Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA
by John Prados
Summary
Safe for Democracy for the first time places the story of the CIA’s covert operations squarely in the context of America’s global quest for democratic values and institutions. Mr. Prados offers eye-opening accounts of the covert actions themselves, from radically revised interpretations of classic operations like Iran, Guatemala, Chile, and the Bay of Pigs; to lesser-known projects like Tibet and Angola. He supplies full accounts of Reagan-era operations in Nicaragua and Afghanistan, and brings the story up to date with accounts of activities in Somalia, Bosnia, and Iraq. Safe for Democracy is the most authoritative and complete book on the CIA’s secret wars ever published.
Excerpt
THREE DECADES LATER, Jack Kennedy’s man apologized. What had happened at the time had been deadly serious, so serious that, in order to get an ally to go along, the United States had threatened an invasion of another enemy that would have led to nuclear war. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) did not quite kill Cheddi Jagan but did its best to pub him out of business. Jagan, the prime minister of British Guiana, headed for independence as the nation of Guyana, had raised hackles in Washington. The CIA had orders to get rid of him.
In the early 1960s this attempt at regime change, filtered through America’s Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union, was the latest in a long series of CIA covert operations. Jagan became both victim and exemplar. “We misunderstood the whole struggle down there,” Arthur M. Schlesinger reminisced in 1994. President John F. Kennedy’s court historian and private adviser had made Latin America one of his special interests. Guyana became Schlesinger’s special mistake. Of course Schlesinger had help. In fact he had initially held a relatively relaxed view of Jagan as Guyanese leader. The CIA seemed more pessimistic. In an intelligence estimate issued in March 1961, the agency, looking ahead to elections in the South American country, concluded that Jagan’s political party “will probably succeed in winning the right to form the next government.” The CIA further concluded: “Jagan himself is not an acknowledged Communist, but his statements and actions over the years bear the marks of the introduction and advice the Communists have given him.” Further, “Jagan’s US-born wife, who exercises very strong influence over him, is an acknowledged Communist.” The only bright elements lay in the U.S. Intelligence belief that Jagan, to preclude interference in Guyana’s move toward full independence, would not immediately lead the country toward the left and would hesitate to do so later.
President Kennedy’s National Security Council (NSC) assessed the Guyana situation a few weeks after the disastrous CIA failure in the April 1961 Bay of Pigs operation, a covert attempt to invade Cuba. They feared Guyana succumbing to the same dark forces as Fidel Castro. Significantly, the task of figuring out what to do aboutr HGuyana rested with the same officials responsible for U.S. policy on Cuba….
Born in 1916, the eldest of eleven children of a cane cutter, then a driver, from a village outside the capital, Georgetown, Cheddi Jagan saw the depredations of Big Sugar through his father’s eyes. Cheddi graduated from Northwestern University in the United States and became a dentist. He used his income to put other family members through college. Attracted even then to progressive causes, Cheddi met Janet Rosenberg at a political event in Chicago. In 1943 they married. Once a member of the Young Communist League, Janet Jagan had, if anything, stronger views than Cheddi’s. When the Jagans returned to Guyana they thought themselves destined to organize the workers. In 1947 Cheddi Jagan won elections to a consultative council advising the British governor. Three years later he and Janet were founders of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the first mass political party in the country and for a time the multiracial exponent of Guyanese nationalism, only increased his appeal to the workers.
Reprinted with permission of Ivan R. Dee Publishers. http://www.ivanrdee.com
Reviews
"This is the most detailed single volume on the modern history of US covert operations"—Choice
"If you’re studying the CIA’s operations and routines you can’t be without Safe for Democracy"—Midwest Book Review
"A comprehensive and superbly researched effort that is both engrossing and disturbin."—Booklist
Author's Biography
John Prados is widely recognized as one of the foremost historians of national security affairs. His major books include Presidents’ Secret Wars, Pentagon Games,Inside the Pentagon Papers, The Hidden History of the Vietnam War, and many others. He is a senior fellow at the National Security Archives and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.