Book Review: The Secret History of the CIA

After changing the tones of the books I have been reading I picked up “The Secret History of the CIA” by Joseph J. Trento. As the CIA is a very secret, by nature, organization it has interested Americans since it’s founding.

This book does a pretty good job of looking at how the CIA battled the USSR during the Cold War. The stories were not as tense but more informative. Sometimes if you missed a sentence or two or couldn’t remember it all, it became hard to keep up with. It especially was interesting when it went into the JFK investigation. It begged the question what was more important to the FBI and CIA, to find out who killed Kennedy or to make sure it wasn’t their fault?

From an Economic perspective the last chapter was full of Public Choice type thinking. It looked over a topic of how secret should be a organization in a free society? How much power can this organization attain due to the ever changing figure heads? In this case, both the President and the Director of the CIA. I think after reading this book and seeing what damage was done to the country and people’s lives, it is easy to say that the CIA maybe shouldn’t exist in a free country.

How far are we away to a secret police? With the power of espionage, who can truly stop the CIA? As the CIA is a tool of government and government has a monopoly on violence, who monitors the CIA and can they do that job well?

I am sure the CIA has done some wonderful things and will continue to do so. That is definitely not what I am saying here. I sometimes lean towards if government exist then we should have a organization like this, but how can we do a good job to keep it safe?

Rating: 4.5/10

~PCCapitalist