Customer Reviews

BLOND GHOST

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Although Ted Shackley was a line case officer, this book is placed within the paramilitary section because his entire career encompassed a series of wars where the CIA played a very tragic and unproductive role. As Shackley's deputy in Laos is quoted on page 163, speaking on Shakley's accomplishments in Laos, "We spent a lot of money and got a lot of people killed," Lair remembered, "and we didn't get much for it." For those seeking to understand the bureaucratization of the Directorate of Operations, both in the field and in Washington, this is essential reading.

This book is very informative on the subject of Ted Shackley. I think Corn is fair to him and doesn't indict him as an upcoming book will do. It treats him fairly and leaves the reader to make up their own mind. If you want an overview of the important events o the Cold War read this and how this legend participated in them.

Regardless of one's views on the CIA, it becomes quickly apparent that Corn's account of Agency activities, most of them pre-dating Church Committee hearings, is an extremely biased one. This is like reading an extended editorial column from an avid critic. The research is certainly thorough, although his admittedly extensive use of anonymous sources throws even more doubt on how much of the book can be taken at face value. Because the narratives primarily critique specific decisions and operations, it is easy to forget that Corn has chosen Shackley as the primary character. He is never really established as such. Expect to spend lots of time reading about operations in SE Asia. I do not at all agree that this book is essential reading for those interested in the intelligence community. For a more entertaining account of the inner workings of the Directorate of Operations (DO) during roughly the same time period, take a look at "The Night Watch" by David Atlee Philips. To my knowledge, Corn has never worked for the CIA. Philips served in various capacities within the DO.

I read this book a number of years ago. The book contains the typical liberal elite bias of a jounalist who never served their country a day in his life. That said, the book tries to maintain a degree of jounalistic intergrity gernerally not found in similar exposes. Shackley a type of man who did many questionable things for the flag, or big business, or men of power, etc. I will leave that for you to decide. I can recommend this book with limited reservation. It is well written and contains an interview with Ted Shackley, himself. The post modernist psychological analysis after the interview leaves much to be desired. What clearly comes through in the book is Shackley became a amoral man as the years progressed in his career. The overall deconstuctionist view left me with a bitter aftertaste. I can only say that this book is worth reading but beware of the pitfalls contained within. I suggest reading the book by Theodore Shackley "The Third Option: An American View of Counter-insurgency Operations McGraw-Hill, (1981)" first to really understand where Shackley and the CIA had their heads at in the Cold War Global Strategy. When you view the level of infiltration by the Marxists in the American Body Politic (Democratic Party and the Obama), and American Academia, you have to ask who really won the Cold War? (I also recommend the film "The Quiet American - 2002" based on Graham Greene's 1958 novel about the CIA in Vietnam.)