Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

The Ghosts of Langley: Into the CIA's Heart of Darkness

3/5 ( ratings)

The Ghosts of Langley is a provocative and panoramic new history of the Central Intelligence Agency that tells the story of the Agency through the eyes of key figures in CIA history and its covert actions around the world. Drawing on a wealth of newly declassified documents, celebrated historian of intelligence John Prados throws fresh light on classic agency operations such as the Bay of Pigs, and discerns a disturbing continuum from the practice of covert actions from Iran in the 1950s, Chile and Vietnam in the 1970s, and Central America in the 1980s to the current secret wars in the Muslim world.

Prados delves into early Agency history to show that spy chief legends including Allen Dulles and Frank Wisner were masters of obfuscation who shielded the agency from government probing, to the extent that they have cast a ghostly shadow over their bureaucratic descendants. Thanks to these legendary spymasters, over the seven decades since its creation the CIA has slowly decoupled itself from government accountability, going rogue in a series of highly troubling and even criminal ventures that reach their tragic apotheosis with the secret overseas prisons and torture programs of the War on Terror.

Pages: 320

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: New Press

Release: November 07, 2017

ISBN: 1620970880

ISBN 13: 9781620970881

The Ghosts of Langley: Into the CIA's Heart of Darkness

3/5 ( ratings)

The Ghosts of Langley is a provocative and panoramic new history of the Central Intelligence Agency that tells the story of the Agency through the eyes of key figures in CIA history and its covert actions around the world. Drawing on a wealth of newly declassified documents, celebrated historian of intelligence John Prados throws fresh light on classic agency operations such as the Bay of Pigs, and discerns a disturbing continuum from the practice of covert actions from Iran in the 1950s, Chile and Vietnam in the 1970s, and Central America in the 1980s to the current secret wars in the Muslim world.

Prados delves into early Agency history to show that spy chief legends including Allen Dulles and Frank Wisner were masters of obfuscation who shielded the agency from government probing, to the extent that they have cast a ghostly shadow over their bureaucratic descendants. Thanks to these legendary spymasters, over the seven decades since its creation the CIA has slowly decoupled itself from government accountability, going rogue in a series of highly troubling and even criminal ventures that reach their tragic apotheosis with the secret overseas prisons and torture programs of the War on Terror.

Pages: 320

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: New Press

Release: November 07, 2017

ISBN: 1620970880

ISBN 13: 9781620970881

More books from John Prados

Hitler Triumphant: Alternate Decisions of World War II

3.4/5 ( ratings)

Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam: Or, How Not to Learn from the Past

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh

Why The North Won The Vietnam War

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Neptunus Rex: Naval Stories of the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944, Voices of the Navy Memorial

3.6/5 ( ratings)

The Vietnam Experience: War in the Shadows

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Rethinking National Security: An Outmoded Concept Is Sapping America's Strength

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Covert Operations Source Book (Top Secret/S.I. Accessory TSAC3)

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Rare ISLANDS OF DESTINY: THE SOLOMONS CAMPAIGN WW2 [Hardcover] John Prados;

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Normandy Crucible: The Decisive Battle that Shaped World War II in Europe

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Safe For Democracy: The Secret Wars Of The CIA

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Islands of Destiny: The Solomons Campaign and the Eclipse of the Rising Sun

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Pentagon Games: Wargames And The American Military

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Hoodwinked: The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War 1945-1975

3.5/5 ( ratings)

How the Cold War Ended: Debating and Doing History

3.5/5 ( ratings)

In Country: Remembering the Vietnam War

3.5/5 ( ratings)

The Family Jewels: The CIA, Secrecy, and Presidential Power (Discovering America)

3.5/5 ( ratings)

A Streetcar Named Pleiku: Vietnam 1965: A Turning Point

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Hoodwinked: The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?