Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American PresidencyToday when we think of covert operations, we think of American backed mercenaries circulating through jungle camps of Contra guerrillas, CIA agents plotting coups against governments in Chile and Libya, or the lethal cigars used in an attempt to assassinate Castro. In the public imagination, these kinds of operations often seeming to go over the line, and always hidden from Congress and the American people are a recent innovation, a rogue offspring of