Surprise, Kill, Vanish

The Book in 1 Sentence

From Assassination attempts to the War on terror, the CIA has been up to some or no good at times that may or may not have lead to the current state of the US.

Brief Review

I am not sure what I was expecting from this book, maybe more of The Unit, but from an outsider's perspective. Something about "Assassinations" I was thinking I was going to learn more about things that weren't public conversation. I mean, at this point from the Black Ops games to just general trivia, we know that the CIA tried to kill Castro and Guevara during the invasion on the Bay of Pigs. But since then, it really gets murky about the law and if drones count as assassinations, even from a layman's idea.

Why I Read this book

I like her books, she has been a reliable source of information that can be from one side or another, the match or the blanket.

In-Depth Review (Favorite Quotes)

Annie is an incredible researcher. The book really follows Billy Wuah and his activities, but as a man who seemed to always be in the middle of the action, this isn't bad. He was involved and provides a lot of context as to what was going on around the time of each event in the CIA and the events that took place in Korea and Vietnam. I do wonder about some later stories speaking he would have been 65+ at the time, but there isn't anything to suggestion stories of grandeur, so take that for what it is.

What I really found interesting was conversation about the legality of planning said assassinations. Between the code of military ethics, A.K.A. the Liber Code, and NATO's Article 51, the idea of self-defense, there is a lot of weird wiggle room that the CIA and DoD operated in. I think during the 50s-70s there might have been too many liberties taken with the legal loopholes, and it created a world far more aggressive than it might have been. I do have the benefit of 20/20.

There is an exception to this, and I don't know the right answer either. I very much see and agree that the idea of assassinating a leader in a country and even a region like Palestine, could create a slippery slope that the world would never recover from. Look at what Israel did after the Munich games, which you can read more about in Rise and Kill First. I am positive that this lead to where the Palestinians and the Israelites are constantly at each other's throats. However, against an organization that has called for the death of non-combatants, the degradation of a group of people, or just an overt aggression toward another countries way of life based on some ideology, there could be an argument. I don't know the answer, but it is a conversation worth having. However, with that, you have to have the conversation about collateral damage and the morality of that and that brings us back to the US/CIA policies.

Rating

I'm not a lawyer and the nuance here is beyond my understanding at an intimate level. I know from this book the number of jumps taken by different Presidents up to 2019, that have been used to legalize the third option. However, I think the exercise of those could make use just as terroristic as those that could be targeted. People far smarter than me, Annie Jacobsen, have done more research than I probably ever will, and this book is the culmination of that. It makes you think. I think this book, First Platoon, and Operation Paperclip, are books that weave a story that is ultimately the same. What is good in theory, has strings attached. I went on a bit of a tangent there, but I think that speaks to the content of this book and the mental conversation that should be had with yourself. I originally gave this a 7 as it didn't meet what I was expecting to a pretty decent extent. However, having written this out and thinking about the book, I think it has left a mark on me and that is worth a point. It is an 8.

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