Meet 'The Brothers' Who Shaped U.S. Policy, Inside And Out

[G_j]

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/16/234752747/meet-the-brothers-who-shaped-u-s-policy-inside-and-out

In 1953, for the first and only time in history, two brothers were appointed to head the overt and covert sides of American foreign policy. President Dwight Eisenhower appointed John Foster Dulles secretary of state, and Allen Dulles director of the CIA.

Journalist Stephen Kinzer says the Dulles brothers shaped America's standoff with the Soviet Union, led the U.S. into war in Vietnam, and helped topple governments they thought unfriendly to American interests in Guatemala, Iran, the Congo and Indonesia. In his new book, The Brothers, Kinzer says the Dulles' actions "helped set off some of the world's most profound long-term crises."

John Dulles died in 1959. President Kennedy replaced Allen Dulles after the covert operation he recommended to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba ended disastrously in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Kinzer tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that the Dulles' shared background and ideology played out in their policy decisions: "They had this view of the world that was implanted in them from a very young age," Kinzer says. "That there's good and evil, and it's the obligation of the good people to go out into the world and destroy the evil ones."

..more..

[Link Speed]

1. Thanks for the reminder

Fresh Air comes on in ten minutes.

[G_j]

3. I just listened to it

amazing history lesson!

[trof]

2. K. R.

[libodem]

4. Cool

I just heard the promo, and was hooked, by the teaser. Thanks for the link. I won't have to wait, now.

[indepat]

5. America's record of stamping out evil and evil-doers throughout the world since the brothers Dulles

came into power has been magnificent albeit at a cost of millions of lives, and countless brains, body-parts, homes, families, industries, livelihoods, and cultures, not to mention trillions of $ in financial treasure. So let every evil-doer and every left-leaning nation beware of the righteous indignation welled up inside this righteous, Jesus-loving, and God-fearing nation so eaten up with oodles of Michelle Bachmann-/Masha Blackburn-type of right-wing righteousness so hell-bent on assuring this cost in treasure ultimately comes out of the hides of the old, weak, lame, and poor.