Just A Taste:

“The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.” ~Sun Tzu

This week, I discuss the assassination of James Forrestal with economist, researcher and author David Martin. Martin just published the best work to date on Forrestal’s death: The Assassination of James Forrestal. Read my book review here.

James Forrestal rose from an entry level position to serve as President of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. on Wall Street. Forrestal was nominated to be Undersecretary of the Navy by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 where he led the national effort for industrial mobilisation for the war effort during World War II. He was named Secretary of the Navy in May 1944 (then a cabinet level position), and the first Secretary of the newly created Defense Department by Roosevelt’s successor Harry S. Truman after the passage of the National Security Act in 1947.

Forrestal was forced to resign by Truman after his reelection on March 28, 1949. He was then essentially placed under house arrest at Bethesda Naval Hospital where he was murdered in the early am hours of May 22, 1949, shortly before his brother was expected to arrive to assist him in leaving the institution.

The CIA was created by the National Security Act in 1947. Its powers were expanded dramatically a month after Forrestal was assassinated. The CIA Act of 1949 was passed by the House on March 7, 1949, by the Senate on May 27, 1949, reported and agreed to by the joint conference committee from June 2-7 and signed into law by President Truman on June 20, 1949. It authorized the CIA “to use confidential fiscal and administrative procedures and exempted it from many of the usual limitations on the use of federal funds. The Act (Section 6) also exempted the CIA from having to disclose its “organization, functions, officials, titles, salaries, or numbers of personnel employed.” It..