John Stockwell

John R. Stockwell is a former CIA officer who became a critic of United States government policies after serving in the Agency for thirteen years serving seven tours of duty. After managing U.S. involvement in the Angolan Civil War as Chief of the Angola Task Force during its 1975 covert operations, he resigned and wrote In Search of Enemies, a book which remains the only detailed, insider's account of a major CIA "covert action."

Early years

Born in Angleton, Texas, his Presbyterian father moved the family to the Belgian Congo so he could provide engineering assistance. Stockwell attended school in Lubondai before studying in the Plan II Honors program at The University of Texas. As a Marine, Stockwell was a CIA paramilitary/intel case officer in 3 wars: the Congo, Vietnam, and Angola. His military rank is Major.

CIA career

Beginning his career in 1964, Stockwell spent six years in Africa, Chief of Base in the Katanga during the Bob Denard invasion in 1968 before being transferred to Vietnam to oversee intelligence operations in the Tay Ninh province and was awarded the CIA Medal of Merit for keeping his post open until the last days of the fall of Saigon in 1975.

In December 1976 he resigned from the Agency, citing deep concerns for the methods and results of CIA paramilitary operations in third world countries. He testified before Congress and appeared on the popular American television program 60 Minutes, claiming that CIA Director William Colby and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger had systematically lied to Congress about the CIA's operations. Two years later, he wrote the exposé In Search of Enemies, about that experience and its broader implications. He claimed that the CIA was counterproductive to national security, and that its "secret wars" provided no benefit for the United States. The CIA, he stated, had singled out the MPLA to be an enemy in Angola despite the fact that the MPLA wanted relations with the United States and had not committed a single act of aggression against the United States.

Writing career

Stockwell was one of the first professionals to leave the CIA to go public by writing a bestselling book. Because he did not submit the book to CIA pre-publication censorship, the CIA sued him. As a result, to this very day Stockwell receives no royalties from his exposé and anything further that he writes about CIA operations must be submitted for "review." A book of his lectures, The Praetorian Guard, was published with his permission.

His concerns were that, although many of his colleagues in the CIA were men and women of the highest integrity, the organization was counterproductive of United States national security and harming a lot of people in its "secret wars" overseas.

In 1980, Stockwell said that "if the Soviet Union were to disappear off the face of the map, the United States would quickly seek out new enemies to justify its own military-industrial complex."

Stockwell was a founding member of the short-lived Association for Responsible Dissent, an organization of former CIA and Government officials who were critical of the CIA's Cold War activities.

During the 1980s Stockwell visited college campuses to speak out against CIA support for Central American death squads.

Quotes

"It is the function of the CIA to keep the world unstable, and to propagandize and teach the American people to hate and fear, so we will let the Establishment spend any amount of money on arms."
"Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the U.S. military machine to turn."
"Short, successful military adventures are as effective as the Super Bowl in diverting people's attention from unpleasant truths."

Allegations of state terrorism committed by the United States

David MacMichael—ten-year US Marine Corpt vet and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst. Resigned from CIA in protest.

Ray McGovern—Retired CIA analyst who had been one in charge of preparing daily security briefs for President Ronald Reagans, later a political activist and CIA critic.