On 2010-02-17 K. Moody, Washington, DC USA wrote: I wanted to like this book, and I was really excited about finally getting hold of a copy to read. But as soon as a few chapters in, I new it was going to be a long, and mostly uninformative book. The problem with the book is rooted in the author, who is a newspaper correspondent. The book is written like a long, a very long, string of articles meant to grab headlines. It´s complete formula. Throw in a few quotes from high-ups, site a damning report, and pin it on a controversial event. Then blame everyone, and give no one any sort of credit for anything good that may happen. It really is a string of CIA stories in one giant collection. The author´s conclusion is pretty bland--the CIA was screwed from the beginning, and directors always claim they are just five years from being great. For as exciting a topic as the CIA should be, this was a boring read, and unfortunately I made myself finish it. Yesterday was the happy day it came to an end, and oddly I remember very little from the book. It made no real arguments, I thought the sourcing was weak, and the author had a habit of trying to plug himself in there with the occasional ´I.´
Legacy of Ashes lacked substance, analysis, organized poorly in my opinion, and overall was a bust. Calling this book a history is a blasphemy, since it is more of a Canned Chicken Soup for the CIA Nerd--just weak, not fulfilling, and left me feeling sick. For anyone really wanting to learn about how the CIA operates, look elsewhere. The one thing that sticks with me from this book is a passage about Clinton telling Tenet and the CIA to track bin Laden and try to kill him with missiles, and that´s only because the passage ticked me off and was typical of the poor analysis recurrent in the book. For pages and pages and pages Weiner throws mud all over the CIA about how they had been asked to pick sites in Serbia and Iraq to bomb through the mid and late 1990s and how they always screwed it up, in the ending telling the Pentagon to bomb a school, and once even the Chinese embassy. Tenet bombs a few places bin Laden is supposed to be, only to kill more innocents. THEN, Weiner sites a CIA officer claiming they knew where bin Laden was everyday for months on end within 50 miles to 50 feet at times, but Tenet and Clinton call off bombing and accuses them of not having the tenacity to go after bin Laden. This is probably the biggest pattern of the book...the CIA is always wrong, except when they are right and the administration doesn´t trust them. When a new director comes in, he does ´the largest clearing house in history,´ and morale at the Agency is low.
A previous reviewer commented on how the later portions of the book weren´t as good as the earlier section because documents are still classified on Iraq and everything. Well, for a much better read of the CIA and the case against Iraq I recommend FiascoFiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005 and Hubris. Two very well written books, with plenty of substance and lessons. In the end, this book affirms Eisenhower´s conviction that ´Success cannot be advertised; failure cannot be explained. In the work of intelligence, heroes are undecorated and unsung.´
Legacy of Ashes will burn in my fireplace tonight. . And summed up by saying I am turning this book into A Pile of Ashes. Currently Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA has an overall rating of 6 over 10.
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA can also be found in the following searches:
Anchor claimed With shocking revelations that made headlines in papers across the country, Pulitzer-Prize-winner Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers here why nearly every CIA Director has left the agency in worse shape than when he found it; and how these profound failures jeopardize our national security.
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