Secret War Quotes

The chairman resigned in protest over the refusal of the government to declassify historical documents years after the events.

He was then a CIA secret operative, in effect the “Commanding General of the War in Laos. The Viet Cong to avoid attack by American and South Vietnamese troops would cross the border into Laos where they could resupply, rest and reenter Vietnam at a strategic time and place. The American’s, to cope with this tactic, bombed the Viet Cong camps in Laos and CIA personnel organized attacks on the Viet Cong. To some, it was a dirty, illegal war by the standards of International and American law and its existence was denied by the U. S. Government for years.

The State Department and the Defense Department often clash over power and control of various foreign policy activities and initiatives. Whereas secrecy is supposed to be a means of keeping critical information from the enemy, it is very frequently used to cover-up embarrassment and also to prevent a rival government agency from registering objections to ongoing programs. In the latter case the secret classification has two advantages for the agency wanting to maintain their autonomy. First, they keep the information from the rival agency for a while. Eventually, the other agency has people with secret clearance who will find out, but because the material is secret they cannot publicly discuss the wisdom of the policy of initiate a public debate.