Introduction
It was for the first time in the history of United States of America that task of shaping foreign policy was awarded to two brothers. It was in 1953 when the president of that time Dwight Eisenhower designated the post of secretary of state to Foster Dulles and at the same time, his brother Allen Dulles was appointed as the director of the CIA. In this essay, an analytical and comprehensive accounting of the influential role played by these two brothers in America’s foreign policy is discussed.
Analysis
Foster and Allen, being close to President Eisenhower, were awarded such significant posts. These two brothers have similar thinking that allowed them to build an identical perception about the rest of the world. This was the reason; they never consulted anyone else while shaping US foreign policy and carrying out highly influential operations. In normal condition, the decision regarding such paramount issues would reach its final stage after deliberate consultations with experts from both CIA and state department. However, that was not the case at the time when Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles were performing their official duties. As far as the relationship of these two brothers is concerned, they always remained in close contact with each other and consulted over the relevant matters. They enjoyed the full support of the president and were provided with complete authority to chalk out policies and make decisions without any undue influence. Foster guaranteed the political and diplomatic backing while Allen under the shade of political motivation carried out the secret operation to strengthen the autonomy of US in other parts of the world. In their own view, communism and Marxism were a serious threat to the strength of multinational corporations.
Therefore, they had some concerns about the radical changes due to occur because of propagation of these kinds of ideologies. They perceived communism as a danger for the survival of American corporations. In addition to this, Dulles anticipated the gravity of the situation related to the danger associated with Soviet Union, which was a nuclear-armed state. Moreover, those countries, which refused to be a part of cold war and to serve as an ally for United States, were also a cause of distress for these two. Dulles brothers did not accept the idea of third-world nationalism, and they wrongly presumed it to be linked with Kremlin strategy. Since, hundreds of millions of masses living in Asia, Africa and even Latin America who had seen the adversities of colonialism, it was the right of such people to have an independent status in this world.
The policies of Dulles brothers were self-centered and devised through limited sources associated with their own perceptions of the world. For instance, in the case of Vietnam, if they had followed a different approach and consulted with other stakeholders, things might have resulted in an altogether dissimilar fashion. The involvement of America in Vietnam had cost the lives of millions of people including approximately 50,000 Americans. Similar was the case with Guatemala, which blazed in the fire of civil war for nearly about 35 years due to the operations of Dulles brothers.
Conclusion
Works cited
"Meet 'The Brothers' Who Shaped U.S. Policy, Inside And Out." NPR. NPR. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
