The Secret History of the CIA [Paperback]

Joseph J. Trento (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 2005

Joseph J. Trento's character-driven history of the flawed and often destructive Central Intelligence Agency profiles the men and women who have run the agency from its inception up to the present era. Trento uses his formidable reporting skills to guide the reader through the agency's most important successes and failures, from its earliest role as opponent of the Soviet empire to its later functions during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. As the facts pile up, the CIA proves itself to be an organization plagued by alcoholism, antagonism, and bureaucracy. The result of more than a decade of research and hundreds of interviews with spies and double agents, The Secret History of the CIA penetrates the carefully orchestrated culture of secrecy that has allowed the agency to suffer from the weaknesses of its highest members, away from the media's scrutiny. Reaching conclusions that are as astonishing as they are impossible to dismiss, this is a fascinating introduction to some of the most colorful and deceitful personalities in the history of our nation, and one that will forever alter every reader's awareness not just of our intelligence services but also of contemporary American history. Numerous photographs are included.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Citing legitimate governments ruined and thousands of lives lost, investigative reporter Trento (Widows) views the CIA as stunningly incompetent. He blames the agency's culture of arrogance for the waste of superior intellects and hundreds of millions of dollars. Trento vividly re-creates the day-to-day lives of key CIA agents during defining post-WWII events: the Cuban missile crisis; JFK's assassination; Vietnam; the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile; and Cold War espionage in the U.S. and Soviet Union. In Chile, for instance, the Nixon administration arranged a military coup to head off the Socialist Allende's presidency and abetted the assassination of the Chilean army's chief of staff, General Ren‚ Schneider, who wouldn't help "oust a democratically elected leader." Based on U.S. and Soviet records and reports and on hundreds of interviews with former CIA men and their families, the firsthand stories of moles, secret operations, assassination attempts and triple agents are equal to John le Carr‚'s best. But Trento's provocative conclusions that Lee Harvey Oswald worked for the KGB and that Averell Harriman was probably a Communist sympathizer suffer from the poor credibility of his sources; his CIA has few heroes, many alcoholics, womanizers, deceitful bureaucratic infighters, outright liars and worse. Trento's prose sometimes reads like boilerplate spy thriller (peopled by "brilliant," "cunning" men and "beautiful and ambitious" women), but generally he does a good story justice, and he has ample opportunity here. (Oct.)Forecast: Recently released Cold War security documents are spawning numerous intelligence expos‚s, and Trento's salable blend of gravitas and sensation will attract a wide readership.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"With The Secret History of the CIA, Joe Trento totally penetrated the CIA."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 568 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1st edition (January 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786715006
• ISBN-13: 978-0786715008
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #616,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Dangers of No Accountability for Human Intelligence, October 28, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secret History of the CIA (Hardcover)

The Secret History of the CIA will shake whatever faith you have in undercover intelligence activities by the United States. From the beginning of the Cold War, the CIA (and its predecessors) and the FBI were riddled with double agents for the Soviet Union, Israel, and Cuba among others. But don?t give the foreign intelligence agencies too much credit. U.S. operations were conducted with undue haste, laxness, inattention to detail, and questionable loyalty to ?people with backgrounds like ours.? Key intelligence leaders and operatives are described as typically being drunks, morally corrupt, inept, and callous about others.

In many ways, this history is a good parallel to The Sword and the Shield, which draws on the KGB?s own secret history files. The books reinforce the fundamental message that the Western vulnerability to KGB efforts had its basis in many basic weaknesses within British and U.S. intelligence operations.

The primary sources for this book are retired CIA intelligence and counter-intelligence operatives, many of whom insisted on either anonymity or having their stories told after their deaths. I can certainly see why they were reticent to make these horrible stories public while they were alive.

The mistakes began with wide-open recruiting of former Nazis and their collaborators, which opened the door to long-time Soviet agents like Igor Orlov who appeared to have operated successfully until his death over 35 years later. Later, ?migr? groups were treated the same way, letting more double agents into U.S. intelligence. Counter-intelligence had its hands tied from the beginning because those who had recruited the former Nazis did not want their roles uncovered.

If you are like me, you will be amazed at how those who bungled operations in Berlin from the beginning went on to head up important operations like Cuba, Vietnam, and Laos where they brought new disasters to the United States. One of the most appalling aspects of these stories is the way that hundreds of agents were lost, one right after another, due to leaks within the CIA?s operations. In some cases, many died for information that wasn?t even needed, because no one bothered to check. It was easier to let two hundred people go to prison or to their deaths.

The book also details the many times that private citizens and political figures ran their own illegal intelligence operations, both in the United States and in the Soviet Union.

The story about Lee Harvey Oswald?s connection to the Soviet Union and to Cuba will fascinate you. The book argues that the assassination of John F. Kennedy had Soviet sponsorship, and was part of internal efforts to take power in the Soviet Union.

The book is filled with U.S.-led efforts that manipulated elections, tried to keep leaders from office, attempted and performed political assassinations, and helped establish dictators. You will also learn about deals with the Mafia, opium smuggling, and routinely lying to Congress.

But the biggest shocks for you will probably be how badly the CIA?s ?intelligence? misled U.S. policy makers about Soviet circumstances and intentions. Hundreds of billions of Cold War expenditures were probably needless, and Eastern Europe could possibly have been freed much sooner than occurred.

The main weaknesses of this book are in making claims without listing the arguments against those claims, tending to wallow a bit too much in the personal dirt of sexual misconduct, and failing to be precise about the exact claims being made. Mr. Trento writes in a way that will get your attention, but you will find it hard to tell the differences between one person and another except for the main subjects (like Kim Philby, Jim Angleton, Igor Orlov, Bill Harvey, J. Edgar Hoover, Robert Kennedy, David Murphy, and George Weisz).

As we begin the new efforts to counter terrorism, how can we avoid repeating the horrible mistakes that this book documents? Certainly, we should be very skeptical of claims that there should be no efforts to ensure accountability.

Be sure to act consistently with the highest ideals of the United States, whatever your role is!

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing History Lesson--with some interesting revelations, December 3, 2001

By 

Bud Moeller "Bud" (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret History of the CIA (Hardcover)

Don't buy this book if you are looking for information about the CIA's structure or policies. This is a "National Enquirer" style set of revelations about the CIA's mistakes in judgement and super-tricky Soviet agents' abilities.

The book is written in rough chronological sequence--but, the overlap of some of the stories requires a little backward and forward storytelling. It starts with the pre-CIA origins and moves well into the '90s.

Initial impressions, from early chapters, are that the CIA is foolish; the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing; and the reader is blinded by 20/20 hindsight. As the book progresses, and the reader is carried through the discovery of moles and double/triple agents, the reader begins to understand how hard the discernment of "the truth" can be. In the end, one is left with a mix of sympathy, amazement, and admiration.

Be sure to read each chapter's footnotes for more interesting tidbits!

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The secret struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, November 17, 2005

By 

C. Matthew Curtin (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret History of the CIA (Hardcover)

"All the operations, all the billions spent, all the bodies we left around the world, all the lies to our countrymen, our friends, our families, our allies -- in the end we failed at the mission...Our problem was that we could not discern what mattered." --Dr. William R. Corson, American Counterintelligence Officer

The Secret History of the CIA covers the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, beginning even before World War II was completed. We're in Chapter Six, "The Battle to Control American Intelligence," before we encounter the National Security Act of 1947 and the agency it created, the Central Intelligence Agency.

Published in 2001, too early to include any mention of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, The Secret History of the CIA discusses CIA's history against the Soviet Union in enough detail to let the reader understand how the United States could be so utterly unprepared for what was (retrospectively, in any case) an obvious threat.

The book carries a caveat quoted from CIA mole hunter James Angleton, "Truth, when talking about the CIA, is relative." Despite this note, The Secret History of the CIA comes complete with many end notes identifying sources where possible, painting a picture that is as credible as it is disturbing. Joseph J. Trento's present work is quite different from The Main Enemy, documenting many failures, and some utter disasters funded by American tax dollars. Ultimately, both accounts might well turn out to be right.

Even before CIA was formed, the American intelligence community was plagued by penetrations from Soviet agents. As the agency started to take shape under the guidance of Alan Dulles, he and sixty of his closest friends from OSS, CIA's WWII forerunner, managed to escape the very security measures that they placed on others -- including standard polygraph testing.

As political forces realized the power of CIA's clandestine operations, they came to be exercised with greater frequency. Perhaps surprisingly, the peak of CIA clandestine activity was not during the presidency of former CIA head George H.W. Bush or even his predecessor Ronald Reagan. In his three years in office, John F. Kennedy oversaw more covert operations than Reagan managed in eight. Also of interest is how Robert Kennedy, as Attorney General, was so heavily involved in these black ops.

Shedding light on everything ranging from KGB's connections with the Kennedy assassinations to the fall of democratically-elected governments around the world, The Secret History of the CIA is well worth consideration.