Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA
Author | : | |
Rating | : | 4.75 (945 Votes) |
Asin | : | 0671443186 |
Format Type | : | paperback |
Number of Pages | : | 847 Pages |
Publish Date | : | 0000-00-00 |
Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Subjects: United States. , 16 p. Of plates : ill. ; 24 cm. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dw. ; 847 pages; A comprehensive account. Central Intelligence Agency --History.. Description: 847 p
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. The agency's public posture is traced in detail: how, for instance, its agents began the '60s as "closet heroes," emerging as public heroes in the Cuban missile crises only to become public villains as a result of the Vietnam War. Based largely on hundreds of interviews, the book examines the personality and policies of each director in the context of the times. From Publishers Weekly Ranelagh, a British writer, provides here a major overview of the Central Intelligence Agency from its founding in 1947 to the present. . Favorable emphasis is placed on the contribution of William Colby, the most beleaguered of the directors, whose voluntary disclosures laid open the agency's inner workings, "giving onlookers the extraordinary spectacle of a secret service having its secrets revealed by the nation on whose behalf it operated." Colby's successor, George Bush, is a
The Definitive History of U.S. Cold War Intelligence Ranelagh, in a massive and engaging tome, brings alive the characters and story of the CIA in a fair and balanced way. My graduate class on National Security Affairs and the Intelligence Community used this book as one of the primary texts. From Julia Childs to James Jesus Angelton to Richard Colby to William Casey, this wonderful story tells the history of the Agency, its people and their interacti. Solid foundation Magnitude This book has held up well over time. It covers the development of the CIA as an organization from its OSS origins in WWII through 1985. It satisfied my major goal in reading it: understanding how the CIA came to be and how it worked during the main part of the Cold War.While it may seem dated, key themes of this period are still with the CIA today: human vs technical intelligence; the role of a "se. "Comprehensive and Concise" according to A Customer. John Ranelagh's book, The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA, is the definitive text on the CIA. It is comprehensive yet concise; moreover, Mr. Ranelagh took on a major project in creating this masterpiece, with so much information, and so much history, it would be nearly impossible to write an accurate history of the CIA. Yet Ranelagh accomplishes this feat marvelously. I, personally, would li