Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
 

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

by Tim Weiner

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... (read more)

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bfeld
  • Rated 5 stars

My last book of 2007 was Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA , one of the CIA books recommended in the comments of my post History of the CIA. I read it on my Kindle, which I love.

I've read a lot of books in my life. I don't think I've ever read a book that was as profoundly negative and damning on any organization. The author - Tim Weiner - is a well regarded Pulitzer Prize-winner New York Times correspondent so this book is the real deal.

Weiner approaches this as...

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Didn’t Like It

Suzanne H
  • Rated 2 stars

This book details, in vivid details, the dealings the CIA has had since its start after World War II. Sadly most of the covert actions the CIA has been involved in have been poorly planned and poorly exectued, so the Angency has had only a few real successes. This book details them all, with an extensive set of quotes from Agency Documents. However some are taken out of context and apparently many in the agency have taken issue with some of the timelines of the events in the book. It made...

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Community:
  • Rated 3.87037 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4.5 stars
 

Newest Comments

  • Kira M

    kira m said:

    Sounds like a very hard cheese but very factually scarey book
    I might read it.

    posted Saturday, December 29 2007
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