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

by Tim Weiner (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 832 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (5 Jun 2008)
  • ISBN-10: 0141033169
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141033167
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 53,784 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
'Combines thrilling storytelling with terrifying revelations' --Simon Sebag Montefiore, New Statesman, Books of the Year

Review
'This racy history reveals the CIA as a secret service to make Smiley weep and Bond howl in horror'

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Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
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Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
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Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover 5.0 out of 5 stars (5)
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden
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Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden 4.8 out of 5 stars (14)
£9.09
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
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Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA 4.2 out of 5 stars (5)
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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh or Cry !, 29 Nov 2008
By Mr. R. J. Wilson (PLYMOUTH, DEVON United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
When you read this book you will initially want to laugh at the blunders and ineptitude of the CIA's "covert" operations. However, as error compunds upon error and lie builds on lie you will soon want to weep as the truth unfolds about intelligence network of the worlds most powerful country. You soon come to realise that the world is in the state it is because the CIA has influenced USA foreign policy based upon speculation and blind intelligence.

If you enjoy this book, I would recommend "Official & Confidential" by Anthony Summers - a profile of another master of deceit J. Edgar Hoover.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Just how useless intelligence agencies really are., 2 April 2009
By Franz Bieberkopf (Liverpool,GB) - See all my reviews
There is a story,possibly apocrophyal,about a conversation between Helmut Kohl and Jaques Chirac in the mid-1980s.They got to discuss the latest scandal concerning one of their respective intelligence services,and Chirac supposedly observed that intelligence services were generally useless at their job.
Tim Weiner wouldn't argue with that opinion,and after finishing this,you probably won't either.Starting back in the 1940s,Weiner shows how,over and over again in following 60 years,the CIA had little or no coverage of it's principal enemies-the USSR,China (up to 1971),Cuba.Khomeini's Iran,Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal in 1988.The basic task of trying to foresee the enemies' intentions and predict their actions,the bread and butter of intelligence services,was beyond the capabilities of the CIA.
Even worse,CIA leaders substituted prejudice and preconceptions for evidence,supplying unintelligence instead of intelligence.To cite only a few obvious examples,Eisenhower was unable to believe the Vietnamese wanted Ho Chi Minh-and the CIA backed up this catastrophic misjudgement.In Havana in 1960,before US diplomats were expelled from Cuba,one CIA official hired a PR company to conduct an opinion poll.The results showed over 60% support for Castro.This was ignored and the Kennedys ended up with the CIA cooperating with the Mafia in order to kill Fidel.US intelligence totally misread the nature of political change in Iran and so didn't comprehend the demand for religious government after the fall of the Shah.Nixon ordered the overthrow of Allende in Chile as he was elected with 37% of the vote-a strange argument from sombody elected by 43% of the US voters.
Add to that a collective loss of will after the end of the Cold War,and an inability to operate against many new enemies(Weiner asks how many junior CIA officers speak Korean,Farsi,Hindi,Chinese or Arabic)what indeed is the purpose of the Agency?
Weiner tries not to speculate,and his account is largely chronological rather rthan thematic,but in the final chapter he points out the emergence of privatised mini-CIAs,operating as security,analysis or the ubiquitous consultancies of Washington.
Well worth a read,but it is not exactly balanced and objective.
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4.0 out of 5 stars What exactly did they get up to?, 28 Feb 2009
By Mr. Al Price "andrewlewisprice" (Sydney) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
A really interesting and at time unbelievable book.

If you are interested in what the CIA has got up to in the 20th century you wont be disappointed. If your not then why are you even reading this review? LOL!

A slight warning is that as its a factual book it doesnt really have any sense of narrative progression. Didnt both me but I can imagine some people wanting a bit more of a narrative / story.
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5.0 out of 5 stars The case for the prosecution
Weiner's main charge against the CIA isn't that it is a sinister all powerful organisation that controls the world for good or ill, but that it has repeatedly failed in it's basic... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars For all who know USA (or thought they did)
One of the most incredible books ever read. It explains much of the last 60 years history as we thought we knew it.
Published 5 months ago by Gullible Brit

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