The Brothers Quotes

“It is one of the most dangerous, in fact potentially suicidal, things a great nation can do in world affairs: to cut off its eyes and ears, to castrate its analytic capacity, to shut itself off from the truth because of blind prejudice and a misguided dispensation of good and evil. Foster”
― Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

“Oscar-winning triumph. The New York Times called it “a disturbing revelation of the savagery that prevailed in the hearts of the old gun-fighters, who were simply legal killers under the frontier code.” It was that and more. The hero acts precisely as many Americans believe their country acts in the world. He is an enforcer of morality and a scourge of oppressors; he comes from far away but knows instinctively what must be done; he brings peace by slaying wrongdoers; he risks his life to help others; and for all this he wishes no reward other than the quiet satisfaction of having done what was right. Shane reinforced a cultural consensus”
― Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

“These uniquely powerful brothers set in motion many of the processes that shape today’s world. Understanding who they were, and what they did, is a key to uncovering the obscured roots of upheaval in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.”
― Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

“The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections,”
― Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

“previous secretary of war, Henry Stimson, memorably put it, “gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.” One of the few American officials who had promoted intelligence”
― Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

“In the mid-1950s Winston Churchill advised his American friends to recognize that Ho Chi Minh was unbeatable, accept his victory, and try to make the best of it. This the Dulles brothers could not do—because they were Americans.”
― Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

“Exceptionalism”—the view that the United States has a right to impose its will because it knows more, sees farther, and lives on a higher moral plane than other nations—was to them not a platitude, but the organizing principle of daily life and global politics.”
― Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

“General Federico Tinoco,”
― Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

“was brought into the firm, but his network of global contacts quickly paid off. Within the firm he became known as “the little minister.” Although he often worked in Europe, he also became the firm’s key man for deals in Latin America. During his first year as an associate, with help from former colleagues”
― Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War