They assimilated what the sociologist Max Weber described as two fundamental Calvinist tenets: that Christians are “weapons in the hands of God and executors of His providential will. Their father was a master of apologetics, the discipline of explaining and defending religious belief. “First was missionary Christianity… They were raised in a parsonage and taught from childhood that the world is an eternal battleground between righteousness and evil.

What forces shaped John Foster and Allen Dulles’s worldview? To dig deeper, we recommend checking these books out in their entirety: The excerpts below are from the following books, and dig into more detail on the brothers’ stances and motivations. foreign policy were driven by strong beliefs in the importance of spreading American business influence across the world, and in spreading Christian ideals-though, as their histories reveal, they often accomplished their goals through non-Christ-like means. The Dulles brothers made little distinction between Communism and Socialism, or Authoritarian Communism and Democratic Socialism, or between the Soviet Union and leftism. Born in 1888 and died in 1959, Foster (as he was known) was a Republican and advocated an aggressive stance against Communism.Īllen Dulles was the United States Director of Central Intelligence from 1953 to 1961, where he coordinated with his brother Foster through personal channels and was able to advance U.S. John Foster Dulles was the United States Secretary of State under President Eisenhower, from 1953–1959.

The brothers john foster dulles