In his December 4, 1959, Address on the Soviet Military Threat, the longtime director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Allen Dulles, warned Americans against complacency in the face of increasing Soviet military-industrial capabilities and the spread of Communist ideology abroad. In both private meetings and public speeches and television appearances, Dulles remained remarkably consistent: He perceived the Soviet Union as a major threat to world peace—specifically to the stable relations that ought to have prevailed between the United States and its former enemies, especially Germany. The right way to rebuild international relations after World War II, Dulles argued, was to forge close bonds with the Germans.