Ambrose, Stephen E., with Richard H. Immerman. Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981. Ambrose, Stephen E., with Richard H. Immerman. Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981.
Clark comment: Ambrose is a respected historian and Eisenhower biographer. The focus of the first part of the book is on the World War II years, including Ultra, Torch, and Overlord. Ambrose compares the Allied surprise at the beginning of the Battle of Bulge to the German surprise on D-Day. The second part of the book covers intelligence issues during Eisenhower's presidency.
To Constantinides, the "principal fault of this book is the authors' exaggeration of Eisenhower's direct role and first-hand participation in intelligence matters as distinct from his general responsibilities as commander and president.... Little evidence is produced to show that he took more than a normal leader's interest in intelligence operations and techniques." There are enough errors to "cause the reader to be cautious," but there are "some good passages" as well. Lucas, I&NS 12.3/197, comments that Ike's Spies "illuminated covert action's importance within US strategy" but also "fell prey to the myth of Eisenhower as controlling influence."
Barrett, David M. The CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2005.
DKR, AFIO WIN 33-05 (29 Aug. 2005), says that the author finds that "Congress was a firm, if not always wise, taskmaster in the agency's early decades. The CIA was repeatedly criticized for Intel failures, harassed by budget cutters and witch hunts, and pressed by legislators to slant analysis on politically charged issues.... Barrett has written a trenchant study of Congressional oversight that is in sharp contrast to a widespread, popular image of the CIA."
For Scheuer, Washington Post, 27 Nov. 2005, this work is "is a triumph of research." Faced with "widely dispersed research materials," the author has "displayed sound analytic sense and balance in their use." Along the way, he provides "superb portraits and assessments of the key players."
Snider, Studies 50.1 (Mar. 2006), finds that the author paints "a far richer picture" of the Congress-CIA relationship "than we had before. Intriguing tidbits are scattered throughout," and "almost every chapter reveals something that we did not quite appreciate before.... [T]he DCI and other senior CIA officials appeared far more often before congressional committees ... than was previously understood. In 1958, for example, DCI Dulles appeared a surprising 27 times before 16 different committees.... Still, as Barrett’s account documents, a great deal of what passed for oversight during this period was informal and less than rigorous."
To Platt, I&NS 22.4 (Aug. 2007), the author provides "a detailed, comprehensive, and highly persuasive examination of congressional oversight" of the CIA "during the early Cold War.... Barrett's lengthy, somewhat densely written tome convincingly demolishes the myth of congressional deference to and salutary neglect towards the CIA from its founding in 1947 to the Bay of Pigs debacle in 1961."
Nolen, IJI&C 21.1 (Spring 2008), lauds the author as "a master at culling the important details of secret history hidden in the dusty attic archives of America.... Barrett tells new tales of congressional oversight, reinterprets the old, and whets the appetite for more to come."
Finding the author's study "both fascinating and provocative," McCarthy, H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews [http://www.h-net.org], Sep. 2008, opines that "it is unquestionably one of the most important books ever published on the early history of the CIA.... In the hands of a less talented author, this would have been an incredibly tedious book. Barrett, however, has a good eye for revealing quotations and fun anecdotes."
Barrett, David M. "An Early 'Year of Intelligence': CIA and Congress, 1958." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 17, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 468-501.
"If 1975 ... was a year of firestorms [for the CIA], 1958 might be characterized as a year of serious grassfires which led to persistent questioning in Congress of the CIA's competence." Events impacting on the CIA's relationship with Congress in 1958 included the fallout from the launching of Sputnik by the Soviet Union, Vice President's Nixon's trip to Venezuela, and the Iraqi coup.
Barrett, David M. "Glimpses
of a Hidden History: Sen. Richard Russell, Congress, and Oversight of the
CIA." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence
11, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 271-298.
The focus here is Russell's and Congress' relationship with the CIA during the Eisenhower presidency. The author concludes that "[t]here can be no doubt that Russell was powerful in relation to the CIA; the question that remains largely unanswered is the extent to which he exercised that power." In the absence of the release of relevant records by the government, "[t]he well-known contention that no effective congressional oversight of the CIA existed in this and other parts of the 'era of trust' is not yet proven."
Bissell, Richard M.,
Jr., with Jonathan E. Lewis and Frances T. Pudlo. Reflections of a Cold
Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 1996. JK468I6B55
Shryock, WIR 15.6, sees Bissell's memoirs as "thoughtful, candid, provocative, and ultimately puzzling." However, at times, the author "conveys his thoughts in a stiff, disorganized, and even excessively lawyerly manner." Falcoff, National Interest, Winter 1996-1997, finds the book "informative and stimulating," despite "its unexciting prose and a tendency to flatten what must have been far more dramatic events."
For Immerman, Choice 34.2, this work is disappointing but "nevertheless has value. It provides a succinct history of some of America's most dramatic Cold War initiatives and insight into the mindsets of their architects." Chambers concludes that "[t]here are no major disclosures. However, Bissell's personal recollections do add a new and useful viewpoint to the history of these operations." Click for a full review by Chambers.
"Methodological problems" with Bissell's memoirs are raised by Westerfield, Studies (Winter 1998-1999). Noting the clear acknowledgement that the "actual writing was done by [Bissell's] two collaborators," Westerfield also is concerned that "the posthumous additions (not clearly delineated ) obscure throughout what words were ever personally approved by Bissell and what ones were not."
Cabell,
Charles A., Jr. [BGEN/USAF (Ret.)], ed. A Man of Intelligence: Memoirs of War, Peace, and the CIA. Boulder, CO: Impavide Publications, 1997.
According to Peake, AFIO WIN 42-99 (23 Oct. 1999), these are the memoirs of Gen. Charles Cabell, DDCI 1953-1962, who held a succession of important Army Air Force and Air Force staff and intelligence positions before being named as DDCI under Allen Dulles. Peake notes that Cabell devotes "[m]ore than 100 pages ... to his CIA service, and of particular interest here are his candid comments about the Bay of Pigs operation in which he was directly involved." Cabell's assessment of the reasons for the Bay of Pigs failure is "dispassionate," but he does not mince words either. This book "is a valuable contribution to the history of Air Force intelligence and the early years of the CIA."
Chace, James. What
We Had: A Memoir. New York: Summit, 1990.
Surveillant 1.1: "[F]ormer editor of Foreign Affairs and CIA informant during his days in Paris."
Chapman, Robert D. "Remembering the Polish Underground." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 19, no. 4 (Winter 2006-2007): 746-752.
The author reviews briefly the CIA's support of the Polish underground organization Wolnosc i Niezawislosc (WiN -- Freedom and Independence) in the early 1950s, as well as events surrounding the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
Coriden, Guy E. "Report on Hungarian Refugees." Studies in Intelligence 2, no. 1 (Winter 1958): 85-93.
The author reports on the collection of "intelligence information and material from the Hungarians who were admitted to the US" in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Currey, Cecil B. Edward
Lansdale: The Unquiet American. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. Washington, DC: Brassey's, 1998.
According to a review in JAH 77.1, Currey has presented "a spirited defense of Lansdale's career." The problem is that neither Lansdale nor Currey's other informants were willing to talk about "what serious students of intelligence want to know most about -- what they did as intelligence operatives.... Because of the difficulty with sources, Currey's account is probably the most detailed that could be written of Lansdale's career."
Commenting on the 1998 edition, Jonkers, AFIO WIN (30-1998), notes that "this book provides both an important contribution to literature of the Vietnam war as well as a monument to a legend."
Darling, Arthur B.
The Central Intelligence Agency: An Instrument of Government, to 1950.
University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 1990.
Click for reviews of Darling's book and that of Ludwell Lee Montague, covering the period from October 1950 to January 1953.
Dujmovic, Nicholas. "Extraordinary Fidelity: Two CIA Prisoners in China, 1952–73." Studies in Intelligence 50, no. 4 (2006): 21-36.
"Shot down over Communist China on their first operational mission in 1952, these young men [John T. Downey and Richard G. Fecteau] spent the next two decades imprisoned, often in solitary confinement, while their government officially denied they were CIA officers. Fecteau was released in 1971, Downey in 1973. They came home to an America vastly different from the place they had left, but both adjusted surprisingly well and continue to live full lives."
Ben Macintyre, "The Lost 20 Years of CIA Spies Caught in China Trap," Times (London), 21 Apr. 2007, picks up on the Downey and Fecteau story from Dujmovic's Studies article.
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