People, ideas, machines VIII: CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton, 'a wilderness of mirrors', covert operations, assassinations, moles & double agents, disinformation

[T]he myriad of stratagems, deceptions, artifices and all the other devices of disinformation which the Soviet Bloc and its co-ordinated intelligence services use to confuse and split the West have confronted our policy makers with an ever-fluid landscape where fact and illusion merge – a kind of wilderness of mirrors, where honest statesmen are finding it increasingly difficult to separate the facts of Soviet actions from the illusion of Soviet rhetoric. Angleton Even though the President himself is very much against starting a war over Cuba, an irreversible chain of events could occur against his will… If the situation continues much longer, the President is not sure that the military will not overthrow him and seize power. The American army could get out of control. Bobby Kennedy to Ambassador Dobrynin, October 1962 Kennedy was trying to get to Castro, but Castro got to him first. LBJ to Howard Smith of ABC, 1968 It is inconceivable that a secret intelligence arm of the government h

[T]he myriad of stratagems, deceptions, artifices and all the other devices of disinformation which the Soviet Bloc and its co-ordinated intelligence services use to confuse and split the West have confronted our policy makers with an ever-fluid landscape where fact and illusion merge – a kind of wilderness of mirrors, where honest statesmen are finding it increasingly difficult to separate the facts of Soviet actions from the illusion of Soviet rhetoric. Angleton Even though the President himself is very much against starting a war over Cuba, an irreversible chain of events could occur agains