Page 5 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 5 of 237

To what extent is this secret government compatible with the American system, or necessary to preserve it? Will
it gradually change the character of the institutions it seeks to preserve? If the American people are to try to
answer these questions they must first achieve a greater level of understanding about the secret government itself.

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves," said
Thomas Jefferson, "and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome
discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion."

This book is an effort to thus inform the American people. It traces the history of the Invisible Government: how
it was created by President Truman and how it has functioned under President Eisenhower, President Kennedy
and President Johnson. It discloses how the Invisible Government has operated in Washington to expand and
consolidate its power, and how it has operated overseas in attempts to bolster or undermine foreign
governments. For beyond the mere gathering of intelligence, the secret government has engaged in "special
operations," ranging from political warfare to paramilitary activities and full-scale invasion.

Under certain conditions, and on a limited, controlled basis, such special operations may sometimes prove
necessary. But they cannot become so unwieldy that they are irreconcilable with the kind of society that has
launched them. When that happens, the result is disaster. This was nowhere better illustrated than on the beaches
of Cuba.

Because it has now passed into history and because it is a deeply revealing example of how the Invisible
Government works, we shall begin with the story of the Bay of Pigs.

_______________

* On April 11, 1965, President Johnson replaced McCone with retired Vice-Admiral William F. Raborn, who
served only 14 months as CIA director and was in turn replaced, on June 18, 1966, by Deputy Director Richard
M. Helms, a career CIA operator.