Allen Dulles and Covert Intervention

This chapter examines the CIA in one of its most activist periods in the 1950s, under the leadership of Allen Dulles. An advocate for covert action and a man with considerable connections to the press, Dulles oversaw successful CIA interventions in Iran (Operation TPAJAX) in 1953 and Guatemala (Operation PBSUCCESS) in 1954. Though the ultimate outcome of the interventions would prove detrimental to the countries involved and to the United States’ own national security interests, the CIA and the Eisenhower administration viewed them as unalloyed successes. The press also generally did not report that the United States had been involved—with some notable exceptions. Dulles leaked details of the operations to a friendly reporter, so the CIA could take credit for its activities without formal acknowledgment. The New York Times also acquiesced to a request to keep a reporter out of Guatemala, but internal deliberations reveal a substantial degree of caution on the part of the Times’s management where the CIA was concerned.