Today's Post has a really interesting article on an author who just wrote about his father, titled "CIA Man John Richardson Was a Stellar Spy, Leaving Few Clues, Even for His Son.". It appears, that his father, like the father's of many of us who had parents in the Military and Defense Industries, kept secrets. His father's secrets were a mite more extensive than many of them, his father worked for the CIA.
But what struck me about the guy was not his keeping secrets; but the relevent examples this guy makes of a basically decent person seeking to negotiate his way through a gray world. And his revelevence to current times. He too was "outed" for political reasons. This was back when such outing was still legal.
It appears that John Richardson didn't think it advisable that the US kill President Diem of Vietnam in 1963. Apparantly his new boss, leaked who he was to the Press: "'CIA Chief Recalled,' a headline blared. 'Arrogant CIA Disobeys Orders,' shouted another." And the man doing the leaking, apparantly was "the Brahmin politico Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr, then U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, who wanted Ngo Dinh Diem ousted." Richardson wanted to keep working with him, to keep the war "Vietnamized". Henry Cabot Lodge wanted Diem gone. Shortly after Richardson's cover was blown, Diem was gone, assassinated on the orders of the US. And the Americanization of the Vietnam war began. Later in life, the article recounts:
One day, he's sitting on his father's patio, chatting amid the bougainvillea and lemon trees. They're chatting about Vietnam, sort of. And the son decides to ask his father the big question.
"I asked him how he felt about the blood on his hands," Richardson recalls in the interview.
In the book, he writes: "I'm thinking in a general sense about Diem and the war. But he looks hurt and puzzled and doesn't answer. Later, mom gets angry at me. 'He never killed anyone or ordered anyone to be killed. You know that.' "
But he didn't know that. Not even at the very end in 1998, when his dad is dying and gasping for breath and the son is sitting on the edge of the bed. So much he would never know.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but a man who reads his history, understands the world, can often have forsight. But even worse than rueful hindsight is rueful forsight. After leaving Vietnam his father was never the same. Later he would write:
"National interest -- cold-blooded. Cut our losses but written in human blood."
Referring to Diem's ouster, he was able to see that any effort to defeat an enemy that has to start with killing the leader of the country one is ostensibly allied with is doomed to failure. His son faults him for not being "arrogant" enough, but this wasn't a matter of arrogance on his part. He said his piece, he tried his best. He was defeated by pros that's all. Lodge was so determined to have his war that he was willing to do anything to get it and was not willing to listen to anyone in the the CIA who would disagree with him. That sure sounds familiar. But Robertson blamed himself:
"Worst Episode of my CIA Service," the father wrote, followed by, "Why didn't I protest more?" He was talking about the Diem coup, his son writes. He could get no explanation from his father, then in failing health. The notes left more mysteries.
I saw the author on The Daily Show last night. It seemed sad the relationship of the father and son. The fact that he said his father was an extreme ant-communist didn't garner any points with me.
Posted by: one great reason at August 19, 2005 01:45 PM