The Dulles brothers ascended to the pinnacle of power without ever being elected to office; they rose to power via Wall Street and the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. The Dulles brothers had a uniquely privileged upbringing, a long career advising the world’s richest corporations, and a profound religious faith in unfettered Capitalism. Their values, beliefs, and instincts were those of the international elite. One of John Foster Dulles’ biographers who wrote that he was “out of touch with the rough and tumble of humanity” because “his whole background was superior, sheltered, successful, safe.”
In his book The Brothers…and Their Secret World War (2014) Stephen Kinzer writes that the brothers shared abiding faith in “American Exceptionalism” which condones overthrowing governments and advancing American business interests as if these were a noble global good. Both men built personal fortunes as lawyers and partners in Sullivan & Cromwell. Their work frequently allowed them to act simultaneously in a governmental role and as client representatives, benefiting their firm, themselves and the client. They advanced the firm’s international legal and lobbying scope and influence, which continues today.
Sullivan & Cromwell “thrived on its cartels and collusion with the new Nazi regime.” The Dulles brothers were especially interested in Germany, which they visited regularly. Foster Dulles spent much of 1934 “publicly supporting Hitler,” leaving even his partners “shocked that he could so easily disregard law and international treaties to justify Nazi repression.” When asked during this period how he dealt with German clients who were Jewish, he replied that he had simply decided “to keep away from them.” (Kinzer. Overthrow, 2006)
The Dulles brothers tightly controlled both the overt and covert arms of American global policy during the Eisenhower Administration. Kinzer documents how the brothers drove America’s interventionist foreign policy on behalf of major corporate interests; economic preoccupations dominated their world view. He shows how they were jointly responsible for acts of extreme geopolitical myopia, grave operational incompetence and misguided adherence to a creed of corporate globalism. He shows how their “ruthlessly confrontational view of the world’’ are responsible in some or even large measure for the Cold War and anti-Americanism around the world.
“Fortified with confidence, they went forth to do battle, serenely and secretly, on behalf of capitalism and Christianity and against communism. They created secret prisons, recruited underground armies, and prompted killings and bombings around the world, most especially in Iran, Guatemala, Lebanon, and the Congo. … “ (Kinzer, Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change 2013)
No wonder that nefarious Nazi modus operandi seeped into American public policies under the uncontested dominance of an elite coterie of government intelligence officials with deep ties to Wall Street corporate interests intertwined with dominant Nazi corporations. (Hersh, 1992; 2002; Loftus. 2010; Kinzer 2013) These highest level American government officials empathized with the Nazis war criminals that they shielded and with whom they engaged amicably.