... Weiner deftly and succinctly shows how the agency has navigated the first sixty years of its existence ... Among the more shocking revelations of the book are the many urban legends that are, in fact, true ... Weiner masterfully exposes the incompetence of the agency and the men who’ve led it. Using a relentless narrative style that dispenses with lengthy biographies of even the most important individuals, he pushes through a staggering amount of raw information in relatively short order. His prose is sharp, and never condescends to the reader ... For all its weight, the book has surprising moments of humor ... One can’t help but share Weiner’s frustration about the CIA’s past, as well as his fear for what its failures mean for America’s future. Legacy of Ashes is the rare book that should be read by every American, especially in an election year. Luckily, it’s also a thoroughly enjoyable book, one that’s hardly a chore to read.
The stories of ineptitude are so staggering that readers will have to laugh to keep from crying ... isn't packed with revelations, but its page-turning litany of abuses and blunders has a cohesive, cumulative force that make it essential reading ... Weiner asks, 'How do you run a secret intelligence service in an open democracy?' The CIA, in its hubris, has tried haplessly to answer that rhetorical question.
... prodigiously researched ... [Weiner] has written a powerful exposé of a secret arm of the American government without using anonymous sources, off-the-record interviews or blind quotes. Legacy of Ashes is the best book I've yet read on the CIA's covert actions ... What distinguishes Legacy of Ashes from most other books about the CIA is that it places the agency's assassination attempts, coups d'état and other covert actions within a real political context. By tracing the relations between successive presidents and the CIA, Mr. Weiner refutes the paranoid myth that the agency was an out-of-control, rogue entity or, as some claim, a kind of shadow government ... a fascinating and revealing history -- a jewel of a book, to borrow a term.
... riveting ... a fascinating yet scathing history ... carefully researched and sharply written ... should be must-reading for every presidential candidate -- and every American who wants to understand why the nation repeatedly stumbles into one disaster abroad after another.
... impassioned ... conspicuously a book of its time ... Anyone tempted to write this book off as an anti-C.I.A. screed had better look at Mr. Weiner’s sources. The author has impressively studied the archival record, teased out newly declassified primary documents and done numerous interviews to glean as much as can be publicly known about the agency’s history. Some of the most damning criticism of the C.I.A.’s past performance in this book comes not from gadflies or ideologues but from ex-officials and long-secret authorized accounts by C.I.A. historians.
... engrossing, comprehensive ... Weiner has a good eye for embarrassing detail ... by using tens of thousands of declassified documents and on-the-record recollections of dozens of chagrined spymasters, Weiner paints what may be the most disturbing picture yet of C.I.A. ineptitude. After following along Weiner’s march of folly, readers may wonder: Is an open democracy capable of building and sustaining an effective secret intelligence service? Maybe not. But with Islamic terrorists vowing to set off a nuclear device in an American city, there isn’t much choice but to keep on trying.
... draws extensively from primary documentation, yielding lively episodes of agents and operations and the reactions to their results by CIA directors and presidents ... Although critical, Weiner expresses esteem for certain CIA directors, such as Richard Helms. These directors understood espionage basics, and Weiner concludes with the hope that the CIA will get back to them. Thousands of the CIA’s annual applicants will seek out an institutional history, and Weiner’s ably meets that need.
... thorough and persuasive ... Mr. Weiner highlights many successes and is less harsh than many presidents. ... Though Mr. Weiner strongly believes his country needs effective espionage, his hopes for it sound bleak.
... [a] combative and entertaining demolition job ... The CIA has a useful expression, 'limited hangout'. When caught you own up to the bare minimum and hide the rest. Given the nature of an organisation based on deception and self-regard, it is inevitable that Weiner's exposé, from quoted agency sources, contains its share of limited hangout. There's little mention here of the agency's involvement with drugs, for instance. What this otherwise interesting account doesn't address is the discrepancy between the extent of sheer criminal enterprise available and the fact that these men were agents on government salaries, which must have resulted in much temptation and extracurricular enterprise not admitted here.
... Weiner musters extensive archival research and interviews with top-ranking insiders o present the agency's saga as an exercise in trying to change the world without bothering to understand it ... Many of the misadventures Weiner covers, at times sketchily, are familiar, but his comprehensive survey brings out the persistent problems that plague the agency. The result is a credible and damning indictment of American intelligence policy.
Though highly critical of the CIA, Weiner makes two important mitigating points. First, democracies are not obligated to fight fire with fire ... Second, many presidents demanded bad intelligence ... Absorbing, appalling history.
