I can't remember how much is credible about it or not. Conspiracy theorists make up all kinds of shit, but the US has engaged in some proven nefarious activities. The planned false flag attack with taking down a plane and blaming it on Cuba always comes to mind. That is truly espionage commie movie-type bullshit and this government thought it up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
Law is the only thing at all keeping US government in check. Its morality seems to guide it to a limited degree indeed.
That Operation had the unanimous approval of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs. It's not clear to me if Kennedy heard about it or if it was McNamara that blocked it. It also included a wide variety of operations including some on American soil. I've read parts, it's also not quite clear to me about how many casualties were approved - for example the faked hijacking you mention was a complicated plan that 'faked' a shootdown while landing the jet with the passengers - it's not clear how they'd explain it to everyone later.
But it is a good example of the sort of outrageous thinking going on at the time - old stories about military leaders wanting to 'win' a nuclear war seem real.
People who lived through it might have some little better idea - people didn't think the Soviet Union would be gone in a few years, they expected it to go on for centuries with a possibility of 'human enslavement around the world' or nuclear war in the ongoing 'cold war' between the two. Extreme measures seemed somewhat justified to some people because of that - but they also became a license for terrible things.
It's easier now to just not educate people about the 'cold war mentality', and so many people have little idea about that history.
We really did almost have nuclear global war for multiple reasons. Castro really did tell Kruschev it was ok for Cuba to get nuked for the greater good, which scared him.
Eisenhower irresponsibly had this country on a hair trigger for all out nuclear war if there was some minor skirmish in Europe, with tank commanders facing each other, in order to save money on conventional military options. The air force had total control of that nuclear plan with thousands of targetted cities - they refused to let new Secretary of Defense McNamara see 'their' plan until he had new President Kennedy order them to do so. A major policy of Kennedy was to reduce the risk of accidental nuclear war.
This is important history little discussed now. No, the cold war was just a period when the US and USSR disagreed about economics for a while and then it ended, that's all.
Doppel, the law is not a terribly effective limit on the US government, which is far more about not getting caught than not doing wrong. We spend many billions to do things and hide them.
Ever read the older history, "War is a Racket" by Gen. Butler? Or "Confessions of an Economit Hit Man"?