Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
by Tim Weiner
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tim WeinerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-20
ISBN: 0307389006
Number of pages: 848
Publisher: Anchor
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780307389008
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Book Review: Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner
Summary: 5 Stars
It's hard to imagine an organization that elicits more high profile scrutiny, inquisitiveness and a general shadow of doom and gloom than the American CIA. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency appears to have it's hands in nearly every major political uprising within enemy territories for the last fifty years from the Cold War to Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, the Soviet Union, Afghanistan and modern day Iraq as well as a long history in Iran. New York Times writer and two-time Pulitizer Prize winner, Tim Weiner, assembles a historical account of the organization that rips the cover off what is thought to be a considerably more competent organization than what the inside history would suggest. Instead of working with a cool, calm confidence, the CIA seems too often be left in the dark as to what is really going on in enemy territory and according to many of these accounts, has actually botched entire missions (due to lack of manpower in the field, victimization from double-agents, being fooled by enemy counter-measures, etc.) from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the modern Iraq war (WMD?) through lack of quality intelligence on the ground or poor decision-making back at home. Weiner's book is meticulously documented with direct interviews with many government and former CIA operatives as well as the analysis of a treasure trove of recently declassified documents that shed new light on many formerly secret events of the 20th Century. (Did you realize, for example, it was Kennedy who installed the recording equipment in the Oval Office, not the oft-presumed Richard Nixon a decade later?)
Unlike many books chronicling the `inner-workings' of the CIA, Weiner's has the benefit of a slightly longer historical view allowing for a much more accurate re-assembly based on now available empirical data. His emphasis often revolves around the agency's initiatives as it relates to Presidential orders (or lack thereof) and chronicles every presidential term from Truman to Bush, 43 as well as CIA directors from John Foster Dulles to Richard Helms to George H.W. Bush to George Tenet and the rest. This lengthy, but surprisingly easy-to-read tome has been newly updated for paperback release and is arguably the best book yet on the inner-workings of this often clandestine and mysterious organization. - Tim Devine
Summary of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
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.1945 - Present Books
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