The Tears of Autumn Quotes

“What exactly was the role of the U.S. government in the coup that overthrew Ngo Dinh Diem?” Trumbull stared for a moment at Foley’s rigid back. Then he said to Patchen, “Tell him.” “I think you already know, Paul,” Patchen said. “In simple terms, we countenanced it. We knew it was being planned. We offered advice. We provided support. We encouraged the plot. We welcomed the results.”
― Charles McCarry, Tears of Autumn: A Paul Christopher Novel

“Idealists make brave agents, but they are bad intelligence officers. They cannot exist for long without the company of like minds; they have a need to speak their beliefs and to hear their beliefs spoken.”
― Charles McCarry, Tears of Autumn: A Paul Christopher Novel

“At eight o'clock the street filled up with Italians, as though the town had been turned upside down like a sack and its people spilled into the morning.”
― Charles McCarry, The Tears of Autumn

“Do said you Cubans had the best service in the world, because your revolution is still young enough to feel hunger and rage.” Ruiz nodded, accepting the compliment. “Do told me that story, too,” he said. Christopher went on speaking, as if prolonging the joke. “It was Benshikov who suggested a professional rifleman for Dallas, you know. Do wouldn’t tell him the details, just that he wanted an assassin.” Ruiz read the label on the empty vodka bottle. “Truthfully, at the time, I thought they had chosen the wrong man—not you, the assassin,” Christopher said.”
― Charles McCarry, Tears of Autumn: A Paul Christopher Novel

“Yes, the geomantic factors. You understand the principle of geomancy, of course—one orients oneself to the natural world on the basis of harmony with the five natural elements, which are fire, water, metal, wood, and earth. None of these three men seems to have been in harmony with the world. In Vietnamese terms, they were all under the influence of the Ma Than Vong.” “Which is?” “A very colorful and malevolent force—the tightening-knot ghost. Ma Than Vong goads men to suicide, or into situations where their violent death is inevitable.”
― Charles McCarry, Tears of Autumn: A Paul Christopher Novel

“Christopher, leaving his tea untouched, faced the two old men. He supposed they might be sixty, but it was impossible to tell with Asians; one year they were fresh with youth, and the next their skulls came through their flesh as if their corpses were eager to escape into the grave.”
― Charles McCarry, Tears of Autumn: A Paul Christopher Novel

“So, what is it you want to know in return for your silence, and this lesson on philosophy?” “Three things,” Christopher said. “First, is Lê Thu the code name of the operation that was carried out on November 22 in Dallas? Second, how was the message transmitted from Saigon to the North, and then to the man who recruited the American assassin? Third, what is the name of your relative in the intelligence service of North Vietnam who recruited the man who, in turn, activated Oswald?”
― Charles McCarry, Tears of Autumn: A Paul Christopher Novel

“Do you think they killed Oswald?” “No,” Christopher said. “If I’m right about how they handled him, it would have been wasteful. He didn’t know who they were. They must have told him they’d get him out after the shooting, set him up as a hero under a fake identity. He would have believed that.”
― Charles McCarry, Tears of Autumn: A Paul Christopher Novel

“Yes,” Christopher said. “ ‘He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire”
― Charles McCarry, Tears of Autumn

“Like all good intelligence officers, Webster knew how to form friendships and use the friends he made. No human action surprised him or touched his emotions.”
― Charles McCarry, Tears of Autumn