The Devil's Chessboard

October 1, 2015

This aptly titled book portrays CIA director Allen Dulles as the dark prince of the Cold War who manipulated the media, deceived presidents, and helped stir up coups that led to untold numbers of deaths in order to serve his own vision of American power. Talbot's (Season of the Witch) fast-moving account claims that Dulles was motivated by his hatred of the Soviet Union and ran the CIA as a shadow empire that made its own rules, often to the United States's embarrassment. The director's handprints are found on most of the nation's foreign policy blunders: coups in Iran, Guatemala, and the Congo; a failed attempt to overthrow French president Charles de Gaulle; sometimes fatal mind-control experiments; the Bay of Pigs fiasco; and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Talbot portrays Dulles as the link among all of these events and devotes most of the book to the accounts of his cronies and victims, concluding that Dulles could have been involved in President Kennedy's assassination. (Some of the Kennedy material was covered in Talbot's 2007 Brothers.) VERDICT Readers who enjoy espionage's dark history will have a tough time putting this book down. See Stephen Kinzer's The Brothers for a fuller but no friendlier Dulles biography. [See Prepub Alert, 4/13/15.]--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2015

The founder of Salon.com and author of the New York Times best-selling Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, Talbot does not paint a pretty picture of Allen Dulles, the longest-serving director of the CIA. Talbot shows us a man who considered himself above the law, facilitating the escape of hundreds of German war criminals and the assassination of foreign leaders not to his political liking; there are hints that the book will discuss evidence regarding his connection to John F. Kennedy's assassination. Expect a big media boxing match; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 15, 2015
Former Salon founding editor-in-chief Talbot (Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love, 2012, etc.) shares his extensive knowledge and intense investigations of American politics with a frightening biography of power, manipulation, and outright treason. The story of Allen Dulles (1893-1969), his brother John Foster, and the power elite that ran Washington, D.C., following World War II is the stuff of spy fiction, but it reaches even further beyond to an underworld of unaccountable authority. Dulles' career began in the New York law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, where he built a powerful client list. During wartime in Switzerland, he worked to protect his clients' corporations and build his own organization. In direct opposition to Franklin Roosevelt's policy, he sought a separate peace with the Germans to use them to fight communism. Talbot delivers a variety of thrilling stories about Dulles that boggle the mind, from skimming funds from the Marshall Plan to using Richard Nixon as his mouthpiece in Congress. It is really about the power elite, the corporate executives, government leaders, and top military officials who controlled the world. They protected corporate interests in Iran, Guatemala, and elsewhere, and they fomented revolutions, experimented in mind control, and assassinated those who got in their way. With John Foster as secretary of state, this "fraternity of the successful" enforced a Pax Americana by terror and intimidation, always invoking national security and often blatantly disobeying policy guidelines. The author asserts that the Bay of Pigs was an intentional failure, meant to force John F. Kennedy to invade Cuba and retrieve corporate properties. Even out of office, Dulles' conspiracies continued. Talbot also delves into CIA involvement in Kennedy's assassination. Ultimately, the blatant manipulative activities of the Dulles brothers will shock most readers. Washington, D.C., regulars may know some of this information, and foreign nations certainly do, but all engaged American citizens should read this book and have their eyes opened.

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