CONSPIRACY. Ezra had an interesting post over at his place the other day about the problematic relationship between Serious People and what they dismiss as conspiracy theories. He then thanks someone for passing along the details of the MK-Ultra fiasco. (By the way, according to recent reports, everything old is new again.) It's all a matter of perspective, really, even for those of us who've had a sweet-tooth for American political paranoia most of our lives. We grew up in what was its modern golden age, abetted by the excessive secrecy of the Cold War, and jump-started forever by the botched inquiries into John Kennedy's assassination. That said, we'd believe anything, because LBJ really did lie about the Tonkin Gulf. COINTELPRO was a real program. Ronald Reagan really did sell missiles to the mullahs. Hell, even the original explanation for the Roswell incident turned out to be a grand fib. And, just to play with young Ezra's noggin a little more, here's my personal favorite. Here are the Joint Chiefs of Staff, proposing all sorts of crazy stuff regarding Cuba, and nobody turns this lunacy off until it gets to the Secretary of Defense. I've held a copy of the memo in my hand, by the way, at the JFK Library.
--Charles P. Pierce
