CIA Deception Operations

[Ralph McGehee]

[Kirby Urner]

Prouty's book 'JFK' suggests to me that CIA was getting some
accurate reporting re the Vietnam situation at the time e.g.
via Lansdale, whom Colby eulogized as one of spydom's all
time greatest. The triggered avalanche-migration of Tonkinese
to the south, the displacement of southern locals, the help-
lessness of the USA-installed Diem regime to address the
needs of these people, and the out-of-touch dream world of
the politicians and military bureaucrats back in Washington,
DC, seems rather clearly spelled out in these pages.

A lot of people made big money off that war and it's unclear
that any moralistic purpose was ever driving the show from the
top -- just a lot of creaky old ideology, fear, and avarice,
as per usual. Nothing new in this story. If low level CIA
operatives in the field were suffering from misplaced idealism,
that's not going to change the ugly history of what really
went on in that chapter, nor necessarily prevent the powers
that be from sending untold numbers to their deaths again,
simply because their Malthusian doctrines prove their great
megadeath scenarios are the most effective means to an end:
their own survival.

Kirby