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Product Description: With shocking revelations that made headlines in papers across the country, Pulitzer-Prize-winner Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers here why nearly every CIA Director has left the agency in worse shape than when he found it; and how these profound failures jeopardize our national security. Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-29
Spectacular Failures at Impossible Tasks
This is an important book because of the insight it provides about the nature and history of the CIA's work. It's hard to read, partially because it is so repetitive. According to this book, throughout its history the CIA has failed spectacularly at essentially every major task it has undertaken. And, in so doing, it has caused thousands of deaths, wasted billions of dollars, operated lawlessly and shown total disregard for the wishes of the presidents it has "served". It's not a pretty picture.
The more failures that are chronicled, the more a reader almost has to conclude that the job of gathering good, actionable intelligence is essentially impossible. There's no place for CIA operatives to go to learn how to do their jobs effectively. They have talent and drive, at least at the beginning of their CIA careers, but they are not superhumans and are overwhelmed by their tasks.
I wish there could have been an appendix or a companion book in which another author might take issue with the way this book presents the CIA's history - saying it's not really this dismal and here's why. Maybe that book is out there and I should look for it, but meanwhile I'll never think very highly of the CIA after reading this one. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-26
Interesting!
This fascinating, provocative and relevant book is a history of the first sixty years of the CIA compiled solely from first-hand reporting and primary documents. It is a devastating account of how the agency lurched from crisis to crisis, unable to establish a first-rate intelligence organization in an increasingly complex and dangerous world.
What began as a successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the military intelligence unit during WWII, the CIA was established to combat the emerging threat of the Soviet Union at the tail end of that war. The goal of the CIA was to ensure that there would never be a second "Pearl Harbor," but the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989 left the CIA somewhat aimless without its original raison d'etre. With the horrendous attack on 9/11, the initial reason and great fear that brought the CIA into existence had already come to pass.
The ultimate findings of this award-winning study is that each President due to their own idiosyncrasies or failings left the CIA worse off than the previous administration. Some chose incompetent directors, others chose to ignore sound advice, while still others made decisions due to political criteria rather than substantive ones. Some presidents made the CIA a personal surveillance agency against presumed domestic enemies, while others pressured the CIA to tailor its findings to fit White House policy to the detriment of the organization and the country.
This caustic indictment suggests critical errors were made by and to the CIA throughout its history. Its choice of gadgets over spies left it totally unaware of many critical developments. Its love of high wire covert actions over time-consuming intelligence gathering often left it bereft of knowledge and in embarrassing international situations.
The conclusion that Weiner has come to is that the CIA ended its sixty-year history the same way Eisenhower evaluated it at the end of his administration - as a "legacy of ashes."
Armchair Interviews says: Most thought-provoking information.
Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-06
I just attended Weiner's lecture on "Legacy..." in Portland, Oregon
Conclusion - the book is a limited hangout and Weiner is a rich asset - he says, in so many words: stupidity always trumps conspiracy - in essence the official cover for the 9/11 coup and the Global War Of Terror: it's blowback and incompetence that's to blame - in light of this, 2 things to never forget:
1. "Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the state." - James Jesus Angelton - Director of CIA Counter Intelligence (1954-74)
2. "The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." - William Colby - Director of the CIA (1973-76) Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-02
A Valuable Piece Of Scholarship.
Tim Weiner's "Legacy Of Ashes" is a valuable work of scholarship that dives into the complex history of the CIA and in the process also gives us a valuable set of histories of our country and its role in the world. Some have accused Weiner of being "biased" or promoting some sort of "liberal agenda," this is far from the truth, Weiner is simply processing and creating a narrative culled from thousands of declassified documents and known facts. This is not the latest work from Al Franken or Keith Olbermann, this is a historical document. The reactions a few right-wing reviewers have posted on this page says more about them than about Weiner's work.
Weiner starts from the top, from the early days following World War II when President Truman replaced the OSS with the CIA which he at the time considered to be a more efficient, precise, official form of "newspaper" for the commander and chief to consult to be aware of the state of the world. However it didn't turn out this way, as the history progresses we see how the agency turned more into some sort of militant force that was eventually used more for the purpose of influencing or altering history instead of recording it. In clear, fluid detail, Weiner documents the first laboratories for covert operations that the CIA used, mainly Iran and Guatemala. In Iran the CIA helped the British overthrow the elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh because his nationalization of the country's oil was seen as a grave nationalist threat, the Shah was then re-installed and given military aid for decades. Latin America followed with a coup against the elected government Jacobo Arbenz, who challenged foreign corporate dominance of his country and paid for it with his presidency which was replaced by a brutal military junta. This was only the beginning however, of a longer, sadder story that would extend into countries like Vietnam, Chile and Greece.
"Legacy Of Ashes" has supposedly made headlines with some stunning revelations found in the new documents, but some the histories explored here are already well-known, such as the CIA-backed coup against the elected Allende government in Chile or the botched Bay Of Pigs invasion. What Weiner does so well is put these and lesser-known events in a greater context, he details how ignorance and arrogance have created an intelligence community that puts our security at greater risk. He provides a record of lying and plotting that is a peek into the dark corners of government. Consider the sections on Iran where we learn the CIA had a four-man, FOUR-MAN team in Tehran at the time of the Islamic Revolution, with none of them even speaking Farsi. It turns out CIA operatives failed to foresee the revolution because they were too busy dining with the Shah, the same as in Cuba where CIA agents miscalculated Fidel Castro's popularity because they spent more time indulging in the Batista regime's decadence than actually gathering solid intel on Cuban life, the status of the country and what led to the rise of Castro. This of course then led to lying and deception that guided the U.S. into the disastrous idea of launching an invasion on Cuba at the Bay Of Pigs.
Other revelations in the book are more insideous and intriguing such as the possible connection between the Kennedy White House and the assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, the assassination of president Diem in Vietnam and the many unanswered questions surrounding JFK's own murder, the investigation becoming a further mess because director Richard Helms wanted to keep CIA covert ops in areas such as Cuba away from the public eye. There are also fascinating, disturbing moments of lesser-known history like Richard Nixon receiving thank you funds from the fascist Greek junta the U.S. helped install in 1967.
Weiner goes on the cover some of the CIA's most notorious scandals like Iran-Contra and more importantly, recent intelligence failures that could have contributed to 9/11. "Legacy Of Ashes" covers all this and more in an accessible, very readable and clear style where Weiner compiles a massive amount of information, facts, figures, events, names and dates but never confuses the reader and never muddles the presentation. This is one of the best recent works on the workings of American government and the best book available on the workings of the CIA. Weiner never takes a sensationalist tone and is very professional and objective, he is simply presenting the information as it is and draws conclusions and observations from hard facts, there is never a sense of Weiner theorizing or jumping into unknown territories. Anyone who takes the time to process the information can see clearly why Weiner comes to certain conclusions as to the status of American intelligence services.
"Legacy Of Ashes" is a great record of some 50 years of American history, this is the kind of book Americans should be looking into to understand our past and to better understand where we are now. And Weiner presents it in a way where the average reader can indulge and come away better informed and aware. Reading this you realize the works of authors like Newt Gingrich are just political junk food, here is a vital, important resource.
Rating:
Date: 2008-05-30
Important Information
Great info - the things we always believed (at least if you were raised by liberal parents) corroborated by recently released CIA files. Shocking to see how we information was manipulated and hidden, and what a terrible job our government did for us. The money and lives lost to hubris is painful to witness.
That said, the book is not particularly well-written. Compared to the great writers of modern history (Caro is my personal favorite) this book fails to engage. It is easy to put down, and hard to pick back up. |
