Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA

Interviews with top-ranking CIA insiders inform this history of the agency that describes the agency's reaction to and cause of various crises and how it provided defense information to Saddam Hussein. 75,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo.

Making judicious use of classified material obtained from "a source inside the executive branch," Perry examines the bitter internal debate over CIA policy and leadership from the death of director William Casey in 1987 to the swearing-in of Robert Gates in '91. Perry staunchly defends Casey's immediate successor, former FBI head William Webster. Charged with rebuilding the agency's public image and internal morale, Webster was, the author shows, unable to overcome the barriers placed in his path by White House officials and obstructionists in the CIA itself. Perry traces the meteoric rise of Gates and the circumstances of his controversial nomination by President Bush. A powerful but widely hated figure, Gates was viewed as an amateurish upstart by many of his colleagues. Perry's study is the most revealing inside look at the Central Intelligence Agency to date. Perry is author of Four Stars: The Joint Chiefs of Staff. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Perry's monumental work provides a disquieting set of insights into the people, the bureaucratic infighting, and political problems besetting this once mighty "rogue elephant" of the covert operations business. Drawing on numerous in-depth interviews with the principals and their staffers, Perry notes the difficulties in the Carter, Reagan, and Bush years in finding a CIA director both free of taint and yet knowledgeable enough to do the job. Directors Bush, Turner, Casey, Webster, and Gates are carefully examined in light of their differing views on the balance between Elint (electronic technological means of information gathering) and Humint (human sources). Casey, the insider who was given to more covert operations like Iran-Contra, stands in marked contrast to outsiders Stansfield Turner and William Webster, who were often viewed by the "community" members as at best uninitiated. Perry's topical rather than sequential analysis leads us through U.S. involvements in Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, China, and Afghanistan. This eye-opening and provocative book is highly recommended.
- Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.