Henry A. Kissinger Quotes
Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.
Henry A. Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State (Republican), U.S. National Security Advisor, Testimony before the House Select Committee on Intelligence, January 19 1976
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Magruder and his boss OSS Director Donovan did not believe that the military services, the State Department nor the FBI could or should properly be breaking the laws of foreign nations which would be virtually certain if one was spying in foreign nations. They advocated the formal extension of a the wartime OSS which became the CIA. Magruder convinced Secretary Lovett and this was important in establishing a CIA successor to the OSS.
Harmon was one of the nation’s experts on Intelligence. She pointed out that the CIA spent a relatively small portion of its budget on spies, intelligence and analysis relative to the larger proportion that went to their paramilitary covert operations. Since its inception, the CIA professionals have always preferred the glamour, adventure, and machismo of covert operations as opposed to the relative drudgery of intelligence gathering and analysis. This many believe explains the many major intelligence blunders the CIA has made such as missing the fall of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the development of nuclear bombs in several countries and the totally mistaken analysis in the Bay of Pigs and The trigger for the Iraq War.
Dulles was writing about the World War II Abwehr, the German intelligence service.
Hunt was being questioned about his forgery of a State Department cable linking the Kennedy administration to the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam:
Hunt was in operational charge of the “Plumbers” and the illegal Watergate conspiracy, burglary and cover-up operations. He had denied participating in illegal activities, but admitted to “clandestine” activities which were against the law such as breaking into offices and stealing the contents. His “logic” was that if the President authorized something, it could not be against the law. The courts of course disagreed, and Hunt with most of the other Watergate Conspirators was convicted. Hunt’s argument was resurrected during the George W. Bush administration, when the Vice President and a few Bush appointed lawyers in the government took the position that torture of criminal suspects or wartime adversaries which was against the law, could be legally used if the President authorized it. They pointed out that Abraham Lincoln acted without authority of law on several occasions in the crises of the Civil War. However, Lincoln in all cases, went to Congress to obtain the authorization. The Bush people were surreptitious about their law breaking and publicly insisted that the did NOT brak the law, If it were not for leaks to the press, it would not have been known that the administration was breaking the law.
Henry Alfred Kissinger KCMG is an American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. A Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938, he became National Security Advisor in 1969 and U.S. Secretary of State in 1973. For his actions negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam, Kissinger received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize under controversial circumstances, with two members of the committee resigning in protest.
