James Jesus Angelton, former Chief of CIA Counterintelligence, 1961 to 1973
"You know how I got to be in charge of counterintelligence? I agreed not to polygraph or require detailed background checks on Allen Dulles and 60 of his closet friends...They were afraid that their own business dealings with Hitler's pals would come out..."
"Fundamentally, the founding fathers of U.S. intelligence were liars. The better you lied and the more you betrayed, the more likely you would be promoted. These people attracted and promoted each other. Outside of their duplicity, the only thing they had in common was a desire for absolute power..."
"Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, Carmel Offie, and Frank Wisner were the grand masters. If you were in a room with them, you were in a room full of people that you had to believe would deservedly end up in hell..."
"You know, the CIA got tens of thousands of brave people killed...We played with lives as if we owned them. We gave false hope. We - I - so misjudged what happened..."
Mr. Angelton died in 1987