18-10-2015, 07:09 AM
I am about 3/4 of the way through Talbot's book.
And it keeps getting better.
The sections on Dulles vs Kennedy are first rate. He really came up with a lot of new stuff that is really important.
To give you one example--JFK was so pissed off about what the CIA had done to him during Bay of Pigs, and their attempt to overthrow DeGaulle, that he not just fired Dulles, Bissell and Cabell. He also had a RIF, which by some estimates went way beyond what Carter did. Some say that he retired something like 20 per cent of the Company operators.
Kennedy then gave Schlesinger the job of, get this, redesigning and renaming the Agency. Schlesinger spent weeks on this and collected all sorts of data. He was actually going to call it the National Intelligence Association. Which Kennedy actually liked.
The sections on Lumumba, and the coup attempt against DeGaulle by OAS in 1961 are first rate stuff.
And I just finished the part about Dulles in 1963, setting up his own shadow government. Which included meeting with a Cuban exile assassin and supplying him all sorts of money in order to finance an independent invasion of Cuba.
And it keeps getting better.
The sections on Dulles vs Kennedy are first rate. He really came up with a lot of new stuff that is really important.
To give you one example--JFK was so pissed off about what the CIA had done to him during Bay of Pigs, and their attempt to overthrow DeGaulle, that he not just fired Dulles, Bissell and Cabell. He also had a RIF, which by some estimates went way beyond what Carter did. Some say that he retired something like 20 per cent of the Company operators.
Kennedy then gave Schlesinger the job of, get this, redesigning and renaming the Agency. Schlesinger spent weeks on this and collected all sorts of data. He was actually going to call it the National Intelligence Association. Which Kennedy actually liked.
The sections on Lumumba, and the coup attempt against DeGaulle by OAS in 1961 are first rate stuff.
And I just finished the part about Dulles in 1963, setting up his own shadow government. Which included meeting with a Cuban exile assassin and supplying him all sorts of money in order to finance an independent invasion of Cuba.