Book Report: Legacy of Ashes An uncensored history of the CIA

CIATagged as “This is the Book the CIA doesn’t want you to read.” Well I just finished this very fascinating book. I have always said ” If we actually knew what our government was really up to it would scare us to death”
This is one of those books but, It actually didn’t scare me my thought was “Our intelligence community was/is a bad Keystone Cops movie starring The 3 Stooges”
The Intelligence apparatus in this country was started under the best intentions by men who wanted to know what our enemies were up to but, it morphed into just another governmental bureaucratic political black hole that is handicapped by it’s own failings and men who used knowledge for power at home and abroad.
When it started out it’s charter was simple “Find out what the enemy is up to and use that information to help shape the American policy abroad, and help the Armed forces decide on a course of action in any given situation.
It became a Communist witch hunt, a domestic spy/ secret police agency, and a political football for weak men to garner favor of their respective Presidents.
Allan Dulles used it in the 50’s and 60’s to convince Eisenhower that the Communists were a bigger threat to national security than they were. Most people don’t know that communism was not the threat that it was portrayed to be, The majority of Americans would not have anything to do with the CPUSA and therefore it was not the threat that it was propagandized to be. Any truly thinking person back then saw it for what it was An idealistic ranting of a few who wanted all the power to flow inward, not to the people, and rejected it. We actually had no idea what the Kremlin was up to. Our best Intelligence prize in the 50’s, The Khrushchev speech denouncing Stalin was obtained by the Israeli Mossad and passed to the CIA for a price.
In the mid to late 60’s President Johnson used the CIA to shore up a lie that strengthened his plans for Vietnam. in the 70’s Nixon used the CIA for his own political agenda and turned it into A domestic Spy/Police Clearly against the Charter of the CIA. Turning it against the Anti war Movement. And in the 70’s/80’s we completely lost track of the big picture by propping up dictators that were sympathetic to the current administrations values we put in place many regimes that now are trying to destroy us because at the time we liked what they said and they took our money. Needless to say to arm themselves against us. But I urge you to pick this one up and read it, maybe it will help you understand why we are in the shape we are in today. Too many weak minded politically motivated men were trying to garner favor from too many political operators and set up their legacy instead of finding out what was actually going on.

One Response to “Book Report: Legacy of Ashes An uncensored history of the CIA”

  1. Thanks for the rather lengthly review, Mr. J…. We already discussed this book and I have it on my Nook wish list to be purchased next month…. Each month I try to buy me a new read and/or replace one of my existing books that I will read more than once….. One of these days, I will have my own version of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”…. My complete library on a paperback-sized electronic book…. Some things about the present are not that bad!……

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