|
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA | 
| Author: Tim Weiner
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $11.53
You Save: $5.42 (32%)
New (40) Used (9) from $10.11
Rating:  132 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 848
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.7
ISBN: 0307389006
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.1273009
EAN: 9780307389008
ASIN: 0307389006
Publication Date: May 20, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
With shocking revelations that made headlines in papers across the country, Pulitzer-Prize-winner Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers here why nearly every CIA Director has left the agency in worse shape than when he found it; and how these profound failures jeopardize our national security.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
History of a newspaper that kills September 6, 2008
Dr. Lee Carlson (Saint Louis, Missouri USA)
The author begins the book by saying that all Harry Truman wanted was a newspaper. If the author's history as outlined in this book is to be believed, what Truman and his predecessors eventually got was an organization that could be described as a superposition of incompetence and savagery. With each passing paragraph the reader is introduced to an organization that fancied itself above the law and indulged itself in every manner of vile actions, many of them going completely beyond the pale of acceptable moral conduct. But apparently the CIA believed that morality was impractical, and that for the United States to "survive in the real world" one must dispense with morality and act in a manner that is similar, if not identical, to the conduct of one's "enemies."
The author's narrative is informal and sometimes reads as an action story, and those readers who need more details, even after reading such a sizable book, are given 170 pages of notes and references at the end of the book. It is readily apparent that governmental hierarchies do not intimidate the author, as some authors might be if they took on such a damming account of an organization that is sometimes venerated beyond rational measure. The author completely demolishes the Hollywood paradigm of intelligence agencies, with its glorification of violence by spies and other intelligence agents. Indeed, in many parts of the book the agents and support personnel of the CIA are made out to be inept, bumbling fools.
The threat of world domination by "Communism" is given as the CIA's primary excuse for acting as it did, with the overthrow of the governments of Iran, Guatemala, and Brazil being good examples, and the list goes on. The author does not elaborate in too much detail on the real reasons behind these overthrows, such as that of satisfying economic interests. But his account of the history of the CIA appears believable, and like any other historical document it contents would have to be crosschecked, this of course taking many years of effort. And in this regard, a nagging irony surrounds the reading of this book, and indeed of any study of the institutions of the American government: one finds oneself in the peculiar situation of needing to gather intelligence on the CIA and these other institutions, so as to make sure they do not encroach on fundamental rights of individuals, both living in the United States and elsewhere. An organization that was invented to gather intelligence is now the target of intelligence gathering by the very citizens it was designed to protect. This is indeed an irony, and a very sad one.
But those readers who want the bare, naked truth about the CIA will find this book to be a good start, and reading about its dastardly actions is good discipline for anger management. The author apparently got his information from personal interviews with many of the leaders of the CIA, and from intelligence documents that are now available in the public domain. Credibility of these documents of course is always an issue, but even if say 95% of the content of this book is misleading or even completely false, the other 5% is enough to make the CIA an illegitimate organization, and one that should be dissolved entirely. The victims of the CIA are many, whether they were Iranian citizens during the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadeq, or those of Chile in the overthrow of Salvador Allende, and they should not be forgotten. Perhaps a monument should be built with their names inscribed on it, and this monument placed in the location that the CIA building now occupies. Beside their names will be those of the presidents and CIA directors who ordered their slaughter, whether directly or indirectly.
Useful September 5, 2008
R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States)
Written by an experienced journalist, Legacy of Ashes is simultaneously a serious effort at a compreshensive narrative of the CIA's history and a scathing indictment of the agency's performance. Weiner's account is based on analysis of an extensive amount of documenation, including once classified CIA internal histories, and a large number of interviews of former CIA personnel, including several former Directors. Organized chronologically in a series of short chapters, Weiner traces the Agency's vissicitudes from its inception into the post 9/11 period.
Like many other National Security insitutions, the CIA was improvised at the onset of the Cold War. Its impetus came from Truman's need for reliable intelligence about the Soviets. What emerged, however, was qutie different from what Truman desired and contained systemic flaws that would haunt the CIA througout its history. While Truman wanted an intelligence service, the CIA rapidly became dominated by covert action operations. The emphasis on covert action not only came at the expense of intelligence gathering but often undercut the efforts of the State Dept. and other foreign policy actors. The agency was enmeshed in inter-departmental rivalries with the Pentagon, the FBI, and the State Department. A creature of the Preident, the CIA depended on Presidential support to maintain its bureaucratic position. This gave rise to a sometimes disastrous propensity to tell the President what he wanted to hear rather than the actual facts.
Weiner describes a remarkable number of often disastrous misadventures. Many of these are well known. The Bay of Pigs debacle, the consistent failure to assess Soviet capabilities accurately, the devastating effects of the paranoia of the long-time Counter-Intelligence Chief, James Angleton, the almost slapstick of the Iran-Contra scandel, the devastating failure to be honest in the leadup to the Iraq war, are all laid out well. What Weiner particularly well, however, is to show that this miserable performance was the agency's norm. Weiner describes a large number of horrifyingly incompetent covert operations and intelligence failures. Even apparent successes, like the overthrow of the Mossadegh regime in Iran, had adverse long-term consequences.
This book is very informative but is really high quality journalism as opposed to rigorous history. Legacy of Ashes is mainly a history of the agency's covert operations. There is little description and no analysis of the agency's intelligence analysis and no discussion of why this was such a failure. While this is a fairly long book, there is little effort to provide context. Many of the strategic failures of the CIA, particularly its role in supporting corrupt and authoritarian regimes in the developing world, were really the result of basic American policy failures during the Cold War.
Weiner makes the basic point that the CIA never fulfilled the basic purpose of an intelligence agency, to provide reliable information about the capabilities and intentions of America's foes. This lamentable fact remains true to this day.
 'Must Reading' September 1, 2008
Robert Kushell (Pittsboro, NC)
This book or tapes should be read by anyone who recognizes the critical importance of Intelligence to those who are responsible for leading our country in the perilous enviornment we must navigate in. Unhappily, on balance, we appear to have done a pretty inadequate job to date. This book uses no annonymous sources but only CIA documents to show how bad our history has been in serving all occupants of The White House. If ever accurate information and analysis is needed it is now. Read this incredible saga.
 A journalistic account of the CIA's history August 12, 2008
Alvaro Alonso (Minneapolis, MN, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
For those who are looking for a historical work on the CIA this is not their book. The author is a journalist, and the book is written in journalistic style. Good journalistic style, and probably good journalism, but this is not history.
Telling the history of the CIA, an institution that has been so intimately involved in American foreign policy, is a daunting task. Given the limitations of space, Weisner has tried to do a good job. Not sure if he has succeeded. He focuses on the anecdotic, not providing the big picture. Unless you think that the big picture is that the CIA's history is an impressive collection of blunders, with almost no successes (too bad to be true, I think). Anyway, the anecdotes are more interesting when they refer to events closer in time (and even more when they deal with the Bush II Administration). The final chapters of the book made a more engaging read.
An additional problem is that the author's opinion and point of view is too evident (thus the non-historic character of this work). He does not even try to hide his personal take on many international past events. A more nuanced approach would have been welcome.
I am not an expert on the CIA. Therefore, I do not feel prepared to opinionate about the accuracy of Weisner's assessment. But his style has pushed me a little back. I liked the book, but it could have been better. Weisner has the contacts and the information, but he lacked the skill to put together a real piece of excellent, objective and valuable research. I hope that in a second edition, he comes with a worthier work.
|
|
|
| |
