Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History Of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, And Assassins by Annie Jacobsen

Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History Of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, And Assassins

by Annie Jacobsen

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History & Foreign Affairs

Covert paramilitary action is the president's third option, the hidden hand, if you will, between diplomacy and war. Jacobsen traces CIA paramilitary action and assassination through the operators who carried it out, above all Billy Waugh, whose career ran from World War II-era enlistment to missions in his eighties.

Core ideas
  • Bin Laden in Khartoum: Waugh surveilled Osama bin Laden in Sudan and drew up a plan to kill him that was never carried out.
  • The case for killing: The book argues targeted killing is preferable to large-scale bombing, as plausible deniability, congressional oversight and Reagan-era preemptive neutralization reshape the rules.
  • Everywhere: The Special Activities Division, rooted in the OSS Jedburgh teams, turns up in Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Central America, Iran, Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Published2019
Pages560
ISBN9780316441438
ReadMay 2024

Connected to 6 other books

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