After completing their Ivy League educations, they began working for the august law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

People who see the world this way tend to conflate financial success with virtue, so it’s no surprise that the Dulles brothers cut their teeth in the world of corporate finance. 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” and “God’s glory demanded that the reprobate be compelled to submit to the law of the Church.” (116)

Their father was a master of apologetics, the discipline of explaining and defending religious belief. They were raised in a parsonage and taught from childhood that the world is an eternal battleground between righteousness and evil. Raised by a fervent Presbyterian family with immense privilege and access to high society, both brothers developed a simplistic worldview unfettered by nuance and self-doubt: The first of these is the bald application of religious zealotry to the notion of what America is and ought to be. Kinzer posits that these two men, very different in their mannerisms but perfectly aligned in their politics, exerted a strong influence on American foreign policy and squandered an invaluable opportunity to lead the world responsibly in the postwar era.ĭeeply researched and well-written, The Brothers demonstrates how the Dulles brothers contributed to three insidious dynamics that still plague American politics today. Kinzer’s eponymous brothers are John Foster and Allen Dulles, progeny of early 20th-century American elites who rose to power during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower. Stephen Kinzer’s The Brothersoffers a powerful analysis of American arrogance and stupidity in the wake of World War II––one that is surely edifying even if it is also flawed.

As with slavery, Native American genocide, and many other homegrown atrocities, we must confront these unseemly aspects of our past in order to avoid similar mistakes in the future. Anyone who takes an honest look at American history must grapple with our shameful record of foreign intervention.

The brothers kinzer