Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins Hardcover – May 14, 2019

From the standpoint of a retired CIA Directorate of Operations officer, later Clandestine Services from 1965-1991, and on contract from 2001-2012, I make some observations:--Re the interviews w/ the senior officers now retired; We only get a snippet here and there of their answers to the author's questions. You are not allowed unless otherwise cleared to discuss classified information. Sort of difficult to know what they actually said. A lot has been declassified, but when in doubt, shut up.Re the Laotian trail watchers and their picture coded buttons: A few yrs later, it was discovered that the indig assets didn't risk going to the Ho Chi Minh trail, but much closer to home pushed some buttons at random. Since all these sightings were converted into intel reports, all of them, and there were thousands, had to be recalled and deleted from customers' data bases. Embarrassing.Re Green Beret Murder Case: Gets very complicated but let me simplify. A MAC/SOG team had a suspected enemy spy in their employ. They went through their chain of command to SF Hqs who went to their Agency counterparts and asked for advice what to do w/a traitor. The Agency person responded that you "terminate with extreme prejudice." Now the Agency is not usually thinking of operating in war zones and used this phrase at the time with the word "extreme" to just to stress what normal business phrase "terminate w/ prejudice" means. Simply fire the person and document it so the the person will not be rehired. In our culture, we've been had and paid the person good money for fabricated info, and don't want him to show up at the next base and take us again. BUT in the heat of the moment, SF took the commonly expected meaning that it means to do the poor bastard in, and did precisely that. A little later, the Agency banned the use of the phrase from our lexicon.--Re the rehash of this 40 yrs later in Kandahar, Afgh: Did the Ground Branch guys actually think that by using their call signs instead of whatever names they are know by that they will remain anonymous? In two tdys at Kandahar I saw a much milder incident that the GBers had observed an Afgh guy trying to obtain too much info over an extended period and as I was the conduit to the Afgh service, they (GBers) wanted me to just get the guy transferred out. which was done. Much easier than killing someone. Maybe the GBers were pulling one over on the author, telling her what she wanted to here, etc.Re the trip to VN and Cuba: Who paid for this, not the author I'm sure.Re Billy W.: No disrespect to him, but in my total 37+ yrs, I never heard of him and I've been around Ground Branch at times. This means absolutely nothing. Now he wrote his book in 2005, and he's fair game game to pick on. His status w/the Agency is never clarified. I suspect he is more than a contractor for the 30 yrs he was w/ the Agency; probably was given staff status at some point. Most of the GBers are contractors and do NOT stay around for a long time. Its easy to get injured or killed in that line of work and if they don't have a military retirement and health care to fall back on, they're SOL if they get hurt on Agency time. They will get their injuries paid for on the Agency's dime, but it ain't covered by the VA. for compensation.As other reviewers have mentioned, there are several points that could have been picked up an Agency reviewer. Killing the enemy during wartime is not assassination. She did not approach the issue with an open mind. Just as assassination may have been looked at during the Cold War, so was interrogation after 9/11. End result is the same; the evil act has been abolished. A very common fault currently is to judge past actions by current knowledge-it isn't that simple.

There are hundreds of books on America's secret armies, CIA hit men and clandestine operations but never one with a focus quite like this. "Surprise, Kill, Vanish" is journalist Annie Jacobsen's very people-oriented history of a most unlikely topic: America's conflicted attitude toward assassination as a policy option and/or military weapon for accomplishing national strategic goals. The sub-title is somewhat misleading. "The Secret History of CIA paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins" suggests another comprehensive look at a subject other writers have already covered well (such as "Killer Elite : The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team" by Michael Smith, one of my favorites; or Jacobsen's own "The Pentagon's Brain" or "Operation Paperclip" also about CIA secrets). But "Surprise, Kill, Vanish" is a much more personable and readable book. It traces the history of the CIA clandestine/paramilitary service back to familiar territory -- the WWII OSS and the establishment of the Green Berets in 1952. But then only follows those aspects related to the specific "assassination as national policy" issue and how US Presidents and their executive agents in the CIA and DoD addressed it. Issues both organizational and legal are covered. Two Green Berets, Billy Waugh and Lew Merletti, become unwitting pawns of this national confliction. Waugh, an early Green Beret, becomes one of the CIA clandestine service's most seasoned operators (and the oldest to deploy to Afghanistan post 9-11). Merletti, a Vietnam Era Green Beret, joins the Secret Service and his career path charts the difficult path of protecting US Presidents against foreign entities intent on employing assassination to further their own objectives. Eventually the book follows three trajectories -- one being the history of America's assassination policy in practice; one the CIA Operator implementing it; and one the Secret Service Agent protecting the President from the consequences of assassination used against the US. Along the way, many US operations in Central America, the Middle East and Africa get their due coverage. There are better and more detailed books on some of these operations but Jacobsen's forte is personalizing the story by following characters like Waugh and Merletti (among others); gleaning from her sources new, previously classified details; and then, by book's conclusion, interjecting herself into the story as she follows Billy Waugh to Vietnam and Cuba where he meets with the children of his former battlefield enemies, General Vo Nguyen Giap and Che Guevara. It's readable, entertaining history about a very serious and important topic. And through it all, Jacobsen maintains her trademark objectivity. As a know-it-all military guy, I did notice a few minor technical details that needed tweaking (RPG and RPK are confused in one Billy Waugh story). But Jacobsen is a strong writer who knows how to get her subjects to open up and share with her. This might annoy those who prefer their history dry and "the facts only, ma'am" but that wouldn't be Annie Jacobsen. "Surprise, Kill, Vanish" is comparable to Ronan Bergman's "Rise and Kill First" in terms of content (there is even an overlapping story involving CIA and Mossad cooperation) but while Bergman's book is bleak -- a straight up description of nationally sanctioned killing repeated ad nauseum -- "Surprise, Kill, Vanish" is upbeat. Assassination may be a necessary evil. But the people involved are not necessarily evil. They are simply willing to go to any length to protect America. Highly recommended. Especially for readers of intelligence operations, military history, 20th Century history, national policy matters and military personalities.Although a verified purchaser, I did obtain an advanced copy. Reviewer opinions are my own.

For the most part I thought the book was well written with restrained embellishment for actions of the writer's sources. It had surprising detail for a book in this genera even though the events were dated.

This story was well told and covered a large swath of history of activity through the SOF world. Very well collaborated with actual history for validation.

Really good story, very interesting insight on what goes on in the secret work of government. Had it read in a few days.

I enjoyed reading this book, it brought out facts and historical not so well known operations for the eye to plainly see, neither judgmental or written from a biased point of view, I wish I could find more authors like this, well done!

I have read several books about the meddling of the CIA in independent countries who want to rule themselves - independent from American influence that is. What has followed has been assassinations, coups and wars. God knows how many individuals have been killed in the pursuit of American dominance around the world.I had high hopes for this book - a Pulitzer finalist no less - but was disappointed. Three mistakes in the first twenty pages, operations described in too little detail. I think the author might have been more successful if she had settled on a smaller time period. The task she set herself led the prose to seem hurried and unsatisfactory.

I have read all of Annie Jacobsen's books and this book had so many factual and descriptive errors in it. The book was not rushed,but appears to be rushed with the lack of military proof reading to correct very obvious mistakes like ID JFK Naval rank in WW2 as a Lt.Colonel when he was a Naval Lt.Jr Grade.Another is the RPG rounds having tracers.RPG goes by one with a whoose sound not like green tracers.I did enjoy the book but expected more from such a talented writer.Focus a lot on the legendary Billy Waugh.I would encourage the reader to also read Billy's book-"Hunting the Jackal". The author seems to give a huge pass to the Obama Admin.Barely 2 pages total written on his 8 years.Current President Trump has even less space written,maybe a half page.So it was disappointing that Afghanistan seems to stop with her writing after 2011 at the latest with UBL take down by SEAL Team 6.First of her books I did not give a 5 Star rating.

I’ve currently got about a 1/3 of the way through, having it as a lunchtime and before bed read, and at this point it’s fair to say it’s a great read so far.A good bit of build up history to the how and why the CIA, paramilitary division and it precursors really lend well to setting up the rest of the book.It sits on the fence for the lions share, which is good as it doesn’t become propaganda, or blurs history.In short, if you’re interested in Intelligence and military history, with explanations behind the wisdom of operations, you’ll not go wrong with this book.

Fascinating read, really enjoyed it. Found Annie Jacobsen, on a Joe Rogen podcast, will be reading more of her books!

Great and informative, well written and captivating. Great insight in to the CIA and methods/ operations with first class information from good sources. A must read for anyone interested in the spy genre movies or novels.