Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner

A while back I posted another Tim Weiner book about the FBI called "Enemies."  It was so good I decided to read this one, which preceded "Enemies."  Like "Enemies" he takes a government institution and opens it up using the organization's own files plus many interviews.  In this case, it's the CIA.

Now you'd think that working with the CIA files would get you several tons of paper with most of the words blacked out.  However, so much previously classified documentation got declassified in the 90's and people were willing to speak on the record, this book only contains verified accounts, with no hidden sources or other obfuscations.

The main reason this is being added to the blog is the flood of recent discussions about current CIA clandestine paramilitary operations.  Part of that discussion makes it sound as if this is a new thing.  As this book points out, those types of operations constituted the majority of the CIA activities from the late 1940's onward, often to the detriment of actual spying and compiling intelligence information from the many U.S. agencies that collected their own covert information, including the military and the State Department.  The result was the overthrow of a lot of foreign governments in the 50's and 60's, but poor coordination of intelligence coming into the country.  The ultimate result was 9/11.

The current discussion around personal privacy reveals that many people hope there actually is some professional government agency that has the capability to put all the pieces together and find and stop bad guys while letting the rest of us live our lives unmolested.  That's a pretty tall order and is subject to abuse.  In this case, the CIA did such a poor job of collecting and diagnosing intelligence that the responsibility was taken away from them in 2005 when the Office of Central Intelligence was dissolved.  They still are doing paramilitary operations.  I hope they've been able to retain veteran and recruit high-quality new individuals who can do the difficult work of acquiring secret knowledge and putting all those pieces together.  In "Enemies" I came away hopeful that issues were being addressed and resolved in the FBI to give us an internal surveillance and protection organization that can address issues of the 21st century.  In "Legacy..." I'm not so sure we have that capability on a global scale.  If you liked "Enemies" you'll like this book but you may be less optimistic with the ending.