Tag: CIA

The 50s, TV, The Company and The Hungarian Uprising

Characters_nemeth1I was ten in 1956, when the people of Hungary rose up to end the Russian occupation.  It was a rout – and they remained under Communist domination until the fall of the Berlin Wall.  It’s difficult to explain now just how scary it was to hear of these heroic people crushed in the streets, and, for a child, difficult to place.  Could it happen to me?  To my family?  How did the Russians get there?  Why did they care what people did in Hungary?

A couple of years later a local church group sponsored a Hungarian family’s move to the US and their son, our age and pretty good at speaking English, came to dinner at the home of my friend Lois and spoke to a group of us – maybe it was our Girl Scout troop; maybe just a bunch of girlfriends – I’m not sure.  He was dramatic and dignified and so happy to be there.  Listening to him and the stories of those he’d left behind was a haunting experience – especially in the mind of a romantic politicized 13 year old mad for JFK.

I hadn’t thought about any of this in years, but this summer TNT brings us The Company – a history of the CIA — and of the Hungarian tragedy of 1956.  From the perspective of 50 years it’s still so sad, even through the gauze of TV melodrama – and the freedom and prosperity of Hungary today doesn’t mitigate much.

I’ve kept my eye on what happened in the East since then.  We took our kids through Czechoslovakia and East Germany while they were still behind the Iron Curtain.  We couldn’t get the boys dry socks after a heavy rain because, as the storekeeper told us “we don’t have socks today.”  We gave all our Bruce Springsteen tapes to our guide; each one would have cost him a month’s pay on the black market.

Pottsdam_2
I’ve even been to Pottsdam. That photo on the left is the bridge where spies were exchanged during the days of the Cold War.  So it’s not like I don’t know what happened historically.  Once in a while though the recreation of reality, even with Hollywood gloss, slams me back where I was for a little while.

That’s all – I’ve been sitting here trying to think of a real ending for this – and I can’t — no massive summary available.  Good night.

SPIES, LIES AND THE MOVIES

Good_shepherd_1_damon In our usual Christmas Day tradition, we went to a movie today.  We chose The Good Shepherd — a sort of biopic of the CIA through the eyes of one Skull and Bones Yalie in the 30s who rose to head counter-intelligence there. Played by Matt Damon, he was a great character but the film itself was troubling.  There are plenty of beefs with the plot and the bare, stereotypical portrayal of the women but most interesting to me was its ambiguity.

Throughout the film, it’s clear that much of what’s happening is horribly distasteful and ugly.  Yet it’s equally clear that much of it has to be done, and that the people doing it are not ALL odious creatures.  Instead, we’re able to think seriously about these people and what it is that has shaped their lives.

Nicholson2_2

As one ugly incident after another arose, all I could think about was a courtroom scene in A Few Good Men when Tom Cruise’s character Lt. Daniel Kaffee questions Jack Nicholson’s memorable Col. Nathan R. Jessep
Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I think I’m entitled.
Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth.
Col. Jessep: You can’t handle the truth.
Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

In other words, lots of ugly things are done in our names. Sometimes, like in Abu Ghraib, they’re wrong. Sometimes, like some of the events in this film, they’re necessary — and as Col. Jessep reminds us — most of us don’t want to talk about them at parties –OR to know about them at all.
As angry as we get – and as ashamed as current government activities may make us – this film has evoked in me a renewed awareness of those complicated moral issues that emerge along with complicated events. For that alone, it’s a movie I’d recommend.