Status Updates From Legacy of Ashes: The Histor...

“In World War Two, in the OSS, we knew what our motivation was: to beat the goddamn Nazis. In the cold war, we knew what our motivation was: to beat the goddamn Russians.
Suddenly the cold war is over, and what is the motivation? What would compel someone to spend their lives doing this kind of thing?"

«No one at the agency asked the question that
Vernon Walters, Bush's newly appointed ambassador to Germany, put to his officers in May 1989: "What are we going to do when the Wall comes down?"»

“Casey saw life as an enterprise. He believed in the end that politics, policy, diplomacy, and intelligence were all business deals. He saw how the hostage crisis and the cash crunch confronting the contras could be resolved through a grand bargain with Iran.”

Oh vaya a quien me suena (pista: se sienta en el Despacho Oval)

"In covert action," McMahon said, "you always have to think of the endgame before you start it.
And we don't always do that."

“Polgar burned all the CIA's files, cables, and codebooks that evening. Not long after midnight, he composed his farewell: "THIS WILL BE FINAL MESSAGE FROM SAIGON STATION.... IT HAS BEEN A LONG FIGHT AND WE HAVE LOST....
THOSE WHO FAIL TO LEARN FROM HISTORY ARE FORCED TO REPEAT IT. LET US HOPE THAT WE WILL NOT HAVE ANOTHER VIETNAM EXPERIENCE AND THAT WE HAVE LEARNED OUR LESSON. SAIGON SIGNING OFF."

«These colonels had been plotting for years and years," said Robert Keeley, later the American ambassador to Greece. "They were fascists. They fitted the classic definition of fascism, as represented by Mussolini in the 1920s: a corporate state, uniting industry and unions, no parliament, trains running on time, heavy discipline and censorship...almost a classic fascist ideal."»

“Facing capture at the presidential palace, Allende killed himself with an automatic rifle, a gift from Fidel Castro. The military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet took power that afternoon, and the CIA quickly forged a liaison with the general's junta.
Pinochet reigned with cruelty, murdering more than 3,200 people, jailing and torturing tens of thousands in the repression called the Caravan of Death.”