Late in his life, Harry Lansdale was to quote to his son David a passage of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875) that was particularly meaningful to him: “At all times and under all circumstances overcome evil with good. Know thyself and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil.”31 Overcome evil with good: that was Edward Lansdale’s unspoken mantra throughout his years on the front lines of the Cold War. His deeply held assumption that he could transform Pacific societies to live up to America’s ideals had its origins not only in his
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