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This is a picture of my dad, one of the founders of the CIA and top advisor to JFK.
Photo's caption, National Geographic April 1968, 1st Lt. Carl M. Freeman III:
"Smiles of welcome light the faces of Mnong women and children at Buon Rocai as Lt. Freeman pays a surprised visit. Devoted to the people's welfare, the American helped reconstruct a bridge and rebuild a burned-out village; with the aid of U.S. Army medic Owen Wright of Dallas, Texas., he expanded medical facilities to treat the sick. After four months of intensive effort, Freeman collapsed of exhaustion and malaria. Now recovered, he commands the Special Forces team at An Lac."
@freemo side note: I think the CIA gets an unfair reputation. I mean like most everything they do is kept quiet, it's only when someone screws up royally that it makes the news. But what about the other 99.9% of the time when things go as planned? Nobody knows. Like when documents get leaked, there's always like 50,000 documents that get dumped, and the media finds the 1 with the screw up. The other 49,999 are boring, but that's them doing their job right.
@skanman I am no lover of the CIA or even military in general... Im very anti killing and anti war. But i try to talk about it from a neutral standpoint and my judgements of my dad in that regard i try not to do since i dont know many of the fine details.
What I do know is my dad was a good man and he tried his best to do what was right by his own moral compass. Whether I agree with that or not aside, he was trying to be a good person and that matters a lot.
@freemo I'm no lover of them either, I can't do that either, I'm just saying it's not fair that they get a bad rep based on the data that is visible. There's not much to go on. If I go by logic though, I don't think the CIA would be a fan of killing either. I've had a few conversations with my grandparents after they died, and it was impossible to get information out of them. Don't judge me, I was sad. But yeah, kind of hard to get data from a dead guy. Torture however, I'd believe that's more common than we know. And that's crap too.
I'm glad you had a good relationship with your dad, and his moral compass was great. I love my dad too, he's awesome. But I have so many friends who don't know their dads, or worse. I'll call my dad later.. I'm inspired 👍
@skanman I actually barely knew my dad... I just reflect on him with some degree of care.
@freemo well you seem like a great dude.. and they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..
@skanman There are shreds of hope? Can you point me to some of those please.