Legado de cenizas/ Legacy of Ashes

from GlennBell

This is a facinating account of the history of the CIA. I learned a lot about actions of the US government over the past 60 years. It is a sad account of our intelligence agency and our executive branch including presidential decisions. The author has conducted significant research and provides t...

from jcvogan1

Using only publicly available sources the author covers the CIA from the post war period through 2006. The main thesis is that the CIA is incompetent and always has been. Argument is very persuasive that the early CIA was a disaster as it focused on paramilitary activities. Much less is discussed...

from dickmanikowski

Exhaustive history of the Central Intelligence Agency, tracing its ups and downs and its few successes and many failures. The allegations of political interference by virtually every presidential administration are highly disturbing, as are the tales of field agents running their own covert opera...

from dlovins

60 years of CIA history as largely an exercise in futility and failure, per NYT correspondent Tim Weiner. To be fair, though, it seems hard to avoid paralysis given the paradoxical nature of its mission. John Hamre, former deputy secretary of defense and president of the Center for Strategic and ...

from patienceltd

This is the book to read if you want a sweeping overview of the hubris, ignorance, and sheer destructiveness of American covert action since the inception of the CIA. The book suffers somewhat from the sheer volume of the material (which simultaneously hides some omissions and falsehoods) and a h...