[cgbg]

Yup—key to the concept of a Deep State are informal networks of trust—and of course trust takes many years to develop.

These folks had worked together for two decades.

[Steely Tom]

Right. And the trust relationships "forged in war" (to use a hoary old cliche) are the strongest there are, between people not related by ancestry.

I guess the battles of WWII continued to be fought for 35 years after 1945, if not longer.

Our current problems with North Korea, for example, are echoes of WWII.