Is the CIA reading this?

Recently, I finished listening to the Pulitzer wining book, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz. Normally, I think reading a book is more enjoyable than a book on tape, but I don’t think this was the case for this book. There was a good amount of Spanish slang that was used and without the context of the person’s voice, I don’t think I could have understood what they were talking about. Anyway, the book was an astounding work of literature; every sentence was beautiful and impactful. It was not written in any type of stream of consciousness, it seems that each word was carefully analyzed and constructed. This made for great reading (well, listening); however, the plot was just average. In reminds me of “The World According to Garp”, in that the writing was great, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

The real reason I wanted to post was not actually about Oscar Wao, but about the CIA. It seems like every time I read about the recent foreign policy of the United State, the CIA is playing a prominent and often unimaginable immoral role. In Oscar Wao, they talk pretty extensively about the history of the Dominic Republic, especially the torturous reign of General Trujillo. Because Trujillo was anti-Cuban and anti-communist, the CIA’s supported him for decades until Trujillo order the assignation of Venezuela's president Rómulo Betancourt. After that, the CIA worked with Trujillo opposition leaders to have El Jefe (Trujillo) shot to death. It seems that the CIA is everywhere, often doing horrible things (sometimes achieving goals in the national interest of the US, other times they just created more problems).

As thus, my next book (real book, not tape) is “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA” by Tim Weiner. I just started it and I am already completely entrenched in the story. Hopefully the book will justify some of the actions of CIA because it would just be too depressing if it doesn’t.