The Devil's Chessboard

Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government

By: David Talbot

Narrated by: Peter Altschuler

An explosive, headline-making portrait of Allen Dulles, the man who transformed the CIA into the most powerful—and secretive—colossus in Washington, from the founder of Salon.com and author of the New York Times bestseller Brothers.

America’s greatest untold story: the United States’ rise to world dominance under the guile of Allen Welsh Dulles, the longest-serving director of the CIA. Drawing on revelatory new materials—including newly discovered U.S. government documents, U.S. and European intelligence sources, the personal correspondence and journals of Allen Dulles’s wife and mistress, and exclusive interviews with the children of prominent CIA officials—Talbot reveals the underside of one of America’s most powerful and influential figures.

Dulles’s decade as the director of the CIA—which he used to further his public and private agendas—were dark times in American politics. Calling himself “the secretary of state of unfriendly countries,” Dulles saw himself as above the elected law, manipulating and subverting American presidents in the pursuit of his personal interests and those of the wealthy elite he counted as his friends and clients—colluding with Nazi-controlled cartels, German war criminals, and Mafiosi in the process. Targeting foreign leaders for assassination and overthrowing nationalist governments not in line with his political aims, Dulles employed those same tactics to further his goals at home, Talbot charges, offering shocking new evidence in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

An exposé of American power that is as disturbing as it is timely, The Devil’s Chessboard is a provocative and gripping story of the rise of the national security state—and the battle for America’s soul.

Captivating

The story that is told is almost too hard to believe. I will never view the CIA the same way again.

Astonishing historical account of evil that men do

I listed to this book twice in short order and will listen to it again. It offers astonishing sets of facts and connections that might make you pause to digest.

This book puts a finger point of the strange libertine, crypto fascist characters of both of the Dulles brothers, from wife swopping with the Luce family to Nazi human resources operations, to the systematically putting the interests of their law firm clients ahead of the American voter.... (however, it did leave out their ownership of all those Coasta Rican fruit farms.)

It is a massive story, the murder of an America president. But It would be nice if this highly talented author went back to explore regional consequences of Dulles leadership in places like Hawaii's banks, Africa and East Asia (teaching English and micro lending in Indonesia, Laos, etc).

Great Read

If you could sum up The Devil's Chessboard in three words, what would they be?

A page turner.

What did you like best about this story?

It was full of intrigue and historical information that helps to inform the current mess in the world today. There was so much information, I will probably listen to it again. It has given me a new perspective on the operation of the intelligence community and the crossover with politics.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I wasn't that impressed with the performance.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

This would be a great film

Fascinating Book Weighed Down by Narrator

Such an important work of rigorous biography - it's a real shame the narrator was horribly miscast. With historically dense subject matter like this it's a delicate balance one has to strike, and this absolutely DOES NOT strike it, haha.

The narrator sounds like a stuffier, dustier version of Walter Cronkite or something. A newscaster voice from a bygone era - I couldn't believe it was the sound of a book published so recently! He's a perfectly skilled voice actor / narrator, he's simply a terrible choice for this.

Every line is delivered with this antiquated intonation, like the sing-song up-and-downs of an old radio broadcast. No matter WHAT is being discussed! Talking about something small and intimate like Dulles's relationship with his daughter, to talking about the horrid slaughter of Jewish workers in a Prussian pogrom; it's ALL the same droning Cronkite sing-song-uppp-and-Dooownnn-UP-and-DOownnn!

So sad. I have been so excited to finish this book, but I've tried to listen to it about 6 different times. Every time I am able to listen for about 15-30 minutes, until my brain melts under the hypnotic melodies, and I'm not listening to a damn word being said.

The Lie, Removed

The question, and upset brought from its' being brought to light, are worth your day's worth of hours to hear, ¿who killed J.F.K.?