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Ex-CIA Analyst's 1986 Op-Ed: 'Sometimes, Assassination Is the Right Way'

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Frequently Asked Questions

Richard D. Kovar, identified in the article as a former CIA analyst, wrote the piece for the Washington Post's 'Free for All' letters section.

Kovar cites the hypothetical 'elimination of the Castro brothers' as an example supporting his argument that targeted assassination can be a more humane political tool than war.

Public-Interest Summary

A Washington Post 'Free for All' op-ed from 26 April 1986, kept in CIA press-clipping files, in which former CIA analyst Richard D. Kovar argues that targeted assassination of dictators can be more humane than war — explicitly citing the 'elimination of the Castro brothers in Cuba' alongside Hitler and Japanese wartime leaders as examples where he believes assassination would have spared greater bloodshed. The piece responds to an earlier Outlook article arguing against assassinating Muammar Qaddafi, and was written seven years before the Church Committee's mid-1970s revelations about CIA assassination plots became broadly public knowledge. Its presence in Agency files shows the CIA tracking press debate over assassination as a tool of statecraft, decades after its own Cuba operations.

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Fidel Castro Richard D. Kovar Washington Post 26 April 1986

People Organizations Locations Amounts

Provenance

https://archive.org/download/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00587r000100690001-7/cia-rdp91-00587r000100690001-7.pdf

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JFK Assassination Documents

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