PRINCETON — Newly available papers of Allen W. Dulles, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency from 1953 to 1961, can now be viewed online, Princeton University has announced. The papers include some 7,800 documents released to the university by the CIA.
Dulles, a Princeton alumnus renowned for his role in shaping U.S. intelligence operations during the Cold War, died in 1969. Last March, the CIA released to Princeton a collection of letters, memoranda, reports and other papers — some still redacted — that the agency had removed from Dulles’ papers after his death.
"These materials, long estranged from the Allen Dulles Papers, help round out the documentary legacy of Dulles and his pivotal role in American intelligence history. The material related to his espionage work during World War II is especially illuminating," said Daniel Linke, curator of Public Policy Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, which houses the Dulles Papers.
The Allen W. Dulles Digital Files released to Princeton contain scanned images of professional correspondence, reports, lectures and administrative papers covering Dulles’ tenure with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) — a U.S. intelligence agency created during World War II and forerunner of the CIA — as well as his career with the CIA and his retirement. The CIA culled these documents from Dulles’ home office, and the agency maintains the originals.
The collection includes correspondence and narrative statements documenting Dulles’ activities during World War II, especially relating to the work of individuals involved in the war effort in Europe. The files also include more than 1,000 war telegrams from the OSS office to Washington, D.C. Documents from the 1950s and 1960s deal almost exclusively with the Cold War, mostly focusing on intelligence and the Soviet Union along with some covering Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the Communist threat in the United States. Items relating to Dulles’ time with the CIA have been heavily redacted, obscuring the names of correspondents as well as individuals and events mentioned in reports and letters.
Dulles earned a bachelor’s degree in 1914 and a master’s degree in 1916 from Princeton, both in politics, and received an honorary doctorate in 1957.
