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Allen Dulles entered Princeton in 1910 and received his bachelor's degree in 1914. He was awarded his master's degree in 1916 and immediately entered the diplomatic service, spending much of the intervening years in Europe and Switzerland in particular. Dulles joined COI, forerunner of OSS in October 1941. One of his first major tasks were to establish the agencies headquarters on the 25th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. By mid 1942 Dulles was already deeply involved in running covert operations against both Germany and Japan. In late 1942, Dulles was relocated to Bern, Switzerland to run operations against Germany. Dulles moved to Berlin in 1945 where he became the OSS chief in the American Zone of occupied Germany.
He worked closely with the former Nazi intelligence officers in the Gehlen organization identifying Soviet spies, as well as helping to find German Scientists and Engineers to join the United States new electronic, nuclear, chemical warfare and ballistic missile projects President Truman disbanded the OSS in 1945. However the need for an intelligence service soon became apparent even to Truman and the CIG was established in 1946, becoming the CIA or Central Intelligence Agency in
1947. Dulles joined the agency and became the deputy director in 1951. By 1953 he was appointed as DCI and ushered in the most sweeping US intelligence operations in history. Dulles, backed by his brother, John Foster Dulles, who was then Secretary of State, achieved virtual autonomy for the agency. Dulles planned and set in motion spectacular espionage operations, including covert interference in the affairs of many third world countries, assassinations of political enemies of the US and the introduction of the first strategic U2 spy planes. In 1961 he strongly advised President Kennedy that the CIA backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba would prove successful and bring about the destruction of Cuban regime. When the invasion turned into a disaster, an onslaught of criticism destroyed Dulles, who then 'resigned' as Director of the CIA. Allen Dulles died eight years later, respected throughout the world as the most talented and celebrated US Director of Intelligence in history.
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