Ralph W. McGehee - Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA

EARLYBIRDBOOKSFRESHEBOOKDEALS,DELIVEREDDAILYBETHEFIRSTTOKNOWABOUTFREEANDDISCOUNTEDEBOOKSNEWDEALSHATCHEVERYDAY!DeadlyDeceitsMy25YearsintheCIA RalphW.McGehee ThisbookisdedicatedtoallthosehurtbyCIAcovertoperations.Itisespeciallydedicated totheVietnameseandtheAmericanswhoservedinVietnam. CONTENTSIntroductionI We the people seem to have the freest book trade in the world. Certainly we have the biggest.CruisethemightyAmazon,andyouwillseesomanybooksforsaleintheUnited Statestodayaswouldrequiremorethanfourhundredmilesofshelvingtodisplaythem abookshelfthatwouldstretchfromBostonsOldNorthChurchtoFortMcHenryinSouth Baltimore. Surely that huge catalog is proof of our extraordinary freedom of expression: The US government does not ban books, because the First Amendment wont allow it. While booksarewidelybannedinstateslikeChinaandIran, nobookmaybeforbiddenbythe USgovernment atanylevel(althoughtheCIAcensorsbooksbyformerofficers).Where books are banned in the United States, the censors tend to be private organizations church groups, school boards, and other local (busy) bodies roused to purify the public schoolsorlibrariesnearby. Despite such local prohibitions, we can surely find any book we want.

After all, its easytolocatethosehotworksthatoncewerebannedbythegovernmentastooobscene tosell,ormail,untilthecourtsruledotherwiseonFirstAmendmentgrounds FannyHill,Howl, Naked Lunch. We also have no trouble finding books banned here and there as antifamily, Satanic, racist, and/or filthy, from Huckleberry Finn to Heather HasTwoMommiestotheHarryPotterseries,justtonameafew. II Andyet,thefactthatthoseboldbooksareallinprint,andwidelyread,does notmeanthat we have the freest book trade in the world. On the contrary: For over half a century, Americasvastliteraryculturehasbeendisparatelypoliced,andimperceptiblycontained, by state and corporate entities well placed and perfectly equipped to wipe out wayward writings. Their ad hoc suppressions through the years have been far more effectual than thosequixoticbansimposedonclassicslike TheCatcherintheRyeand Fahrenheit451. For every one of those bestsellers scandalously purged from some provincial school curriculum, there are many others (we cant know how many) that have been so thoroughlyerasedthatfewofus,ifany,canrememberthem,orhaveeverheardofthem.

Howhaveallthosebooks(toquoteGeorgeOrwell)droppedintothememoryholein theseUnitedStates?AsAmericadoes notbanbooks,othermeanslessevident,andso lesscontroversialhavebeendeployedtovaporizethem.Somealmostnevermadeitinto print,aspublisherswereprivatelywarnedoffthemfromonhigh,eitheronthegroundsof nationalsecurityorwithbluntthreatsofendlesscorporatelitigation.Otherbookswere signed enthusiasticallythen dumped, as their own publishers mysteriously failed to market them, or even properly distribute them. But it has mainly been the press that stampsoutinconvenientbooks,eitherbyignoringthem,ormostoftenlaughingthem offasconspiracytheory,despitetheirsoundness(orbecauseofit). Once out of print, those books are gone. Even if some few of us have not forgotten them, and one might find used copies here and there, these books have disappeared. Missingfromtheshelvesandnevermentionedinthepress(andseldommentionedevenin ourschools),eachbookthusneutralizedmightjustaswellhavebeendestroyedenmasse orneverwritteninthefirstplace,foralltheircontributiontothepublicgood. III Thepurposeofthisseriesistobringsuchvanishedbookstolifefirstlifeforthosethat neversawthelightofday,orbarelydid,andsecondlifeforthosethatgotsomenotice,or evenmadeasplash,thenslippedtooquicklyoutofprint,andoutofmind.

These books, by and large, were made to disappear, or were hastily forgotten, not because they were too lewd, heretical, or unpatriotic for some touchy group of citizens. These books sank without a trace, or faded fast, because they tell the sort of truths that Madison and Jefferson believed our Constitution should protecttruths that the people havetherighttoknow,andneedstoknow,aboutourgovernmentandotherpowersthat keepusinthedark. Thus the works on our Forbidden Bookshelf shed new lightfor most of us, its still new lighton the most troubling trends and episodes in US history, especially since WorldWarII:AmericasbroaduseofformerNazisandex-FascistsintheColdWar;the Kennedy assassinations, and the murders of Martin Luther King Jr., Orlando Letelier, George Polk, and Paul Wellstone; Ronald Reagans Mafia connections, Richard Nixons closerelationshipwithJimmyHoffa,andthemobsgripontheNFL;Americasterroristic PhoenixPrograminVietnam,USsupportforSouthAmericasmostbrutaltyrannies,and CIAinvolvementintheMiddleEast;thesecrethistoriesofDuPont,ITT,andothergiant US corporations; and the long war waged by Wall Street and its allies in real estate on NewYorkCityspoorandmiddleclass. The many vanished books on these forbidden subjects (among others) altogether constitute a shadow history of Americaa history that We the People need to know at last,ourcountryhavingnowbecomealandwithbillionairesincharge,andmillionsnot allowedtovote,andeverybodyunderfullsurveillance.Throughthisseries,weintendto pull that necessary history from the shadows at long lastto shed some light on how Americagothere,andhowwemightnowtakeitsomewhereelse. MarkCrispinMiller Foreword It was just over thirty years ago when, in the aftermath of Americas defeat in Vietnam, Sheridan Square Press published Ralph W. Deadly Deceits tells how McGehee, an all-American football player and a fervent patriotwhograduatedfromNotreDamein1950,joinedtheCIAdeterminedtodefendthe United States against the menace of godless communism. Deadly Deceits tells how McGehee, an all-American football player and a fervent patriotwhograduatedfromNotreDamein1950,joinedtheCIAdeterminedtodefendthe United States against the menace of godless communism.

In the early chapters he describestrainingandindoctrinationthatintensifiedthesefeelingsandmadehimeagerto jointhebattle. The majority of the books pages are devoted to his assignments in Southeast Asia Vietnam, Thailand, and Laoswhere, as a directorate of plans and trainer of counterrevolutionary (anticommunist) forces (a knuckle dragger, in CIA parlance), McGeheeincreasinglyfoundhimselfactingonstrategiesdrawnupbysuperiorsinSaigon, Bangkok, or Vientiane that did not reflect the realities on the ground as he had come to know them. A true believer in agency leadership, he persisted in reporting the facts to headquarters, confident that changes would be made. To his surprise he found that the higher-ups did not respond favorably to his suggestions. Indeed, to his chagrin and growinganger,hecametorealizethatthoseinpositionsofauthoritywerereluctant,tosay theleast,toconsideranythingthatcriticizedorevenquestionedtheassumptionsonwhich UStacticswerebased.Todoso,hewastold,madesuspecthisloyaltytotheorganization andcommitmenttothesuccessofthemission.Indeed,hewaswarnedthatifhepersisted, hischancesofpromotion,evenhiscareer,wouldbejeopardized. Whilehisfrustrationincreased,McGehee,stilltheferventanticommunistwarrior,was becoming more and more disturbed as he learned from his work in the field that the insurgentshewastryingtodefeatwerenot,contrarytotheofficialline,ignorantpeople terrorized or deceived by communist cadres into taking up arms but mostly peasants rebellingagainstoppressiveconditionsandforeignoccupation.