Click here to access a review by Loren Goldner of Joshua Kurlantzick's new book posted on Insurgent Notes.
Although reading this article is made difficult in places due to long paragraphs, obscure references, and typos, it is a very important history of a major CIA operation that led to its rise as a formidable force to use in other areas where the capitalist ruling class has important interests. After reading this article and books like the Imperial Brain Trust, I'm starting to regard the CIA as a deep state that lies within the deep state of Empire "think tanks". And knowing that the book was authored by "a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations (a major think tank of the deep state) who has published articles in the Economist, Time, the New Republic, Mother Jones and Rolling Stone", adds even more importance to the book.
Capitalist regimes always have a latent fascist component as an integral part of their class rule which surfaces whenever their control over a nation is sufficiently threatened. The disastrous Vietnam War and the strong domestic opposition to it created that threat. Although Nixon was elected in 1968 with a promise to end the war, he like all capitalist politicians lied to the American people. By massively extending the war secretly to nearby Laos and Cambodia, he still thought he could salvage some sort of victory or a least an "honorable" end to the war. Besides that interest, he and his ilk among the ruling class's functionaries resented all the young people who so vigorously opposed the war and wanted to take revenge on them by massively extending the war.
This resentment reminds me of the current ruling class's feeling about all the young people who supported Bernie Sanders' political campaign. Although there are differences, I think today we have a similar situation with so much opposition by young people to the Trump administration. The main difference is that the CIA has also launched a vigorous campaign in corporate media, which they control, to threaten and insure that the Trump administration follows their neoconservative imperial policies. Although CIA efforts appear to converge with the opposition and protests of young people which they seem to encourage, they are appearances only. Should the CIA be successful in aligning Trump's policies with theirs, you won't see anymore attacks on Trump in corporate media.
