The Devil's Chessboard

This was probably the most interesting book I've read in a long time. We often don't think about the horrible things our government has done in the past, or we just brush the atrocities aside as justifiable because “freedom isn't free” or some other hyper-nationalist thought-terminating cliché. But the more I read about this nation's history, the more I realize none of these atrocities are justifiable at all. They were all LITERALLY done for the benefit of the corporate elite. Literally.

We almost didn't even join WW2 because so many US corporations were tied to the Nazis. When we did join, we cut deals with Nazis and saved a bunch from being tried at Nuremberg. We turned over control of West Germany's CIA equivalent to former Nazis. Our government trusted (and pretty much still trusts) Nazis more than anyone remotely close to being a communist. Is that just a tad insane to anyone else or just me?

This book also makes a compelling argument that the CIA's former director Allen Dulles, with the help of CIA operatives, orchestrated the conspiracies to kill the Kennedy brothers. JFK refused to send in the Marines to overthrow Castro after the (deliberately sabotaged) Bay of Pigs . He didn't nuke Russia during Cuban Missile Crisis. He was against using the US government to dominate weaker nations for the benefits of mega-corporations. Thus, he had to be removed.

This book also talks about the “Power Elite” or the “Deep State”, which is the “subterranean network of financial, intelligence, and military interests that guided national policy no matter who occupied the White House.” It is very real. And you can see that when comparing how incredibly similar every president's foreign policy has been since WW2: sanctions, coups, assassination, invasions, regime change. Just one long conga line of men sticking their noses into other countries' business for one made up reason or another. Why? Because it serves the interest of capitalists. That was the whole point of the Cold War: to make sure rich assholes didn't lose a cent their wealth that was stolen off the back of the third world.

While some of my past books go over the history of these regime change efforts, this one talks more in depth about the mindset behind the operations and the people who made the decisions. And it went really deep into the Kennedy Assassination, which I previously knew little about.
Great book. Very long. Highly recommended.

As always with books like this, I found it fascinating and disturbing all at once. From other books, I've learned Allen Dulles was a sketchy guy but I've never gone out of my way to read a book that solely (or largely) focused on him. I was buying another JFK/CIA related book at a consignment shop when the owner immediately passed me a sticky note and said, “I'm going to tell you the name of another book...” I looked it up later that night and bought it immediately. Here I am a month later.

This book reenforced my theory that organizations such as the ones connected to Dulles are to blame for the deep state of corruption we are in presently. It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't one man alone, but an awful lot of them were connected to Dulles in some way. The legacy continues. Some other gaps were filled, too, from WWII-Lyndon Johnson — even Nixon! Very informative.

The connection of Alan Dulles to Jack Kennedy's assassination is thinner than mere attribution to the CIA, but the outline of the less speculative events in the man's life is adequate.