"From the founder of Salon and the author of the New York Times bestseller Brothers, an explosive, headline-making portrait of Allen Dulles, the man who transformed the CIA into the most powerful—and secretive—colossus in Washington 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 recently 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—David Talbot reveals the underside of one of America's most towering and influential figures. Dulles's decade as the director of the CIA was a dark period in American politics."