Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (2007)

This is a book worth reading if you are interested in understanding the misguided foreign policy of the United States since WWII and the major role the CIA played in it.

The book starts at the end of WWII and ends around 2007. Although many of the events described would be known to people that follow politics and foreign affairs, the book is based on documents that have been declassified up to 2007 and on personal interviews with CIA officers still alive. For those old enough to have lived through many of these events, the book reveals that actually things were much worse than we thought at the time. The incompetence, idiocy, illegality and fanatical obsession, with communism of those who run the CIA and their bosses (i.e., the various presidents) is so infuriating that I could not read more than 10 pages at the time.

It is really ironic that the country that acts as the world leader and promoter of democracy and its ideals would operate agencies that act in a totally undemocratic way not only against the citizens of other countries, if their decisions are seen as threatening to mostly fictional American interests, but also against its own citizens and their elected representatives. ( )

Solid readable history about the good and bad of the CIA. Mostly the bad and stupid moves they have made over the years. ( )

Interesting and fairly clear and easy to follow. ( )

Interesting and fairly clear and easy to follow. ( )

This review is actually a comment to another reviewer listed below.

I believe it would be an excellent basis as a major supplementary reading in a political science 101 college class, or a high school AP class....or for one of the Obama girls, as a basis for a chat with their dad. Right now....2015....we have no clear information on ISIS....just as we were surprised by 9/11, Korea, the :unaccompanied minors"....Vietnam.....and of course WMD.....Yes, this is a must read book.

My reading is governed by Atlanta's excellent selections from thrift stores, and I am working through Legacy of Ashes. After all of those bad reviews in Library Thing I was especially pleased to get your detailed comments. Your point that the problem with the CIA is that the focus is not on obtaining information ....duh....but overthrowing governments ...and out Iran debacle is still haunting us these many years later. I would like to know this book is somewhere in the libraries of congressmen and smart interns have taken a look and tabulated these overthrows or would be overthrows.

Repeating, your comments are important. Few of us have the knowledge to effectively criticize this book and you have done an outstanding job.

For the individual looking at LT reviews of Legacy of Ashes, but sure to examine the detailed analysis by gmicksmith listed below.

More reviews

http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/W_folder/weinerlegacy.html ( )