Tim Weiner is the same guy who, in spite of the overwhelming evidence, denies that the CIA played a role in international drug trafficking.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/19/us/cia-says-it-has-found-no-link-between-itself-and-crack-trade.html
Also, his claim about Jim Garrison and Oliver Stone falling for Russian propaganda has been easily debunked.
DiEugenio's response to Weiner's hit piece:
"This phony prelude leads to Weiner’s main theme. It’s not an easy job to soften and make acceptable the life and career of CIA Director Allen Dulles. One would think that, after all we know about Dulles today, no one would try, but Weiner has to, in order to sketch in his other false alternative. Namely that Stone says that Dulles was the “presiding genius of the plot against the president.” (The film doesn’t really say that, but accuracy is not what Weiner is after.)
So now Tim pulls out his make-up kit for Dulles. He writes that the CIA Director did not back the plots to overthrow Charles de Gaulle of France, which is a startling statement. For many interested observers, one of the best books on the career of Allen Dulles is The Devil’s Chessboard. Author David Talbot uses a variety of sources to show that Weiner is wrong. For example, the newspaper Paris-Jour centered on Dulles as the main culprit in the attempted overthrow of April 1961. Later, bestselling French author Vincent Jauvert traced the sources of these stories in the French press to de Gaulle’s own foreign ministry. (Talbot, p. 414) In fact, De Gaulle had come to this conclusion himself. (London Observer, May 2, 1961) Author Andrew Tully also noted columns in Le Monde and l’Express which he wrote were owed to high French officials. (CIA: The Inside Story, pp. 48–49)
In the USA, The Nation reported that high level French government employees thought the CIA had encouraged the attempted overthrow. And using l’Express, they wrote that one of the dissident French generals had several meetings with CIA agents who advised him that getting rid of de Gaulle would do the free world a great service. (The Nation, May 20, 1961) These stories also appeared in American mainstream newspapers like The Washington Post. (April 30, 1961) Most fatally for Weiner, his former employer The New York Times also printed the story. Scotty Reston wrote that the CIA was indeed “involved in an embarrassing liaison with the anti-Gaullist officers.” (New York Times, April 29, 1961) But further, Talbot goes into the reasons behind the conflict between Dulles and de Gaulle. It was the desire of the French leader to get rid of NATO’s Operation Gladio elements in France and also his intent to set free the French colony of Algeria in North Africa. (Talbot, pp. 416–17) One would think that all this would be enough to satisfy most objective observers.
In a neat bit of cherry picking, Weiner never mentions any of these sources. He borrows a trick from Max Holland and says that the idea that the CIA backed the attempts by dissident French officers to overthrow de Gaulle was all part of a Russian disinformation campaign that began in Italy. To most informed observers the idea that Scotty Reston would rely on the Italian newspaper Paese Sera is ridiculous on its face...
https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/why-tim-weiner-never-called-me
I see where
Paese Sera is briefly mentioned at the end, but where does DiEugenio debunk Weiner's article?
You only have to go to Wikipedia to see that Tarbot is as big a conspiracy fruitcake as DiEugenio and most of his apologists at JFK Ed-Forum.
"Talbot's book
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of
America's Secret Government is a biography examining the career of Allen Dulles.
According to Talbot, Dulles orchestrated the assassination of Kennedy at the
behest of corporate leaders who perceived the President to be a threat to national
security, lobbied Lyndon B. Johnson to have himself appointed to the Warren
Commission, then arranged to have Lee Harvey Oswald take sole responsibility
for the act. The book charges that the conspirators in JFK's death also murdered
Bobby Kennedy as they perceived him to be "a wild card, an uncontrollable threat"
that would reveal the plot.
The book has stirred debate about the history of the CIA. In a review for the
San Francisco Chronicle, Glenn C. Altschuler stated, "Talbot’s indictment is long,
varied and sensational." Altschuler wrote: "Animated by conspiracy theories, the
speculations and accusations in his book often run far ahead of the evidence, even
for those of us inclined to believe the worst about Allen Dulles."
David Talbot spouted his lies and misinformation on-screen in "JFK Revisited". Fred Litwin sorts out his Talbot's false claims.
- "JFK Revisited" Misleads on Supposed CIA Support of the 1961 Coup Attempt in France ( Link )
- "JFK Revisited" Misleads by Putting Words in Kennedy's Mouth... ( Link )
- "JFK Revisited" Misleads by Putting Words in Kennedy's Mouth, Part Two ( Link )