The pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of Allen Dulles in US policy discussions on Latin America, 1953–61

Assessments of the CIA’s role in Latin America during the 1950s have tended to focus predominantly on the twin case-studies of Guatemala and Cuba. Consequently, the Agency’s role – and, more broadly, that of its head Allen Dulles – has come to be seen as one obsessed with covert action and relativel...

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Main Author: Sewell, Bevan
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis 2011
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33030/
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author Sewell, Bevan
author_facet Sewell, Bevan
author_sort Sewell, Bevan
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
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description Assessments of the CIA’s role in Latin America during the 1950s have tended to focus predominantly on the twin case-studies of Guatemala and Cuba. Consequently, the Agency’s role – and, more broadly, that of its head Allen Dulles – has come to be seen as one obsessed with covert action and relatively unimportant in terms of policy discussions. Dulles, in fact, has been portrayed as an unwilling and disinterested participant in policy discussions. The present article will challenge those assertions by suggesting that, by examining Dulles’s role in the Eisenhower administration’s discussions on Latin America, a different picture emerges – one that paints Dulles as an active and rational participant, and which raises important questions for our understanding of the CIA’s role during the Eisenhower era.
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spelling nottingham-330302020-05-04T16:30:36Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33030/ The pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of Allen Dulles in US policy discussions on Latin America, 1953–61 Sewell, Bevan Assessments of the CIA’s role in Latin America during the 1950s have tended to focus predominantly on the twin case-studies of Guatemala and Cuba. Consequently, the Agency’s role – and, more broadly, that of its head Allen Dulles – has come to be seen as one obsessed with covert action and relatively unimportant in terms of policy discussions. Dulles, in fact, has been portrayed as an unwilling and disinterested participant in policy discussions. The present article will challenge those assertions by suggesting that, by examining Dulles’s role in the Eisenhower administration’s discussions on Latin America, a different picture emerges – one that paints Dulles as an active and rational participant, and which raises important questions for our understanding of the CIA’s role during the Eisenhower era. Taylor & Francis 2011-05-20 Article PeerReviewed Sewell, Bevan (2011) The pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of Allen Dulles in US policy discussions on Latin America, 1953–61. Intelligence and National Security, 26 (2-3). pp. 269-290. ISSN 1743-9019 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02684527.2011.559319 doi:10.1080/02684527.2011.559319 doi:10.1080/02684527.2011.559319
spellingShingle Sewell, Bevan
The pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of Allen Dulles in US policy discussions on Latin America, 1953–61
title The pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of Allen Dulles in US policy discussions on Latin America, 1953–61
title_full The pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of Allen Dulles in US policy discussions on Latin America, 1953–61
title_fullStr The pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of Allen Dulles in US policy discussions on Latin America, 1953–61
title_full_unstemmed The pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of Allen Dulles in US policy discussions on Latin America, 1953–61
title_short The pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of Allen Dulles in US policy discussions on Latin America, 1953–61
title_sort pragmatic face of the covert idealist: the role of allen dulles in us policy discussions on latin america, 1953–61
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33030/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33030/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33030/