Allen Welsh Dulles was an American lawyer who was the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and its longest serving director to date. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War, he oversaw the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, the Lockheed U-2 aircraft program, the Project MKUltra mind control program and the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. As a result of the failed invasion of Cuba, Dulles was fired by President John F. Kennedy.
Allen Dulles
Allen Dulles used information from Heinrich Maier's resistance group for the very important Operation Crossbow.
(from l. to r.) C.I.A. Director Allen Dulles with C.I.A. Counter-insurgency expert Colonel Edward Lansdale, United States Air Force Chief of Staff General Nathan F. Twining, and C.I.A. Deputy Director Lieutenant General Charles P. Cabell at the Pentagon in 1955.
CIA ID card of Allen Dulles
Director of Central Intelligence
The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency from 1946 to 2004, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Security Council, as well as the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various US intelligence agencies.
Director of Central Intelligence
The 16-foot (5 m) diameter granite CIA seal in the lobby of the original headquarters building.
The entrance of the CIA headquarters
Image: Sidney W. Souers
