Book : The Spymasters How The Cia Directors Shape History...

-Titulo Original : The Spymasters How The Cia Directors Shape History And The Future

-Fabricante :

Scribner

-Descripcion Original:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Gatekeepers, an “engaging…richly textured” (The New York Times), behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to run the world’s most powerful intelligence agency. “The best book about the CIA I’ve ever read…one hell of a story” (Christopher Buckley).With unprecedented access to more than a dozen individuals who have made the life-and-death decisions that come with running the world’s most powerful and influential intelligence service, Chris Whipple tells the story of an agency that answers to the United States president alone, but whose activities-spying, espionage, and covert action-take place on every continent. At pivotal moments, the CIA acts as a counterforce against rogue presidents, starting in the mid-seventies with DCI Richard Helms’s refusal to conceal Richard Nixon’s criminality and through the Trump presidency when a CIA whistleblower ignited impeachment proceedings and armed insurrectionists assaulted the US Capitol. Since its inception in 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency has been a powerful player on the world stage, operating largely in the shadows to protect American interests. For The Spymasters, Whipple conducted extensive, exclusive interviews with nearly every living CIA director, pulling back the curtain on the world’s elite spy agencies and showing how the CIA partners-or clashes-with counterparts in Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. Topics covered in the book include attempts by presidents to use the agency for their own ends; simmering problems in the Middle East and Asia; rogue nuclear threats; and cyberwarfare. A revelatory, well-researched history, The Spymasters recounts seven decades of CIA activity and elicits predictions about the issues-and threats-that will engage the attention of future operatives and analysts. Including eye-opening interviews with George Tenet, John Brennan, Leon Panetta, and David Petraeus, as well as those who’ve recently departed the agency, this is a timely, essential, and important contribution to current events. Review New York Times Book Review Editors Choice “The best book about the CIA I’ve ever read. Its revelations are eye-popping, alternately exhilarating and depressing…How Whipple managed to pull so much history together, how he extracted such a wealth of detail from his principal sources-the CIA leaders themselves-is quite simply mind-boggling. This is an important book. And one hell of a story.” -Christopher Buckley, New York Times bestselling author of The White House Mess and Thank You for Smoking“A genial, engaging portrait of the men and one woman who have run the C.I.A. over the past six decades….[Contains] a richly textured account of the operation targeting the Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyah….In weighing success and failure, Whipple offers measured, sympathetic, on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand tallies of the merits and demerits for each of his spymasters.” -The New York Times“A study of how the C.I.A. has at different times over the decades been both a target of presidential animus and a clandestine presidential plaything….All of this can make for some great reading….Whipple’s interviews give plenty of rope for some of the former spy chiefs to hang themselves.” -Mark Mazzetti, Washington investigative correspondent for The New York Times and author of The Way of the Knife, writing in the digital weekly Air MailA page-turner. Chris Whipple gives the reader tales of intrigue and masterfully tells the history of the nation’s spymasters and their relationships to presidents, and how those interactions shaped history…..An engaging read of politics, off-the-books plots, and struggles for CIA identity and access…Rating: 3.5 out of 4 trench coats. -The Cipher Brief“If you’re an American, The Spymasters is required reading.” -Chicago Review of Books“Whipple’s access and interviews are impressive [and his] exploration of the different