Throughout the Cold War, the United States felt impelled to respond to
threats which were, or seemed to be, skirmishes in a global war against
Communism. Castro's Cuba raised the spectre of a Soviet outpost at
America's doorstep. Events in the Dominican Republic appeared to offer
an additional opportunity for the Russians and their allies. The Congo,
freed from Belgian rule, occupied the strategic center of the African
continent, and the prospect of Communist penetration there was viewed as
a threat to American interests in emerging African nations. There was
great concern that a Communist takeover in Indochina would have a
"domino effect" throughout Asia. Even the election in 1970 of a Marxist
president in Chile was seen by some as a threat similar to that of
Castro's takeover in Cuba. This book exposes the full range of covert
activities taken by the U.S. Government and the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) in response to the operations of Communist clandestine
services, which included U.S. involvement in assassination plots against
foreign political leaders. Sources include a massive record of over
8,000 pages of sworn testimony taken from over 75 witnesses during 60
hearing days and numerous staff interviews. In addition, documents
obtained to complete the narrative include raw files from agencies and
departments, the White House, and the Presidential libraries of the
Administrations of former Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy
and Lyndon Johnson. The U.S. operations exposed include the use of
poisons, the hiring of Mafia figures, the support of dissidents, the
provision of machine guns and financial aid, and kidnapping to
assassinate foreign leaders. In disturbing detail, the book reveals
evidence of a permanent assassination capability established within the
CIA and that the plots all involved Third World countries, most of which
were relatively small and none of which possessed great political or
military strength. Officials at the highest levels objected to the
Castro and Trujillo regimes, believed the accession of Allende to power
in Chile would be harmful to American interests, and thought of Lumumba
as a dangerous force in the heart of Africa. In particular, the plots
against Fidel Castro are placed in the context of fully authorized,
comprehensive assaults upon his regime, such as the Bay of Pigs
invasion. An important look at the history of covert action across the
world and how the U.S. adopted the tactics of its enemies.
