Justyn Dillingham reviews David Talbot.
Reading the book’s account of how Dulles ensured his own power by stocking the State Department and the Pentagon with loyal allies, it’s hard not to think of Dick Cheney pursuing the same strategy with equal success. The vast surveillance system so dramatically revealed to the world by Edward Snowden could never have come to pass without the culture of fanatical secrecy and habitual lawlessness handed down by Dulles and his loyal agents.