The Dulles Brothers

The Dulles brothers' background combined with their history with Mossadeq made them biased against the Prime Minister and gave them increased impetus to initiate the coup.

"One of our greatest assets is that all men aspire to be equal and free.... It is up to us, not only by example but by positive acts, to make the most of this driving force within mankind."

- Allen Welsh Dulles

Allen Dulles, CIA Director [CORBIS]

"Once - many, many years ago - I thought I made a wrong decision. Of course, it turned out that I had been right all along. But I was wrong to have thought that I was wrong."

- John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State [Wikipedia]

Scroll over each portrait for a quote

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Early Years and Mentality

"[Our upbringing left us] not only a deep faith in central religious truths, but also a sense of the obligation of such faith toward each other and toward those distant people who were striving to gain new light." 
- Eleanor Dulles, sister of John and Allen

"[We had] discussions on the great world issues which our country was then growing up to face... We children were at first the listeners and the learners, but as we grew up we became vigorous participants in international debates."
                                                  - Allen Dulles

32nd Secretary of State, John W. Foster, was their grandfather. 42nd Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, was their uncle. [History.gov]

"I saw John Foster Dulles and decided against him because he was so pontifical. He seemed to me like a churchman out to exploit someone."
                                                                                           -William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice

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Sullivan & Cromwell

The Dulles brothers were partners at Sullivan & Cromwell, a law firm that specialized in creating giant corporations. They suffered their first losses at the hands of Mossadeq for the AIOC.

Mossadeq on Oil Nationalization [Kurdish]

"Their mistrust [for Mossadeq] turned to enmity when he helped kill the Overseas Consultants Inc. contract. It sharpened further when he nationalized his country's oil industry."
                         - Stephen Kinzer, foreign correspondent

Merging American business interests with their view of common good, the Dulles brothers came into power with a personal grudge against Mossadeq.

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Inflexible Beliefs

The Dulles brothers were overly attached to an aggressive anti-communist approach to foreign policy, and were unwilling to compromise their beliefs.

John Foster Dulles Interview, 1952 [Youtube]

"A purely defensive policy never wins against an aggressive policy. If our only policy is to stay where we are, we will be driven back." 
                                   - John Foster Dulles

"[Allen Dulles is] not in favor of the policy of containment." 
- "Chairman Hull," Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

John Foster giving a briefing on the Middle East, June 1953 [Bhavanajagat]

"[John Foster Dulles's] categorical commitment to anti-Communism... seemed to fuse with his thin but firm religious tenets in an awesome self-righteousness"
                                                                                     - Townsend Hoopes, Undersecretary of the Air Force

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