Allen was the grandson of a secretary of state. In 1916, Dulles graduated from Princeton University. He earned a law degree from George Washington University while serving in the diplomatic corps. He graduated in 1926 and took a job at a New York law firm where his brother, John Foster Dulles, was a partner. During World War II Dulles was given the role of station chief of the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS)in Berne, Switzerland, in 1942. In 1947, Congress created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as part of the National Security Act. Dulles had been closely involved with its development. In 1951, he was named as CIA's deputy director. In 1953, he became the director under President Dwight D. Eisenhower; all of the previous directors had been military officers.