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Title: The Book of Honor : Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA by Ted Gup ISBN: 0-385-49541-2 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (40 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A history that is long overdue
Comment: This is a book about the lives, and deaths, of some of our nation's heroes; stories that have been hidden for decades in some cases.
The author has researched the deaths of CIA agents killed in the line of duty, since the inception of the Agency. Even today some of the stories he relates are officially "classified." The truths about most of these lives should have been released by our government long ago, since it is well past the time that any national security issues would be at stake.
I found the book quite interesting--not only did the author tell a good story (or stories), but it gave me a better understanding of how the CIA works--a topic I haven't pursued up to this point.
Rating: 5
Summary: Much needed sunshine on the CIA
Comment: This is a good book! It is good reading for anyone age 16 or older, casual reader to university professor. It is required reading for anyone serving in the intelligence or diplomatic fields - soldier or statesman. I was impressed that this is Ted Gup's first book, it is truly superb. Gup's research is among the best and most complete I have ever reviewed regarding this subject area. Book of Honor is about a small part of the CIA called the Deputy Director for Operations or DDO and about an even smaller part of the DDO that conducts clandestine, covert, and surreptitious operations overseas. It is a series of true action stories about the events of the men and women that died in the service of the CIA from its inception after WW II to the present. The author is fidelis honoring those who died and earned a listing in the "Book of Honor." You'll meet real heroes here. My favorite, whom I have long considered one of the bravest men I ever knew - Dick Holm. But, that's only part of the value of this living history. There is a second story between the lines for the more experienced reader. It is a story about an intelligence agency often more involved with nitwitery (like that in Laos) than sound objective or purpose. The reader will bounce between admiration of exceptional individual accomplishment and disbelief at the level of institutional incompetence by often unqualified managers - more mangers than leaders. This is a story too often about "playing army" than spying. Readers will cringe at a bureaucratic contest between better equipped and better trained military special operations units and CIA teams usually comprised of ex-military contract employees. Policy and law makers will see first hand the inherent problems of an intelligence agency wasting limited resources and valuable time trying to fight violent enemies at the expense of making sound intelligence about critical issues needed by others. The author includes a lucid passage attributed to members of US Army Detachment Delta - You just didn't know if you could trust the CIA. They were speaking about the reliability of both CIA intelligence and operational truthfulness and their assessment is directly on target. The CIA plays games when professionalism is needed. Too many CIA secrets are maintained more to protect incompetence than national security. The author with the help of many within the agency provides needed sunshine with the right blend of integrity and caution. There is no horse manure in this book.
Rating: 1
Summary: A totally different slant than I expected...
Comment: I will be honest in that I couldn't get all the way through this book. When the initial monologue started off with the author's assessment that The Agency was "founded on a basis of deceit", I winced. Then, shortly after, the author talked about his motivation for the book. Speaking about those on the wall, he wrote "They are people that, given the life they chose, probably would prefer to be in anonymity up there on the wall. But, I decided that it was important to me to tell their story." That statement made me shut off, because it was obvious this book was not about honoring those who had died in their country's service. Rather, their lives were an intellectual curiousity to the author, and what they would have wanted was less important than the author's belief that as a journalist, his needs are most important.
Bottom line is that if you are looking for an exposé that attempts to make the US look bad in an attempt to sell books, go for it. If you are looking for something that is honoring those fallen in the way they wished to be honored, do not buy this book.
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Title: The Master of Disguise : My Secret Life in the CIA by Antonio J. Mendez ISBN: 0060957913 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Inside the CIA by Ronald Kessler ISBN: 067173458X Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Inside Cia's Private World: Declassified Articles from the Agency's Internal Journal, 1955-1992 by H. Bradford Westerfield ISBN: 0300072643 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism by Robert Baer ISBN: 140004684X Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: A Spy For All Seasons : My Life in the CIA by Duane R. Clarridge ISBN: 0743245369 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 13 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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