Henry A. Kissinger Quotes

When he became a candidate, he modified this position and stated that he would abolish both agencies spying on Americans activities but not necessarily abolish all the functions of the agency.

He had just assumed his post 6 days earlier. At this point he did not have enough knowledge to favor or oppose the regime change, but he did realize that the decision was a serious one and there would be no turning back. Diem was a creature of the Central Intelligence Agency. An anti-Communist Christian in a Buddhist county, the CIA engineered his rise to power, created his political party, provided him with cash to bribe other Vietnamese politicians, and paid for all the propaganda so he would “win” the Presidential elections. However, he abused the Buddhists, was thoroughly corrupt and ran a corrupt administration, but worst of all from the American point of view, he was unable to motivate the South Vietnamese population to fight the Communists. He reached the point where he was more of a liability, and the Central Intelligence Agency engineered a coup d’etat to remove him from power and replace him with a President more to our liking. (See {634540}.)

President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam Diem was a creature of the Central Intelligence Agency. An anti-Communist Christian in a Buddhist county, the CIA engineered his rise to power, created his political party, provided him with cash to bribe other Vietnamese politicians, and paid for all the propaganda so he would “win” the Presidential elections. However, he abused the Buddhists, was thoroughly corrupt and ran a corrupt administration, but worst of all from the American point of view, he was unable to motivate the South Vietnamese population to fight the Communists. He reached the point where he was more of a liability, and the Central Intelligence Agency engineered a coup d’etat to remove him from power and replace him with a President more to our liking. (See {634540}.) Another reason this quotation is important is that it demonstrates the involvement that the Attorney General had with foreign and defense policy. Normally the Attorney General has nothing to do in these areas and is not even in the loop. But Robert F. Kennedy was also the President’s brother, and his advice was sought by President Kennedy on almost all matters. He was probably the most influential attorney general in American history.

This coup has been the biggest trauma for the Iranian people in the last centuries. The blowback from it, has soured relationships between America and Iran for decades. Khamenei personally was traumatized by the coup and publicly refers to it quite frequently. Ironically, reasons and policy logic for the CIA orchestration of the coup are even today murky. The desires of the British may well have been the main reason. “Arrogance” is the term Khamenei uses to describe the British-American alliance and their propensity to try and shape the affairs of other nations.

Lumumba was too socialistic for Dulles. He was not only removed from power by a covert CIA operation but the allies we selected to succeed him, then murdered him as they feared they had no one to match Lumumba’s popularity with the people.

At the time Devine was a clandestine CIA agent in Santiago, Chile. The top secret CRITIC cable took precedence over all other cables and messages and also got immediately delivered to the President and other key government officials. The US position at the time was that this coup ousting the very popular, elected left wing, President Salvador Allende was a spontaneous act of the Chilean armed forces in which the United States had no part. President Richard M. Nixon had ordered a series of economic attacks and sanctions on Chile, and the negative economic effect had set the mood for the coup. Years later this secret Cable come to light. It showed that our chief CIA operative in Chile knew about the coup in advance including minute details, and transmitted this data to the President and others in Washington. For many, it was unlikely that the coup plotters would share this level of detail in advance with any country that was not part of the team plotting the coup or had at least given their approval in advance.

Expressing concern over President Obama extending some of the American citizen entitled privacy rights to foreigners. He was concerned that this might inhibit our spying efforts.

The Irish had been concentrating so long on fighting for independence that when they got it, they were not prepared to operate a government and different jurisdictions scrambled for power, most not wanting the control government to have much if any.