Pete the Killer: "By the way, I took care of that thing for ya." - Goodfellas (1990)
Power structures in modern society - such as empires and crime families - share a number of similarities between the ways in which they function. These bastions of power rely on subordinates to do their dirtiest work that is normally deemed unethical - or even illegal - by public institutions of accountability. Commands such as "just get job done" or "I don't care how you do it, just take care of it" allow leaders of these power structures to abstain from liability. After all, ignorance is bliss, right? More accurately, ignorance is innocence.
Reading through Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1955 by historian Piero Gleijeses, I came across a passage that reveals an interesting point between the relationship of Presidential accountability and unethical and illegal CIA operations. Gleijeses interviewed former CIA director Richard Helms as part of his research on the United States' role in the overthrown of the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954. The United States denied participation publicly in at the United Nations that year. At the time, Richard Helms served as the CIA's Chief of Operations. Richard Helms played a crucial position in operation PBSUCCESS - the effort to destabilize the government of Jacobo Arbenz that had recently nationalized landed property of the American corporation United Fruit in Guatemala. Helms describes: "Truman okayed a good many decisions for covert operations that in later years he said he knew nothing about. It's all presidential deniability." In short, the CIA can be described as the President's contracted hitman. You can only imagine the dialog that must have transpired between President Harry S. Truman and top Central Intelligence directors:
"Gentleman, thank you for your service in protecting democracy and freedom this year."
"You've got it Mr. President. By the way. we took care of that thing for ya."
Power structures in modern society - such as empires and crime families - share a number of similarities between the ways in which they function. These bastions of power rely on subordinates to do their dirtiest work that is normally deemed unethical - or even illegal - by public institutions of accountability. Commands such as "just get job done" or "I don't care how you do it, just take care of it" allow leaders of these power structures to abstain from liability. After all, ignorance is bliss, right? More accurately, ignorance is innocence.
Reading through Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1955 by historian Piero Gleijeses, I came across a passage that reveals an interesting point between the relationship of Presidential accountability and unethical and illegal CIA operations. Gleijeses interviewed former CIA director Richard Helms as part of his research on the United States' role in the overthrown of the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954. The United States denied participation publicly in at the United Nations that year. At the time, Richard Helms served as the CIA's Chief of Operations. Richard Helms played a crucial position in operation PBSUCCESS - the effort to destabilize the government of Jacobo Arbenz that had recently nationalized landed property of the American corporation United Fruit in Guatemala. Helms describes: "Truman okayed a good many decisions for covert operations that in later years he said he knew nothing about. It's all presidential deniability." In short, the CIA can be described as the President's contracted hitman. You can only imagine the dialog that must have transpired between President Harry S. Truman and top Central Intelligence directors:
"Gentleman, thank you for your service in protecting democracy and freedom this year."
"You've got it Mr. President. By the way. we took care of that thing for ya."
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