Not as groundbreaking as her first book, Area 51, Surprise, Kill, Vanish is a highlight reel of the CIA’s known exploits and failures. Beginning with its birth following the dismemberment of the OSS, the CIA’s job has been to proceed when the President’s first two foreign policy options prove ineffective: diplomacy and war. Working clandestinely, and with the goal of preserving “plausible deniability” for the President, the agency is tasked with manipulating foreign governments and leaders. Manipulating serving as one of a variety of codes that include assassination.
Jacobsen pokes at these questions with stories of covert CIA actions in Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East, Cuba, and Afghanistan. She does not do much with interventions in Africa and the ongoing War on Terror is probably still more classified than available.
Jacobsen raises important philosophical questions about the rectitude of proper warfare. Is it acceptable to kill a Taliban warlord with a cruise missile, but not a knife to the throat? Is a drone strike that kills a future terrorist an act of prevention or an act of murder? In a world of small-state and non-state actors who do not hesitate to assassinate enemies with sneak attacks (heck, even Putin’s secret services attack its enemies of the state while they reside in foreign countries), is it inappropriate for Americans to play the same game?