Spymasters: Ten CIA Officers in Their Own Words

Spymasters is a collection of interviews revealing enlightening perspectives on the covert operations of this powerful, secretive arm of the U.S. government. Here former top-ranking CIA officials shed light on some of the most sensitive issues and practices in American foreign intelligence to date. These men disclose information about:

President Harry S. Truman's demands for a centralized intelligence agency and the stubborn resistance of James F. Byrnes, J. Edgar Hoover, and the military services

the tumultuous early stages of the National Security Council

the failed Bay of Pigs invasion

the confusion surrounding the Kennedy assassination

Khrushchev's ousting

Operation MONGOOSE

the Gulf of Tonkin incident

The interviews are especially valuable for their portrayal of the relationships between the agency's directors and the presidents during the most anxious and threatening decades of the Cold War. The CIA's successes and failures are recounted and carefully evaluated by the men who were there, often times issuing the orders.

Ralph E. Weber is professor of history at Marquette University and a former scholar in residence at the Central Intelligence Agency as well as the National Security Agency.