Ate the Whale. Henry Luce and his Time publishing empire were staunch allies of Dulles, but don't receive particularly favorable treatment in The China Mirage about American foreign policy blunders in China. The OAS de Gaulle assassination attempt (discussed in Legionnaire and represented fictionally in Forsyth's delightful Day of the Jackal) bears more than a passing resemblance to the Kennedy assassination... and Dulles was at least adjacent to both. There's a passing reference to Meyer Lansky and the Mafia in regards to the Cuban imbroglio, and even "King Leopold's Ghost" makes an appearance when Dulles may or may not have ordered the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. Also, Carl Jung seems to keep popping up in these power-player biographies - Dulles's wife Clover spent a ton of time with him, as did one of Rockefeller's daughters (as documented in Chernow's excellent biography "Titan"). There are plenty of Yale connections in here too - the book is packed to the gills with Bonesmen - including a Kentuckian John Sherman Cooper who served on the Warren Commission!"