Legacy of Ashes; The History of the CIA

New York: Doubleday, 2007. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Roger Ressmeyer (Jacket photograph). xvii, [1], 702 pages. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Embossed initials on fep. Tim Weiner (born June 20, 1956) is an American reporter and author. He is the author of four books and co-author of a fifth, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. He is a graduate of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. Weiner worked for the Times from 1993 to 2009 as a foreign correspondent in Mexico, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan and as a national security correspondent in Washington, DC. Weiner won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting as an investigative reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. His book Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget is based on that newspaper series. He won the National Book Award in Nonfiction for his 2007 book Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. He is the director of the nonfiction residency program for reporters, writers, and documentary makers at the Carey Institute in Rensselaerville, New York. Derived from a Kirkus review: The CIA started off on the wrong foot in 1947 and never regained it, maintains Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Weiner. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower believed intelligence could prevent another Pearl Harbor by uncovering Soviet intentions, but the CIA never predicted an important Soviet or terrorist move, the author avers. The agency devotes most of its budget to covert operations. Aided by documents declassified since 2000, Weiner offers a litany of failed operations the agency did its best to cover up. Two widely praised successes-the 1953 Iranian coup that placed the Shah on the throne and the overthrow of a leftist Guatemalan government in 1954-are now considered mistakes. Though highly critical of the CIA, Weiner makes a mitigating points; democracies are not obligated to fight fire with fire: CIA money won more hearts and minds than pseudo-KGB ruthlessness, and KGB debacles contributed mightily to the USSR's decline.