Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
by Tim Weiner
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Book Reviews of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Book Review: One View
Summary: 2 Stars
I found this book to be well written and researched. However, it focuses on failures and various "black eyes" that the CIA has accomplished over the span of its history. At best, it leaves a lot unsaid. The successes of the CIA cannot and really should not be flaunted. It is the nature of the Intelligence World that its heroes go unsung. In order to maintain operational feasibility the CIA has to quietly take some of the harshest criticisms and scathing reviews of any government entity. I will grant that some of this may be well deserved but it should be remembered that many people we will never know about have sacrificed their marriages, relationships with their children, friends, and even their lives because they believe in the dream that was once America. Such a one-sided account should be taken for what it is and not as the "Whole Story."
This book was depressing to me at one point because it simply gives the impression that CIA has never gotten anything right. This can hardly be the case. No individual or group can be perfectly flawed. If the solid information in the book (and it is considerable), can be separated from the attitude of the writer it is a worthy read for those involved in the study of Intelligence.
Book Review: Good Storytelling, not Much Analysis
Summary: 5 Stars
This book by Tim Weiner is a great read. It is packed full of juicy details on many exploits of the early CIA -- and it is heaviest on the early period from 1946-1963 -- likely owing to the declassification of materials from that period. However, this book is guilty of what many books on intelligence are guilty of, namely, that the errors make great storytelling but the successes are likely unknown and that the James Bondish exploits are only a small fraction of what the intelligence community does.
Still, Weiner packs a lot of stories into his pages. The 1950s are a particularly rich time for his history. At the time the seniors at the CIA seemed more interested in following pet projects and helping their friends than in fulfilling the writ of the Agency. But the constant references between this period and today gets old after awhile, particularly with regard to early CIA missteps and Iraq, as if the examples are related in some way.
That said, this is still a worthy read if for nothing else the number of stories of actions gone wrong that can serve as reminders or as lessons learned to future CIA leaders when they are contemplating future actions.
Book Review: The Worst of The CIA
Summary: 2 Stars
I had really high hopes for this book, having had it suggested to me by so many people, but alas, it just doesn't live up to the hype. Like any Best of/Worst of album the book is long on slick cuts, short on substance. So, Weiner hates the CIA. He regards everything that they did as being flawed by lies, deception, incompetence, folly, drunkeness. Ok. He feels that vast amounts of humna and other capital have been squandered to no good end. Ok. BUT in terms of writing the whole thing falls flat & gets lost in weird time-skips -Weiner starts to get into something interesting, then he drops it to run after a new shiny horror 3 years later, only to MAYBE come back to where he started pages and pages later, or maybe not.If you want some quick fast thin overview of CIA foulups, then probably this will be just fine. If you REALLY want any sort of informed reporting you will have to go to books that focus on particular incidents, accidents, or spheres of influence. I imagine that this book was quite the talk of the Georgetown High Drinking Set (Weiner seems obsessed with his villains' alcohol intake) for about a week, and then forgotten.Book Review: an enjoyable read
Summary: 4 Stars
This is really the first book I have read about the US intellingence
community, and it was a very enjoyable read. Tim Weiner has
very few good things to say about the CIA. It is difficult to judge
whether he is too critical - I am certain he stuck to the facts, but there
are many different ways of presenting them, and many different
things to pick on in the nearly 60 year history of the agency.
However, I've learned quite a bit about some of the most important
moments in the nation's history from a very special viewpoint.
It is frightening if an agency that has for so long eluded oversight and
accountability was involved in these events to the extent portrayed.
Ultimately, all intelligence services are antithetical to democracy - particularly
those whose activities go beyond collecting information. Even if the
present book does not tell the complete story, it does make clear that the US has
not solved the problem of how such an agency can be part of a democratic
society without undermining its very tenets.
Book Review: Encyclopedic in scope...
Summary: 4 Stars
A dense, factual, eye-opening account of the CIA from Truman to Bush43, Weiner is unsparing in spotlighting their mistakes. He outlines the history of the CIA's decision-making -- the hubris, the predominance of covert action over active intelligence (spying), the inability to self-examine when things go wrong, and just the nasty push and pull of politics between the Whitehouse and the Director(s) of the CIA. His research is based on recently declassified information (some have been recently "re-classified") and interviews, with extensive notes at the end.
Now that the CIA appears to be swallowed up by the Pentagon after the fiasco of Iraq's WMD's, (Weiner views this as a testament of the loss of faith in the CIA but not necessarily what's best for the CIA as an institution), he rather poignantly wonders if it might be too late for the CIA to rise again from the ashes of a legacy that has fallen far, far short of delivering its best work.