Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

A reviewer

If this book had been written by Jimmy Breslin, it would be, ¿The Gang that Couldn¿t Shoot Straight Part Deux.¿ Only this book was not written by Jimmy Breslin and the consequences to our prestige as a nation, respect in the world and national security are much more serious. However it is a very interesting read, at many times incredible in the audacity of some missions sometimes just shocking in the stupidity displayed by what are supposed to be our nation¿s best. Mr. Weiner lays out the history of the CIA from the very beginning until our very recent history. In the process through extensive interviews and research of declassified documents, he tells a very unnerving story of what our CIA is, what it was meant to be and what it thinks it is. It is a damning indictment of the agency, the various directors and many of the presidents in power during its existence. Towards the end of the book, he pretty clearly sums up what the book is about, ¿Nineteen men had served as director of central intelligence. Not one met the high Standards Eisenhower had set. The agency¿s founders had been defeated by their ignorance in Korea and Vietnam and undone by their arrogance in Washington. Their successors were set adrift when the Soviet Union died and caught unaware when terror struck at the heart of American power. Their attempts to make sense of the world had generated heat but little light. As it was in the beginning, the warriors of the pentagon and diplomats at State held them in disdain. For more than half a century, presidents had been frustrated or furious when they turned to the directors for insight and knowledge.¿ Well that is what the book is about but before you get to that point, there is history, poignant stories, incredible blunders, and one of the best actual spy stories ever written. A true opus. Politically, the book is straight down the middle. You will find out that neo-cons were attracted to the agency from the beginning are were wrong from the beginning. I guess we could have seen it coming. They claimed 500 Soviet Missiles aimed at the US when there were only 4 and that is just the beginning. A featured character is Mr. Paul Wolfowitz who has managed to fail upwards for many years now. On the other side of the spectrum, the book paints President Eisenhower as perhaps our sharpest president in this entire era. However the idea of some guy putting on his underwear in the morning is a little disturbing. In today¿s times it¿s hard to remember the red menace and how that colored their thinking of the time, but it is shocking to learn how right wing and secretive Robert Kennedy was. An icon of liberalism definitely not portrayed that way in this book. The entire account of the Bay of Pigs invasion very much syncs with other accounts I have read so I have no reason to doubt the Robert Kennedy reporting. Other presidents: LBJ is an insecure mess. RMN is a drunken hawk. GRF, though having served in the Senate Intelligence committee for many years was surprised to find out he knew nothing of what the CIA was doing. JEC is a nice man, but not entirely as innocent as most people thought. RWR is out of the loop entirely, with a dark side and a cast of incredible characters to carry out some of the most disastrous missions in the entire agency history. Bill Casey definitely is not portrayed in gushing terms as Valerie Plame described him in her book. WJC was not a hands-on manager when it came to intelligence and was distrusted by the CIA and all the military. GWB, the worst period, as much of a nightmare to the agency as the rest of the United States. He would be the one to eventually undo the CIA and turn into ashes. Nobody comes off unscathed. A fair, fascinating look into the annals of the CIA and our presidents policies and relationship with the agency. A must read.

6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

AWESOME...then

I liked this book from cover to cover, really liked it, and unfortunately believed every word. I found myself jumping right on the bandwagon guided by this author, a successful journalist, and my animosity for our government from the top spot down continued to grow as the author spun his web.

The fact of the matter is that this is an extremely biased novel, starting with the Title and continuing throughout the book. The author mis-quotes, misrepresents, and in my opinion manages to do all the things he accuses our leaders of between the covers of this long work of fiction...lie, manipulate, cover-up, and use information to suite his own purposes and biases.

I am not in any way giving a free pass to some of the decisions that were made by our leaders over the past 200+ years...but my fear is that this book takes it too far and has to use sleight of hand and take advantage of his readers and a national sentiment that wants to believe our government is full of idiots and scoundrels...

Personally I think the author owes everyone an apology, if you have read this, or haven't, Tim Weiner thinks you are an idiot and has completely wasted his considerable writing talent with a bias that is only to easily uncovered. I feel very bad for the large number of readers who have taken this man on his word.

For those of you interested the following link explains Tim's negligence and gives references to reality (the good and the bad).

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no3/legacy-of-ashes-the-history-of-cia.html

Regards,

Jesse H Grindeland
grindeland@gmail.com

4 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

Useful study of a criminal organisation

Tim Weiner, an American journalist, has written a useful history of the US state¿s Central Intelligence Agency. It has been the president¿s private, secret and illegal army, it does what the president wants, so it is not `a rogue elephant¿, as the Church Committee called it. He shows that from its origin in 1947, the CIA has always been incompetent and incapable. In 1948 the CIA launched a scare about the Russians invading Berlin the next day Congress approved the Marshall Plan. A secret clause let the CIA skim $685 million from Plan funds, what Weiner calls `a global money-laundering scheme¿. In 1948 the CIA set up secret prisons in Germany, Japan and Panama, using torture and drugs on its captives. It carried out 81 major anti-democratic covert operations in Truman¿s second term, 170 in 48 countries under Eisenhower, and 163 in just three years under the liberals¿ hero Kennedy. Its efforts at gathering intelligence from 1948 (`World War Three starting in Berlin¿) to Iraq (`Weapons of Mass Destruction¿) have been consistently wrong. It always said that the Soviet Union was impervious to reason, impossible to reform and understood only force ¿ but this is projection, mirroring the CIA itself. It ran coups overthrowing elected governments and installing tyrants, for example in Iran, Guatemala, Congo, where Eisenhower ordered that Lumumba be `eliminated¿, Chile and Greece. Against Cuba it used biological and chemical weapons, assassination attempts hiring Mafia hit men and a botched invasion. The CIA funded Italy¿s neo-fascist terrorists in the 1970s. It illegally spied on the American people. The CIA lied to Congress, the people and presidents, for example, Weiner notes its director Allen Dulles¿ `practice of deceiving the president¿. To cover for the CIA, presidents lied to Congress and the people. Weiner remarks that the CIA¿s testimony to Congress ¿left the impression that the United States had hired a gang of conmen and thieves to run its foreign affairs.¿ It organised death squads in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and in Afghanistan and Iraq today. It carries out illegal renditions of innocent suspects to its secret prisons in Thailand, Poland, Afghanistan and Iraq. Could a democratic country use such a vicious tool?

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Brilliant Overview

Wiener's overview of the CIA, at its best and worst, is amazing. A paramilitary organization enthralled by the sophisticated nature of the British spies, Dulles, Donovan, and others went on to find the Agency that has changed the world for better and for ill. At a time when intelligence is at a premium compared to what Rumsfeld says, the history highlights the Agency's brilliant successes--the defection of KGB agents, dismantaling of the AQ Khan network, overthrow of the Chile government and their spectacular failures--overestimating the Soviet's military strength, the numerous attempts on Castro's life, operations in Soviet Russia and Maoist China, and domestic spying. However, the Agency is still facing its own demise.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book

Pulitzer Prize¿winning author Tim Weiner does a marvelous job of laying out how the CIA's mission and focus were somewhat hampered from Day One. It's a great read!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

must read for policy makers

and for citizens who want to be in the know. Previous reviewer must either be ex CIA or been reading too many Clancy novel; this is reality.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

so biased = useless

This book is so jaded and biased that it renders itself useless.

CIA disinformation disguised as revelations.

The author's premise of the Presidents are to blame and not us (CIA) won't fly. I've read the Church Committee documents so I know the truth. The author's fawning over Richard Helms sickened me. No mention of Helm's assassination of President Kennedy nor one word of RFK's murder by Manchurian Candidate courtesy of Helms and his MKULTRA program. How come? The book is CIA disinformation disguised as revelations. The author is either ill informed or purposely misleading the reader. Why? Well written though and worth a read.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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