The
Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA
by John Ranelagh
From Back Book Cover
"This is the fairest and most reliable
history of the CIA that has ever been written."
- Walter Laqueur, Center for Strategic and
International Studies, coauthor of Breaking the Silence
"The best comprehensive history of the
CIA. . . A fine book" - Foreign Affairs
'There has been nothing as comprehensive
as Ranelagh's detailed narration of the CIA story. . . The documentation
is impressively voluminous. . . strengthened by the wealth of
evidence" - The Washington Post
"A comprehensive, thoughtful examination
of the CIA from gestation to middle age"
-The New York Times Book Review
The Agency is the first-ever history
of the Central Intelligence Agency to chronicle the development of this
phenomenally powerful institution from its intrepid early days to the current
bureaucracy riddled with scandal and scrutiny.
John Ranelagh unravels how the CIA played
a vital role in nearly every struggle between East and West over the last
half century, focusing on the remarkable men who led the agency and maneuvered
it through adventure, misadventure, and disaster.
-
"Wild Bill" Donovan started the Office of Special
Services - America's first coordinated intelligence agency - and gave the
CIA its original, and enduring, image: dashing, Ivy League, and Eastern
Establishment.
-
Allen Dulles, and his Secretary-of-State brother,
saw to it that covert operations - the Bay of Pigs, U-2 flights, assassination
plots, and LSD testing - were priority #1 during the Cold War years.
-
Richard Helms was a career agency man and a
model of the efficient technocrat: coolly managing intelligence-gathering
and analysis.
-
William Colby took over during Watergate and
took the brunt of public and congressional scrutiny, watching the agency
relinquish some of its respect and influence.
-
William Casey was Reagan's man, and despite
increasing exposure of covert government operations - "Iranscam" - he campaigned
for CIA activism right up until his illness and resignation.
Thoroughly revised - and with new sections on
the Iran-contra affair and the appointment of William Webster - The
Agency is an up-to-date, riveting revelation of the secret world of
power and intrigue as it really is.
John Ranelagh is a producer of Channel 4
Television in England and the author of two books on the history of Ireland.
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