Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin's Secret War on America

by R. James Woolsey, Ion Mihai Pacepa

Former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey and former Romanian acting spy chief Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who was granted political asylum in the U.S. in 1978, describe why Russia remains an extremely dangerous force in the world, and they finally and definitively put to rest the question of who killed President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.All evidence points to the fact that the assassination—carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald—was ordered by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, acting through what was essentially the Russian leader’s personal army, the KGB (now known as the FSB). This evidence, which is codified as most things in foreign intelligence are, has never before been jointly decoded by a top U.S. foreign intelligence leader and a former Soviet Bloc spy chief familiar with KGB patterns and codes.Meanwhile, dozens of conspiracy theorists have written books about the JFK assassination during the past fifty-six years. Most of these theories blame America and were largely triggered by the KGB disinformation campaign implemented in the intense effort to remove Russia’s own fingerprints that blamed in turn Lyndon Johnson, the CIA, secretive groups of American oilmen, Howard Hughes, Fidel Castro, and the Mafia.Russian propaganda sowed hatred and contempt for the U.S. quite effectively, and its operations have morphed into many forms, including the recruitment of global terror groups and the backing of enemy nation- states. Yet it was the JFK assassination, with its explosive aftermath of false conspiracy theories, that set the model for blaming America first.

Genres: Russia, History

203 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 23, 2021

Reviews

[Stephen Watt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contains a passable theory on the JFK assassination, but otherwise is a rambling and rather embarrassing screed on "socialism" - which term the author uses to lump together all manners of communist and/or authoritarian regimes -for the 2020s.

Example:
"Soon after the Soviet bloc collapsed, researchers at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in the now liberated Lepzig discovered a genetic factor, the A1 mutation, which affects the ability to learn from past mistakes. On April 12, 2003, thousands of Americans, presumably infected by the A1 mutation, began sermonizing that capitalism was America's real enemy and that it should be replaced with socialism by redistributing the country's wealth. Quite a few young Americans cheered. They were, of course, galvanized by the prospect that a Democratic administration would force rich Americans to pay for young people's own health care, mortgages, loans, and school tuition."

I mean, wtf? It's like they're reaching hard to throw out (un-funny) barbs that have nothing to do with the general story line, and that will immediately and totally discredit everything else that was written.

Then there's other ludicrous lines like:
"Over four thousand Americans died In Iraq because we did not have a top Iraqi source to tell us that Saddam Hussein did not have nuclear weapons."

Really? We need to have a source in place to disprove every wild theory? The problem couldn't possibly be acting decisively in the absence of proper evidence?

In particular, Pacepa seems to have led an unstoried existence for most of the decades after he defected to the west, continually flailing for relevance... he probably should have stopped writing books after Red Horizons.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chilling, never before revealed details of not just the Soviet complicity in the JFK assassination, but it and Russia’s unending espionage and military campaigns against us to the present day.
The book is an unprecedented collaboration between a former CIA director, and the head of Romanian intelligence, the highest level Soviet bloc defector to the West in history. He was read into Oswald’s file, and a prior book led to the ouster of that country’s dictator. See also Gen. Ion Papeca’s book Programmed to Kill.

[Benjamin Wetmore · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is trash.

I might agree with Woolsey ideologically but his facts are wrong and dishonestly presented. He portrays certain historical disputes as settled that aren’t, makes wild speculations from the lack of evidence, and misstates facts.

This book is actively dishonest.

His portrayals of Oswald in Mexico are wrong on many levels. Not the least of which is that the US has a photo of the person entering the embassy in Mexico City that they insist is Oswald when it is clearly not so.

Woolsey says the fact Castro calmly answered the phone when JFK was shot is evidence he had foreknowledge. That Castro predicted Oswald would be blamed on Communists is again proof that Castro was involved with the Kennedy assassination. The only reason LBJ lied about all of this, according to Woolsey, is because he didn’t want war with Russia.

It’s hard to take this shit seriously. It’s even harder to understand how someone so delusional and prone to fantasy rose to the heights he did.

The only revelations were Woolseys bullshit spin on information already available, and as someone who has spent time on these subjects, almost every major Woolsey conclusion is extremely suspect at the most charitable.

I wouldn’t trust anything in this book.

[Jim Dowdell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the book over a few days as you study the Mainstream Media daily news. You will come to the realization that the world is not what it seems to be. The incidents reported can confusing at times but understanding will come when you work at it. The parallels with today are terrifying and you might think you are reading Stephen King but this is not fiction.

This book will not answer all your questions about why the world has gone crazy, but it will open your eyes to dark forces running amok. Marxism is on the march again, this time in your own hometown.

[Mavis Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly disjointed and poorly edited book with an interesting cover design.

[Relena_reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read *a lot* of books on Russia and this kept popping up in reviews of other books as an "insider" text. And sure, these guys probably have insights Masha Gessen can't access, but their backgrounds have also made them paranoid af, and half the book is wild conspiracy theories. Is Russia definitely run by a bunch of paranoid spy chiefs? Sure. Does that make them capable of masterminding almost all terrorism? No.

At least this was fun to skim while watching season 2 of Inside Job.

[Delia · Rating 2 out of 5]

What was the point of writing and publishing this book in 2021? More than 75% of its content is copied ad-litteram from the 2013 Disinformation. The rest is negligently put together, with many repetitive paragraphs, some incorrect data or typos ( Putin was definitely not 25 years old in 1999 as stated in the book ), ideas and theories that start being presented in one chapter, are left in the air, then resumed, repeated some chapters later, etc.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book serves as a chilling example of where this country is headed if our state governments not our federal government don’t act now to secure our borders and our preserve our constitution.

This book should be studied and reviewed in every high school social studies class in America before its to late.

Michael