Bishop's Book Review
From the Shadows
The Ultimate Insider’s Story
of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War
By Robert M. Gates (Simon and Schuster, 1996, 604 pages)
Legacy of Ashes
The History of the CIA
By Tim Weiner (Doubleday, 2007, 702 pages)
America’s Secret War
Inside The Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and Its Enemies
By George Friedman (Broadway Books, 2004, 362 pages)
Beware of authors with agendas! So beware of these books and balance all three of them together. The truth (I think) lies in there somewhere. Talk about heavy reading. The story of American foreign policy since World War II is a tortured tale, and these three works with a combined 1600+ pages of text begins to examine the struggle against the Soviet Union and how international terrorism which was, and still is, the centerpiece of American diplomatic history. This was my summer vacation reading in July 2008.
Robert Gates is the current Secretary of Defense. An old Washington hand who has known personally every President since Gerald Ford, Gates writes of his career in the CIA and at the White House in From the Shadows. A few of his insights:
*President Jimmy Carter had an aggressive foreign policy versus the Soviets. He was wrongly blamed as an appeaser to the Russians by American
conservative politicians. The Soviets feared Carter and American interests were advanced by his presidency.
*President Reagan was the only one in his administration that had the vision that the USSR would collapse within a decade. He pushed the Soviets hard and was right. Congress was usually wrong.
*With the USSR in chaos, only a president with George H.W. Bush’s vast foreign policy experience could have managed the end of European communism. His most important victory was the reunification of Germany when few on either side could see it happening. At his own political cost, he refused to metaphorically dance on the Berlin Wall and to embarrass the Soviet leaders who he was working with to end communism peacefully. This selfless statesmanship is his legacy!
Tim Weiner is a reporter for the New York Times. His sub-title for his massively footnoted study could have been “The History of the Failures of the CIA.” While Robert Gates consistently defends the Central Intelligence Agency, Weiner cannot find much of anything it has ever done right. Using recently declassified CIA documents, Weiner takes specific aim at the failure of covert operations from the late 1940’s right through the first years of the current Iraq war. He is merciless in detail and portrays the CIA as literally the “gang that could not shoot straight.” He accuses Robert Gates and many others of being a liar on Iran-Contra. He denounces Robert Kennedy and his brother, the President, for attempting assassinations of foreign leaders. He criticizes the CIA again and again for breaking US law by spying on Americans in America. He blames every President for manipulating information. Every CIA Director’s conduct is seen as nearly criminal or at least incompetent. All in all he reveals an agency that was not successful in either information collection or in covert operations, and an agency whose very existence is a fraud upon the American political ethic.
And speaking of breathtaking books, George Friedman’s America’s Secret War is a behind the scenes story of a post-Soviet Mideast where the War on Terrorism is being fought today. Friedman is the head of a “think tank” that studies American Foreign Policy. His most interesting and provocative conclusions:
*This country made a deal with Russia that allowed American military bases in former Soviet Asian republics if the U.S. no longer supported ethnic minority’s political interests in Russia.
*In return for U.S. support of Pakistan against India, the Pakistanis joined the war against the Taliban.
*The invasion of Iraq was necessary to prove to the Saudis and others that the U.S. would not back down on the war against terror and that we were a reliable ally. The Islamic World was being taught a lesson by the United States - or so we thought.
*France and Germany would not support the current Iraq War because they did not want the U.S. to be seen as the only permanent super power. They feared more than Iraq, U.S. hegemony!
Now back to agendas! The problem with the writing of recent history is that the full story is not yet known. Will it ever be known? These three books are, thus, limited. They are also limited by the agendas of their authors. It is impossible to write impartial and unbiased history. “History is written by the winners,” said Alex Haley.
Robert Gates writes carefully like a man who is still working on a career and is concerned lest he offend a future Republican or Democrat President who may appoint him to another high office! Tim Weiner takes aim at the CIA and treats it like the liberal elites in this country have always treated the intelligence agencies, with great disdain and grudging acceptance. George Friedman may be looking for book sales, or he may want another government contract to analyze a tricky world situation, for a price.
However, these titles are well worth our time! Seeking the truth is always worth the effort. While biased and self-serving, these three books all have the ring of at least partial truth about them. Elvis Presley once said, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time but it ain’t going away.”
+Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes
July 10, 2008