"Allen Dulles's CIA believed in the power of ideas. It was easy for Dulles's Ivy League-educated executive team to understand why the Trujillo regime became so obsessed with a doctoral dissertation written by an obscure academic. They knew that ideas mattered: they floated like seeds on the wind, over mountains and seas, and took root in the most unexpected places. The Cold War was, in fact, a war of ideas, fought primarily in the realm of the symbolic, through propaganda campaigns and 'proxy' conflicts, instead of on battlegrounds where the superpowers clashed head-to-head."
~ From 'The Devil's Chessboard'
- David Talbot
