The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

by Jeffrey T Richelson (Author) "On July 26, 1947, while waiting for Air Force One to fly him to see his dying mother..." (more)
Key Phrases: national reconnaissance program, new search system, overhead reconnaissance, United States, Soviet Union, Defense Department (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
For many, the CIA conjures up a shadowy world of spies, international intrigue, and secret corridors of power. While this image may be partially accurate, the primary function of the agency is less romantic: the collection and analysis of information. To this end, the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology is indispensable. As the group responsible for creating the tools that allow the spymasters to do their jobs, the DS&T has been "a key element in the history of both the CIA and the entire intelligence community," writes Jeffrey Richelson, a specialist on American intelligence operations. In The Wizards of Langley, he traces the directorate from its inception in 1947 to the present, analyzing each aspect of its activities and responsibilities in exhaustive detail, along with the infighting and political wrangling that have accompanied its growth.

As Richelson points out, there were some missteps, such as administering LSD to scientists without their knowledge (one committed suicide as a result), employing cats as bugging devices, and the use of psychics, but overall the DS&T has made "an enormous contribution to U.S. intelligence capabilities and national security." Notably, the directorate has developed the U-2 spy plane and some of the U.S.'s most important surveillance satellites, and has been a pioneer in photointerpretation, the collection of signals intelligence, and foreign missile and space programs analysis. Some innovations have even had significant effects beyond the intelligence community, such as lithium batteries for pacemakers and methods for the detection of breast cancer. The book also offers a wealth of anecdotes, giving readers a rare look at top-secret operations and spy games of the cold war. Though the sheer amount of detail sometimes bogs down the narrative, this is a gold mine for those interested in the largely unsung heroes who have enabled the CIA to work so effectively. --Shawn Carkonen

From Publishers Weekly
In recent years, the media have presented several reports on the tragic and scandalous 1953 death of army scientist Frank Olson. Ten days before Olson died, a Central Intelligence Agency researcher had slipped a dose of LSD into the unwitting Olson's drink. The hapless army scientist quite literally went mad and leapt to his death from the window of his New York hotel room. Press accounts have couched Olson's death as the work of a sinister CIA. In Richelson's even presentation, the Olson case, horrific as it was, is less representative of a CIA run amok than it is of a paranoid Cold War mentality in which the nation's premier intelligence agency was tasked with developing extraordinary measures for extraordinary times. The directorate responsible for those measures is the focus of this fine and meticulously researched study by master Langley-ologist Richelson (The U.S. Intelligence Community, etc.). Richelson places into context the directorate of science and technology's operations, from sci-fi-style remote-viewing experiments to very practical scientific advances that would eventually find application in heart pacemaker technology. Espionage aficionados will recognize a set of familiar project code names: JENNIFER, MKULTRA and others. Familiar spy personalities are also in abundance: Ray Cline, William Colby, Richard Helms. But Richelson expounds on what's already known, giving new insights into such matters as the development of U.S. aerial and space reconnaissance systems. The evolution of the aircraft that would become the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane is particularly fascinating, as is the story of the New York Times's investigative reporter Seymour Hersh's apparent agreement to a 1972 request from the CIA to withhold the true mission of the Glomar Explorer, a spy ship that had been dispatched to recover a sunken Soviet submarine. Photos. (Sept.) Forecast: As the scientific wing of the agency takes on increased importance in the new race for space, this book, if hand-sold as a solid, conservative perspective on the agency's history, could turn out to be a steady seller.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; illustrated edition edition (August 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813366992
• ISBN-13: 978-0813366999
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #691,353 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not James Bond ... and Definitely Not 'Q', October 30, 2001

By	Andrew S. Rogers (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

David Letterman once described his TV show as 'info-tainment without the "info" ... or the "tainment."' I'm tempted to describe this book as a technothriller without the 'thriller.' It definitely has the 'techno,' though.

Let me say up front that I don't think this is entirely author Jeffrey Richelson's fault. He is one of America's top historians of the intelligence community, and this book is exhaustively researched and documented (the first chapter alone has 173 endnotes). I just found the subject of all this research much less exciting than I thought it would be. For all their sci-tech wizardry, the 'wizards of Langley' were, at the end of the day, still a bunch of bureaucrats. Their battlefields were as much institutional as geopolitical, and that makes Richelson's story bureaucratic and institutional too.

Maybe I was spoiled by Bamford's 'Body of Secrets,' about the NSA, which combines technological detail with exciting stories of front-line espionage, but it seemed to me Richelson sometimes took too light a touch on interesting operational stories in order to get back to chronicling the CIA's changing organization chart. The attempted recovery of a sunken Soviet submarine, or the infamous BLUEBIRD-ARTICHOKE-MKDELTA experiments with mind-altering drugs, for example, were zipped over in just a couple of pages. It is true, though, that these topics are covered extensively in other books.

In all, I can see how 'The Wizards of Langley' will be useful for people interested in the personalities and politics behind a key element of America's intelligence apparatus. Journalists or specialist historians, for example. But I'm afraid the general reader with an interest in intelligence operations may find this book rough, and even unrewarding, sledding. It's for that first group -- for whom this book could be an excellent resource -- that I'm giving it as high a rating as I am.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informational, September 23, 2001

By	Harry Pandolfino (York, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An informative history of the U.S. intelligence efforts over the years to use creative technology to gather information. A chronology of how the desire for intelligence spawned the U2, the SR-71 and spy satellites and also how the agency discovers cutting edge technology which it sometimes releases to the private sector to be applied. Unfortunately the writing is very dry with too much focus on the history of internecine rivalries and power struggles which will probably not interest the average reader. A good read in order to get a balanced view of the value of the CIA which is often maligned and under-appreciated.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Well Researched but Poorly Written, December 28, 2002

By	TJ Marsden (So. Burlington, VT United States) - See all my reviews

I must agree with previous reviewer comments. This book attempts to describe the Directorate of Science and Technology, yet it focuses on the bureaucracy of upper management and has little discussion regarding the programs and technologies created by the DS&T. This organization has played a cricial role in shaping modern history, yet the book is dull and uninteresting to read.