1972
As I see things now I think back to 1972. I had a chance to work for ,"the company". That was what we called the CIA in those days. I was fresh out of the military and had some valuable skills. If i had taken that job my life would have been much different. I would have been working in the State Department. I would have been around to be part of the fall of communist Russia. I would have been involved in the birth of the government's if the then free satellite countries. I would have probably had to be retrained to work with different targets. New languages and cultures. I would have retired after a very rewarding career. There us only one thing. You never knew if you would live long enough to retire. You also knew if you went to work for the company and made it into management you never really retired. You always work for the company. I would have been part of the shadow government. I would work with the puppet master making things happen. But I chose not to follow that path. I had a sense if tight and wrong and decided I did not want to sell my soul to the company. I had witnessed how brutal the "cold war" had been. It wasn't always peaceful. People died. Many people died. It was just how things happened. Sometimes people were sacrificed. I decided I had had enough of the game. I left the service. I left that fateful meeting in 1972 and never looked back. I was able to sleep at night with a clear conscience.
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