THE CIA

A new look at America’s primary intelligence agency.

For a supposedly secret agency, the CIA looms large in American public life, an institution that is both admired and reviled. Wilford, a professor of history who has written several books about intelligence services, including The Mighty Wurlitzer and America’s Great Game, delves into the history of the agency using as a framework the idea that the CIA created and has maintained a de facto American “empire.” He also examines the “boomerang effect” that CIA activities initiated in the 1970s and after, with the agency becoming the target of savage criticism. Wilford builds each section around a particular individual, noting that the CIA was originally established in 1947 as an office for intelligence gathering and analysis. Soon after its creation, however, it became a vehicle for Cold War adventurism, especially by instigating regime changes through coups. In many cases, this meant supporting brutal and corrupt governments, as long as they espoused strict anti-communist rhetoric. The collapse of the Soviet Union caught many analysts by surprise, although a new generation of enemies gave the CIA plenty to do. Wilford is a knowledgeable guide to the history of the CIA, but his argument for its role as an empire builder is not fully convincing. The narrative arc is often unclear, and the author takes a number of detours—e.g., a lengthy debunking of Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories—that are more distracting than informative. Another problem is that this territory has been well covered by such authors as Tim Weiner, David Talbot, Annie Jacobsen, Steve Coll, and Tom O’Neill. It’s difficult to see how this book adds materially to an already crowded genre, in which Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes remains the standard.

Wilford capably draws many historical threads together but doesn’t make a strong enough case for the CIA’s “imperial” nature.