Customer Reviews

Presidents' Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations from World War II Through the Persian Gulf War (Elephant Paperbacks)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

John Prados begins the book with seldom related histories, particular are the accounts of Baltic and Ukrainian insurgents in post WWII. This is the first time I have run into modern cold war accounts were the planning of covert operations in Central and Eastern Europe ran so close to the end of WWII. Prados underlines that the "youth" of Central Intelligence Agency and the treachery of Philby severly undermined any attempts to support these insurrectionist movements behind Soviet lines. Further declassfication of past interogation reports throw new light on the extent of these movements and how unstable Central Europe actually was. Prados contines into the Cold War up to the 80's and 90's where the bilateral covert conflict no longer seemed to have the raw personal nature of covert action in post WWII and the fifties. Author has obviously had a very generous access to herby unpublished documents. A must for those concerned with Cold War history

Every voter should read this book. This is perhaps the best book to give an overview on the major covert activities of the CIA and its ancestor agencies. A very well researched book. The author appears to have done an immense amount of research to write this book. Very informative and an easy read. The author appears to be unbiased and without an agenda. Every tidbit of covert CIA activity that I read about in past years was discussed in this book, plus many more activities new to me were discussed. Drawing upon this text I believe the average American can get a better feel for the sucess and failure rate of covert activities, risks v.s. advantages.
These covert activities ofter are the first steps that leads the U.S. into succeedingly hostile overt activities. The process is complicated by the fact that a covert operation has some loose oversight within our democracy. The author gives the reader a good feel for the past endeavors of the agency and analyzes the results.
I would recommend this book to any American because wherever the CIA is most active will generally be a place where crucial and influential American foreign policy decisions will follow. It is beneficial to have the past record of covert activity available. Covert activity is as the author states probably the most convenient and easiest way to accomplish a short term foreign policy objective and always a temptation to every U.S. administration, but it often comes with the price of a longterm political backlash from the populace involved.

In the current era of asymmetric warfare, accurate and timely intelligence is of increasing significance. Likewise, the nation's leaders often employ non-kinetic methods or irregular forces to achieve national security objectives. John Prados introduces this world in Presidents' Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations from World War II through the Persian Gulf.

The view Prados provides spans from the strategic, such as making plans and policy in the Oval Office, to the tactical, such as describing special operations forces' action in the U.S. invasion of Grenada. The book covers the subject thoroughly, providing insight and details into many U.S. covert operations. It highlights how each presidential administration employs intelligence and particularly the relationship between the president and the director of central intelligence. Also notable are Prados' descriptions of the Bay of Pigs invasion and operations in Laos in the chapter entitled, "The High Plateau."

This book should be in the hand of any student who is delving into the world of covert operations for the first time and on the shelf of anyone who studies intelligence as an enduring reference.

This is a well-written book describing the list of covert operations mostly undertaken by the CIA (a few by the Pentagon ) during the Cold War.It details the successfull ones such as those that took place in Iraq ,Guatemala,the Congo,Afghanistan and the failures such as Albania,the Baltics,Cuba and ukraine.It disucsses the limitations of such operations as well as the utility.In my own view ,the CIA is maligned as an incompetent intelligence agency,this book shows that the CIA did pull off some successfull coups that whilst it does raise some moral and ethical questions ,did play a roll in containing the growth of Communism and ultimately contributed to America's victory during the Cold War ,thus preserving the bastions of democracy and consigning this warped ideology to the dustbin of history.

Some research was definetly put into writing this book. And at times, the author just throughs out some abstract, needless information. Almost as if he just to put it in their, because he thought the trival knowledge would make the book better.

Well it doesn't. It does fine all by itself. It gives some great insightful information to the reason behind some of U.S invasions, wars, and other candelstine efforts foreign and domestic.

Anybody that lived through the era that the book was covered will get bored easily as no true secrets are revealed. But for those born around the 80's, will become very informed.

A good book, but not that good. I give it three stars because the title does not match the book.