Tully, Andrew. CIA: The Inside Story. New York: Morrow, 1962. London: Arthur Barker, 1962. New York: Fawcett, 1963. [pb]
Pforzheimer quotes Allen Dulles' letter to Tully's publisher for the opinion that "the work is 'a compilation of rumor, hearsay, and republication of previously published speculation about the CIA.... [I]t contains gross inaccuracies and distortions.'"
Constantinides suggests that not all the many errors in this book can be written off to a lack of information; some are attributable to "sloppy research." There is little here to justify including "Inside" in the title.
For Blum, NameBase, this book, written "when few Americans could identify what the letters CIA stood for, much less what the agency did," was the first "to reveal a number of CIA adventures in some detail. It discusses actual and possible CIA attempts at government-making ... and also has sections on Nazi general Reinhard Gehlen, and the U-2 and Francis Gary Powers. Some espionage and counter-espionage tales are thrown in to make what must have at the time seemed like the 'inside story,' but which now definitely comes across as rather superficial."
U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency. Factbook on Intelligence. Washington, DC: Yearly.
U.S. Congress.
Senate. Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to
Intelligence Activities. Final Report. 94th Cong., 2d sess. S. Report
No. 94-755, 6 vols. Washington, DC: GPO, 1976.
This is the Church Committee report.
Vol. I: Foreign and Military Intelligence.
Vol. II: Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans.
Text of this volume can be accessed through http://www.cointel.org.
Vol. III: Supplemental Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence and the Rights of Americans.
Text of this volume can be accessed through http://www.cointel.org.
Vol. IV: Supplemental Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence and Military Intelligence.
Clark comment: This volume contains the "History of the Central Intelligence Agency," written by Committee staffer Anne Karalekas. It was also published as Anne Karalekas, History of the Central Intelligence Agency (Laguna Hills, CA: Aegean Park Press, 1977). This reprint has itself been reprinted, with an additional documentary appendix: William M. Leary, ed., The Central Intelligence Agency: History and Documents (University, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1984).
Pforzheimer: "While somewhat biased and uneven ... on the role of clandestine collection and covert action, this 'History' is probably the best text publicly available on the history of the CIA."
Vol. V: The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- Performance of the Intelligence Agencies.
Vol. VI: Supplemental Reports on Intelligence Activities.
Williams, Grover S. Legislative History of the Central Intelligence Agency as Documented in Published Congressional Sources. CRS Report No. 75-5A. Washington, DC: U.S. Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service, 1975.
Wise, David, and Thomas B. Ross. The Invisible Government. New York: Random House, 1964. New York: Bantam Books, 1965. [pb] New York: Vintage Books, 1974.
Clark comment: Billed as "the first full, authentic account of America's intelligence and espionage apparatus," The Invisible Government is one of the earliest "exposes" of U.S. intelligence activities. It was relatively sensational in its day, but its stories are old-hat today. Four chapters are devoted to the Bay of Pigs.
In a contemporaneous review, Valpey, Studies 8, no. 4 (Fall 1964), finds that "[t]his book may serve to dramatize the problem" of balancing freedom with security, "but it does not provide any deep insight or new solutions. It is written not to enlighten but to shock and to sell." Similarly, Pforzheimer calls the book an "inaccurate, simplistic 'expose' of the CIA by two resourceful journalists"; it overstates the influence of the CIA. On the other hand, for NameBase, "this 1964 book was amazingly comprehensive about U.S. covert activities."
Yost, Graham. The CIA. New York: Facts on File, 1989.
Surveillant 1.5 finds this to be a "fascinating account of the use of surveillance technology in the context of the East-West struggle." Although it is "[o]riented toward younger readers," it is still "suitable as an illustrated introduction for non-technically oriented adults."
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