cia quotes

all quotations from evan thomas' the very best men: the daring early years of the cia

"But the difference between the two organizations represents a divide that ran through the CIA for decades, a fundamental conflict in the role and mission of an intelligence agency. Clandestine operations embrace two separate activities. One is covert action—seeking to influence or change the way a country is governed. The other is espionage—secretly gathering information about a friend or foe. The two missions attract different sorts of personalities. Covert action operatives, like the ones who worked for OPC, tend to be activists. Results are more important than process. Espionage operators, like the ones who worked for OSO, tend to be more passive. They are cautious, prudent, careful. The goals of covert action and espionage are often in direct conflict. Covert action is almost by definition noisy, since operatives plunge themselves into the struggle for power. Espionage must be quiet to be effective. It never announces itself,' writes Thomas Powers. The foreign government official who is on the payroll, feeding the CIA secrets, must never be identified as an agent. yet covert action is also risky--it tends to 'go wrong' and expose spying networks carefully laid by espionage operators." (p41-42)

Paul Nitze - "In history, everyone religion has greatly honored those members who destroyed the enemy... Doing in the enemy is the right thing to do. Of course, there are some restraints on ends and means. if you go back to Greek culture and read Thucydides, there are limits to what you can do to other Greeks, who are part of your culture. But there are no limits on what you can do to a Persian. He's a barbarian. The communists were barbarians." (p91)

[he] "could appreciate the idea of the leap of faith, but he could not make the jump himself." (p200)

"The CIA officials looked pained and exasperated; they were good soldiers, they weren't going to point any fingers, but really, how could the senators be so naive? The CIA executed policy; it did not make it. Of course, the CIA had obtained authorization. But such things are never written down, nor are they to be ever acknowledged. That is why presidents have secret intelligence services: to perform secret acts that are supposed to be kept secret." (p230)