Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government

Journalist and founder David Talbot interviewed by on his book The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government (published by Harper Perennial) Allen Welch Dulles, the distinguished Wall Street lawyer and son of a prominent family, rose to the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency at a very young age. With the help of John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State and Allen Dulles’ brother, the longest-serving chief of the CIA molded the secretive organization in a way that often led to secret wars, overthrowing of foreign governments and occasional spying on its own people, all with the support of the U.S. Congress and mostly behind the backs of three presidents. David Talbot, nonfiction book author and founder of the San Francisco-based web magazine Salon, combs through various government archives and draws from numerous first-hand interviews and sources to build a vivid portrayal of Dulles and the CIA under his leadership. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: David Talbot is the author of the New York Times bestseller Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years and the acclaimed national bestseller Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love. He is the founder and former editor in chief of Salon, and was a senior editor at Mother Jones and the features editor at the San Francisco Examiner. He has written for The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Time, The Guardian, and other major publications. Talbot lives in San Francisco, California.