Legacy of Ashes (National Book Award Winner): The History of the CIA

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • With shocking revelations that made headlines all across the country, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it, and how these profound failures jeopardize our national security.

"
For anyone interested in the CIA or American intelligence since World War II.” —The Washington Post

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century • The precursor to the New York Times bestseller The Mission

For years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, “a legacy of ashes.”

Now Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tim Weiner offers a definitive history of the CIA—and everything is on the record. LEGACY OF ASHES is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after 9/ll.

Here is the hidden history of the CIA: why eleven presidents and three generations of CIA officers have been unable to understand the world; why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it; and how these failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • With shocking revelations that made headlines all across the country, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found ...

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Ratings and reviews

29 reviews
Jeremiah Patterson
March 4, 2018
This book describes and tells us the real Intelligence being the CIA.
4 people found this review helpful
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God Google God
May 13, 2026
الله العبده الشيطان العبدة الله الشيوعي السرعه الضوء الملائكه البيعه المبايعه المرور خادم الشيطان Projectjarvis OpenAI المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه OpenAI Projectjarvis الشيطان خادم المرور المبايعة البيعة الملائكة الضوء السرعة الشيوعي الله العبدة الشيطان العبده الله
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Andrew Oosterhoff
February 18, 2018
Amazing detail and thoroughness.
1 person found this review helpful
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About the author

Tim Weiner, a reporter for The New York Times, has filed stories from inside the CIA and around the world for twenty years. He is a past winner of the Pulitzer Prize for covering national security. This is his third book.
Tim Weiner, a reporter for The New York Times, has filed stories from inside the CIA and around the world for twenty years. He is a past winner of the Pulitzer Prize for covering national security. This is his third book.

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