Justin- Favorite Quote

About the Writing

So I took a real situation and real people within that world and put them in a fake meeting. Operation Mongoose is one of the saddest, most bizarre happenings in covert U.S. operations. If Mel Brooks would have wrote a movie about it, his work would be mostly done before he started. I don't try to get heavy into the comedy here, I'm more pressing for what we look at as admirable in one situation, we don't in another setting.

The quote is the famous quote about Edison and lightbulbs, now applied to assassination.

Mongoose 

February 1963: in a small office in the inner ring of the Pentagon, three men meet to discuss discus progress of Operation Mongoose. Present are Gen. Edward Lansdale, USAF; William King Harvey, CIA; Kenneth P. O’Donnell, secretary to the President and de facto Chief of Staff.  

O’Donnell: Alright, gents, let’s get this going. The White House is overall happy with the results of Mongoose but the President wants to know what’s going on with the Castro part of it.

Lansdale: Kenny you got to realize that covert overthrowing of a regime by assassination or otherwise is a delicate business. If you want it done quickly you tell me and I’ll let a coupla’ bomber wings fly over Havana and be back to Miami in time for breakfast. But if Jack and Bobby want it quietly…

Harvey: That’s where my boys come in. Look we’re doing our best to keep all of this nice and quiet and untraceable.

O’Donnell: Bill, I’ve read the report, it reads like one of those cartoons with the coyote chasing the bird. Frankly, I’m wondering when we give up, now or after we walk off the cliff?

Lansdale: Kenny, your being shortsighted. You know what Ike used to say? “Pessimism never won a war.”

O’Donnell: Seriously Ed? Have you seen these reports? I know you’re overseeing the military side of this and some of the less delicate of the covert ops, but did you think you might want to keep an eye on what you partner from the agency was cooking.

Harvey: Kenny, I’ve been CIA since 47 and FBI before that, all during the war. Now I like Ed, I like working with him, but I don’t need a uniform telling me how to run a secret op.

Lansdale: And I don’t need a civilian telling me how to handle military operations, your boss being the exception of course, Kenny.

O’Donnell: Yes, of course, but let’s get to the business of killing Fidel; I’ve read what appears to be ten thousand hair-brained schemes cooked up, invested in and abandoned.

Harvey: Hair-brained is harsh, Ken. They’re creative, they’re outta the box…

O’Donnell: Way out of the box, let’s see, poisoned snorkel, poisoned cigar, poisoned coffee, poisoned tea, poisoned ink pen slash hypodermic needle, bacteria laden wet suit, exploding sea shells, exploding cigars, and, my favorite, crystals in his shoes that would make his beard fall out so that he would what? Die of Shame?

Lansdale: Kenny, you throw out all of the ideas at once like that and sure it looks crazy. They’re ideas man.

O’Donnell: No, General; not just ideas. Each of these was researched and developed and then halted at the last minute. Each of these the U.S. taxpayers paid a check to Acme Inc. only to find out it doesn’t work.

Lansdale: Whoa, really? Bill you really made exploding sea shells? Have you tried painting a fake tunnel to get him to run into?

Harvey: Funny Ed. Really, I’m dying over here. He’s an avid scuba diver, we were going to plant them at one of his favorite dive spots. So, yeah we looked at that and a couple of the other things.

O’Donnell: No, Bill, everything I listed has had at least some money put into it, not some, all.

Harvey: Hey, we all try different things sometimes they work sometimes they don’t, but we’ve only been working on this since, hmm, when was that, right the Bay of Pigs. Remind me how’d that go?

O’Donnell: It was a failure. After which the administration put you two in charge of a less direct solution. And yes much has succeeded but every morning I check the wires and Castro is still alive, still in charge of Cuba and still, regardless of your magic foot powder, bearded.  Are you ready to admit that you have also failed so maybe we can move on to some crazy idea like a sniper in a tower instead of exploding and or poisoned underpants?

Harvey: No, no I’m not. I have not failed; I have just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.