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Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA | 
| Author: Tim Weiner
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy Used: $5.50
You Save: $22.45 (80%)
New (25) Used (43) Collectible (9) from $5.50
Rating:  148 reviews
Sales Rank: 36291
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 702
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.9
ISBN: 038551445X
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.1273009
EAN: 9780385514453
ASIN: 038551445X
Publication Date: June 28, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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GOOD CONDITION, LIGHT WEAR TO DUST JACKET, WILL SHIP FAST!!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 143 more reviews...
 dwelling on the negative? May 9, 2009
N. J. Harmon (Columbus, OH USA)
This books purports to report the failures of the CIA - the so-called secret history of the CIA. A better book would be a history of the CIA that included both the failures and the seemingly fewer successes. A CIA enthusiast may be interested in this book simply due to the fact that a lot of recently unclassified information is revealed in it. Evidently the unclassified information contained a lot of the mistakes and failures of the agency.
One can take away from the reading that the CIA is a paradoxical institution in a democracy since it depends almost exclusively on deception and lack of transparency. It had been a history of pulling the strings to initiate democracies and terminating obstacles to such governments whether the people will it or not.
While our government decries terrorism, one cannot but wonder if the CIA's actions have occassionally bordered on such actions. Also, one's faith in the CIA is shattered when you read of such operations as Operation Northwoods which was a false-flag operation that would endanger American citizens.
I thought the book concentrated heavily on the early days of the CIA and I would have liked to see more coverage of the CIA ante-911 and Iraq War.
Savage indictment of CIA incompetence May 7, 2009
David Ljunggren (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)
This is a gripping -- and incidentally most amusing -- compilation of the greatest mistakes made by the CIA, which (if you believe the author) is an organisation that sucks up billions of dollars a year and is almost totally useless. Virtually everything the CIA touched turned into a disaster and its much vaunted analysts missed many historic and important developments. I gave this four stars rather than five because (a) I can't believe there weren't at least some successes along the way and (b) the author keeps telling us that whenever a new director took over, he had to deal with the fact that all the top talents had left. By rights this means that these days the CIA is staffed only by people who can barely tie their shoes. I'm not sure I quite believe that is the case.
 Misleading Information April 23, 2009
S. Henry
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
If the author spent 20 years preparing this book, then there is no excuse for him to give us false information about G.H.W. Bush, saying "Bush was...not a spy. He knew almost nothing about intelligence. He was a politician pure and simple." How could Weiner so be incredibly wrong? Is he just afraid of retrobution from Bush? The reality is that Bush (41) was and is an agency man through and through. George HW Bush was the CIA man written about by J Edgar Hoover when Hoover stated that Bush was in Dallas the day JFK was shot. Bush was asked about this letter during a Presidential campaign by a reporter, and Bush said Hoover must have been talking about "another George Bush". He wasn't. Bush has given at least 3 different public accounts of his whereabouts at the time JFK was shot. Seriously, who doesn't remember where he was on Nov 22, 1963? Bush was the point man for the Iran Contra affair. Bush was scheduled to have breakfast with John F. Hinkley's brother the morning that Reagan got shot, because the Bush and Hinkley families had been friends for a long time. George HW Bush has had an on-going relationship with the bin Laden family for generations. Bush started working for the CIA in 1960 or 1961, and used his oil business as his cover. Bush's company name "Zapata" was used by the CIA as the code name for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Later, Bush recruited men from the invasion group to work on the Watergate scandal, and then again with the coverup of the Iran-contra affair. Bush made sure his inept son W became President by throwing his weight around at the Supreme Court. And if his power continues, then his latest words that his son Jeb will be the next president, will unfortunately come to pass as well.
Since Tim Weiner claims that everything he writes in the book is "true" and yet he claims that Bush was by no means a CIA man, shows that Weiner is either lying or very inept in his research of one of the most pivotal men in the history of the CIA.
 Legacy of Ashes March 8, 2009
D. Cragle
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the most shocking book I have ever read. It is well researched and totally credible. It makes me worry about my country and wonder how we managed to remain free from attack until 9/11/2001. Any person who loves their country should read this and hope that people with more intelligence are being tapped to take us into the future.
Hilarious Hatchet Job. February 16, 2009
William Kalal (Strangebend, NY)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the blooper reel of the CIA for the last 50 years. Embellishments, yes, Biases, yes, entertaining? yeah, Enjoyed candid admission by former CIA director he had a harder time getting "facetime" with the President, then the President's mistress.
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