Intellectual History: "The Devil's Chessboard," David Talbot

Prologue:
“That little Kennedy—he thought he was a god.” Allen Dulles
--Dulles wanted to write his side of the story about the Bay of Pigs
--“the failed invasion was the blackest day of my life.”
--came after a long string of Dulles victories
JFK: when he began his presidency, he kept Allen Dulles on, despite the obvious differences in their world outlooks.
Allen Dulles was one of the wiliest masters of secret power ever produced in America
--Sullivan and Cromwell, most powerful corporate law firm in the nation
--the Dulles did not come from a wealthy family
--shrewd talents
--missionary drive,
--powerful connections

John Foster Dulles: would rise to become the chief counsel for American power, Secretary of State
Allen Dulles: knight errant in the world, head of the CIA
--outmaneuvered and outlived FDR
--stunned Harry Truman, CIA became powerful, lethal
--Eisenhower gave Dulles the immense license to fight communism
--found JFK to be naïve, and a quick learner in Washington power games
--when JFK was blamed for Bay of Pigs disaster, loyalist Theodore Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Kennedy had been tricked by his intelligence advisers into the disastrous Cuban venture
--became the chair of the Warren Commission, investigating JFK’s assassination
--was he an assassin?
Dulles and the grow of the CIA
--mind control experimentation
--torture
--political assassination,
--extraordinary rendition
--massive surveillance of US citizens and foreign allies
--other qualities
--great cruelty: to intimates and enemies
--bragged about sending people to their deaths


"The Devil's Chessboard": 126 pages, 11,748 words, many visuals