Truman Was Right About the CIA

Mises Institute ^ | 03/08/2017 | Jeff Deist

[Bernard Marx]

The OSS was a lot better.

Huh? You mean the "Wild Bill" Donovan who cozied up to Stalin, and welcomed the greatest ever Soviet spy penetration of the U.S.? Do a little research.

This isn't to say the CIA's an improvement. Every bureaucratic organization has to be purged regularly or it becomes a power unto itself: the IRS is a great example.

[HIDEK6]

Truman won by voter fraud. It’s a democrat tradition.

[Manic_Episode]

So Truman killed JFK by accident....

[nickcarraway]

You are WAY off base on that. Do you have any proof. I will post more after work.

[Grampa Dave]

Very interesting. And of course it’s well known that Eisenhower had some thoughts on the military industrial complex.

Harry had a little short memory with Ike, didn’t he?

[suthener]

“So was Schumer.

https://youtu.be/6OYyXv2l4-I“

That Schumer, one of the senior members of the U.S. Senate, would admit on national television that he is scared of the intelligence agencies was one of the most alarming statements I have ever heard. That tells you who is really running the country.

[Tailback]

I thought the documentaries about Jason Bourne were pretty good.

[Grampa Dave]

They/it probably owned even a few small airports on both coasts and on the Gulf.

[Bookshelf]

In succession, Secretaries of State Byrnes, Marshall and Acheson were aware that their in-house Intelligence and Research division (especially during the years headed by Ivy League savant William Langer) was being asked to perform duties and provide studies much in excess of the capability of personnel available to the Department of State. It was their compliance that led to the genesis and then expansion of Truman’s CIA. One way or another, with the Cold War building, there would have been a CIA whether Truman liked it or not.

[Impy]

Say what you will about President Harry Truman

He was socialist swine that sounded like Al Gore on economics.

[Impy]

I don’t think Ex-Presidents getting rich was a thing yet or I’m sure he would have cashed in. As the product of a corrupt KC political machine I’d doubt he’d have had a moral objection.

[Captain Peter Blood]

Having just read the history of the CIA and it’s beginnings you are way off track here. It’s a lot more complicated than you think and the center of it all were the Dulles brothers.

[Basket_of_Deplorables]

The Intelligence Community runs the US, and much of the world. They are completely unaccountable. Flynn was kneecapped because he stated he was going to audit them, find out how out of control they are. They got to the judge, of course, and ensured Flynn would never be out from under a cloud. Long enough to remove Trump.

[indthkr]

IC Corruption - bump for later...

[BillyBoy]

If I had to vote for “best” 20th century RAT president, Truman gets my vote for at least being “least bad” RAT. Certainly I find him more likeable and honest than the sleazy corrupt horndog JFK and his faux “Camelot” persona. Ironic since Truman was a product of one the most corrupt RAT political machines in the country at the time, as you noted. I still would have voted for Dewey over Trump, and the Fair Deal was pretty much New Deal lite. But meh, JFK would have done a lot more damage if he had lived.

[TECTopcat]

yep-ignorant article-on Truman and on reference to Reagan’s $s, he wasn’t even in top 10 richest presidents and he worked in private sector for 30 years. Reagan wasn’t that rich-yes house in Bel Air but that money came from his movie and advertising days-his ranch house was tiny, linoleum floors, he used ties to put a foot stool at the end of the bed so he didn’t have to buy a longer bed-and he did a lot of the work

[nickcarraway]

JFK was in the top two most conservative presidents of the century. He cut taxes more than any other president.

He was also anti-communist, not communist-friendly like Nixon.

[BillyBoy]

>> JFK was in the top two most conservative presidents of the century. <<

Bull. And the "other" conservative President of the 20th century, Ronald Reagan, certainly DISAGREED with you on that, as he OPPOSED Kennedy in 1960 because Kennedy was TOO LIBERAL. Even more incredible, Reagan was a "Democrat for Nixon" at the time (he didn't officially switch parties until 4 years later) so Kennedy was TOO LIBERAL for Reagan WHEN REAGAN WAS STILL A DEMOCRAT. No doubt because JFK was from the east coast liberal elite wing of the party rather than being an old fashioned faux "conservative" RAT from the south (and even those RATS were hardly "conservative" on economic issues)

Here's a nice speech from 1962 where Kennedy pushes for Bernie Sanders style socialized medicine. If that's your idea of "conservative", I'd hate to see what liberal looks like:

John F Kennedy argues for universal healthcare

>> He was also anti-communist <<

Fun fact I recently learned a year or two ago: the "anti-communist" JFK helped END the Hollywood blacklist against communist sympathizers by publicly promoting the film Spartacus after the American people discovered the film's screenwriter was blacklisted communist Dalton Trumbo. The resulting outcry lead to an attempt to boycott the film, but JFK promoted Trumbo. Kennedy even "crossed the picket line" of people protesting Trumbo from being reinstated to Hollywood after the fallout from his communist activities.

JFK was "anti-communist" the same way Joe Biden was "against" Presidents using executive orders. It polled well with swing voters.

[fieldmarshaldj]

"JFK was in the top two most conservative presidents of the century. He cut taxes more than any other president."

=President Warren Harding has entered the chat=

[BillyBoy]

Heh. When I researched the topic a few months ago, Harding was also the clear cut "winner" for best SCOTUS appointments of any President from the last century, hands down. Coolidge accidentally appointed a "progressive" activist RINO that FDR later elevated to CJ, half of Reagan's SCOTUS picks were disappointments, etc. Harding was literally the only President who batted 100%. He looked for solid conservatives, and appointed judges who ruled that way every time.