The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIAThomas has drawn on his original research in CIA archives and interviews with scores of old agency hands to evoke the urgency and uncertainty, as well as the giddiness, of the shadow wars of the 1950s and early 1960s when the country, with reason, felt itself in danger from Soviet-led Communist aggression. Frank Wisner, Richard Bissell, Tracy Barnes, and Desmond FitzGerald embodied the confidence, daring, and arrogance of the WASP elite that dominated the CIA at its founding. Thomas brings these men to life as they move boldly, and a bit innocently, into the corrosive life of secrets. He portrays the improbable scene of Bissell, of Groton and Yale, hiring the Mafia to eliminate Fidel Castro, and the terrible drama of Frank Wisner, the first chief of covert operations, slowly succumbing to suicidal mania. He follows Barnes and FitzGerald as they run covert operations from Berlin to Burma. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 9 |
Chapter | 15 |
Chapter | 32 |
Chapter Three | 44 |
Chapter Four | 60 |
Chapter Five | 75 |
Chapter | 87 |
Chapter Seven | 98 |
Chapter Fourteen | 203 |
Chapter Fifteen | 216 |
Chapter Sixteen | 230 |
Chapter Seventeen | 237 |
Chapter Eighteen | 261 |
Chapter Nineteen | 273 |
Chapter Twenty | 285 |
Chapter TwentyOne | 305 |
Chapter Eight | 107 |
Chapter Nine | 127 |
Chapter | 142 |
Chapter Eleven | 153 |
Chapter Twelve | 164 |
Chapter Thirteen | 179 |
Chapter TwentyTwo | 318 |
Acknowledgments | 342 |
NOTES | 349 |
INDEX | 358 |
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Common terms and phrases
agency agency's agents Alleged Assassination Plots Allen Dulles Alsop ambassador American Angleton Arbenz army asked Barnes's Bay of Pigs began Bissell's Bohlen Braden British Bundy cable Carleton Swift Chinese Church Committee CIA New York CIA officials CIA's clandestine service Colonel communist coup covert action Critchfield CSHP Cuba Cuban Cubela DD/P dinner Dulles's East Eisenhower émigré Esterline felt force Frances FitzGerald Frank Wisner Georgetown Groton Guatemala guerrilla Halpern Harvey History Howard Hunt intelligence invasion James Janet Barnes Lawrence John Kennedy knew Kremlin Lansdale Laos later looked Memoirs national security never officer operation paramilitary Paul Nitze Pentagon Philby Phillips plane president radio recalled recruited Richard Bissell Richard Helms Roosevelt Russian secret Simon & Schuster Soviet Union staff station chief Stevenson Sukarno talk thought told Tom Braden Tracy Barnes trying United wanted Washington White House William Colby wrote Yale