Since its publication in 1991 this book has stayed in print, although some parts may now be dated. Stockwell examines often unjustified involvement of the CIA in many parts of the world, through thousands of covert operations, which have ended the lives of millions of people. He describes secret and obscure operations, some of which entailed the killing of people by the thousands at Angola, and others such as the one which overthrew the first democratic government in Guatemala, and the creation of the infamous "death squads" in that country and El Salvador, to murder civilians and seed terror among the people.