THE SPYMASTERS

An expert chronicle of the CIA through the actions of its directors.

Focusing on individual personalities allows Whipple, a Peabody- and Emmy-winning TV producer, to describe the influence they exerted over American’s intelligence establishment. He explains that the CIA mainly consists of “two camps.” Analysts gather information on other nations, sometimes through spies but often by simply reading their newspapers. Their information is usually accurate, if often ignored; pressed to “predict the future,” they obey, but, of course, they “aren’t perfect and they often pay the price.” In the second camp are operatives, who “practice deception and seduction, enticing strangers to betray their countries.” Whipple emphasizes that the CIA serves presidents who may ask for the impossible or the illegal, take credit for successes, and shift blame for failures. Thus, it’s accepted that 9/11 took the agency by surprise, although the author rightly points out that administration officials repeatedly ignored warnings of an imminent attack. Directors range from experienced intelligence officers to clueless politicos, technocrats, and ruthless zealots. Richard Helms spoke truth to power, warning Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon that North Vietnam wasn’t weakening, and then blotted his escutcheon by agreeing to spy on anti-war protesters. Allen Dulles thrilled Dwight Eisenhower by overthrowing supposedly hostile governments in Iran and Guatemala but then oversaw the disastrous invasion of Castro’s Cuba. William Casey greased the wheels of the Iran-Contra affair, which “almost sank Ronald Reagan’s presidency.” The best—according to Whipple: Leon Panetta, William Webster, Robert Gates, John Brennan—have been close to presidents but never partisan. Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes remains the best book about the CIA, but readers will not regret time spent on this readable journalistic account, which relies heavily on interviews with living directors and a surprisingly large number of surviving spouses, children, and associates.

This lively, opinionated history makes it clear that presidents and CIA directors sometimes deserve each other.