Legacy of Ashes

Paperback, 752 pages

English language

Published May 6, 2008 by Anchor.

ISBN:: 978-0-385-51445-3
OCLC Number:: 176950176

No rating (1 review)

For the last sixty years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, “a legacy of ashes.”

Now Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tim Weiner offers the first definitive history of the CIA—and everything is on the record. LEGACY OF ASHES is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after September 11th, 2001.

Tim Weiner’s past work on the CIA and American intelligence …

For the last sixty years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, “a legacy of ashes.”

Now Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tim Weiner offers the first definitive history of the CIA—and everything is on the record. LEGACY OF ASHES is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after September 11th, 2001.

Tim Weiner’s past work on the CIA and American intelligence was hailed as “impressively reported” and “immensely entertaining” in The New York Times.

The Wall Street Journal called it “truly extraordinary . . . the best book ever written on a case of espionage.” Here is the hidden history of the CIA: why eleven presidents and three generations of CIA officers have been unable to understand the world; why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it; and how these failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.

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technicat@bookwyrm.social reviewed Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner

This should be titled America Owes the World an Apology, or The Kennedys Don't Look Great Here Either

No rating

I sort of knew this stuff about the CIA but not how much, like I knew about the coups and election interference (so, karma) but not how pervasive it was and just how many politicians around the world were in their pocket. If there's a real surprise, it's the consistent incompetence - according to this book, even their role in overthrowing a democratically elected government in Iran that backfired to the situation today was negligible, the coup that actually took place instead of the ineffectual one they sponsored was a surprise to the CIA. So you could say E for effect and evil, but the US is unfairly blamed for that one, but there's plenty of other stuff up until the stuff fresher in our memory like Saddam's non-existent weapons of mass destruction and we are now a nation that officially tortures. That's where the book stops since it was …

I sort of knew this stuff about the CIA but not how much, like I knew about the coups and election interference (so, karma) but not how pervasive it was and just how many politicians around the world were in their pocket. If there's a real surprise, it's the consistent incompetence - according to this book, even their role in overthrowing a democratically elected government in Iran that backfired to the situation today was negligible, the coup that actually took place instead of the ineffectual one they sponsored was a surprise to the CIA. So you could say E for effect and evil, but the US is unfairly blamed for that one, but there's plenty of other stuff up until the stuff fresher in our memory like Saddam's non-existent weapons of mass destruction and we are now a nation that officially tortures. That's where the book stops since it was published in 2008, but that's plenty - I read a chapter a day but just finished before my final library renewal expired.

Subjects

Political Freedom & Security - Intelligence
United States - 20th Century (1945 to 2000)
United States - 21st Century
History / United States / General
Politics / Current Events

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