Synopsis
Drawing on recently declassified documents, a provocative look at the intense and bitter rivalry between the FBI and CIA examines the history of the conflict and assesses its damaging impact on American counterintelligence. 25,000 first printing. Tour.
Reviews
Based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with former agents, Riebling's expose of the bitter rivalry between the FBI and CIA is presented through the prism of national traumas that might have turned out differently had these agencies worked togther: the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the McCarthy-era loyalty investigations, the JFK assassination and the World Trade Center bombing. Relations have always been tense, shows Riebling, dating back to the early years of WWII when William Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner of the CIA), built a network of agents against the wishes of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Interagency animosity was further fueled by Hoover's suspicion that a later CIA director, Walter Bedell Smith, was a Communist. The FBI's obsessive search for Soviet moles during the '60s led to a formal disassociation in 1970, when Hoover abolished the Liaison Section. Relations are still so poor that the recent arraignment of Soviet spy Aldridge Ames was presented to the public, according to the author, less as a national-security catastrophe than as an example of something rare and wonderful-cooperation between the FBI and CIA. Riebling is a former Random House editor; this is his first book.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The conflict between the FBI and the CIA over publicity, money, and scope of operations is old news, but this book does an adequate job of putting it all in perspective. Riebling reviews accusations that bureaucratic struggles led to mistakes and tragedies such as Pearl Harbor, JFK's assassination, and the mishandling of spies in the United States, most recently Aldrich Ames. Such problems resulted from the differing personalities of those involved, particularly J. Edgar Hoover; differing missions; and differing corporate cultures-while the CIA was derived from freewheeling World War II foreign operations, the FBI focused on domestic security and the punishment of criminals. The author frequently tries to explain the context of American history for the last 50 years so that the reader has some idea of why things happened the way they did. Ian Fleming appears frequently, since he played an important role during World War II in outlining the foundations of a centralized American intelligence service. This is an interesting and enjoyable book to read, but the reader will be frustrated by the waste and pettiness of those in charge. Recommended for informed readers.
Daniel K. Blewett, Loyola Univ. Lib., Chicago
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Fifty years of FBI/CIA bureaucratic friction stem from their very different missions, law enforcement versus foreign intelligence gathering. Author Riebling narrates in exhaustive detail the feud's origin between J. Edgar Hoover and "Wild Bill" Donovan and brings the conflict up to the continuing fallout of the Aldrich Ames spy scandal. In episodes over the decades, Riebling relates how the two agencies have repeatedly butted heads in the area of counterintelligence, mainly because the FBI likes to arrest traitors and foreign agents with dispatch, while the CIA prefers to string out cases as far into the wilderness of mirrors as possible, the better, in theory, to unmask deep-penetrating moles. Hence the two organizations have tried numerous liaison methods, which sometimes worked and sometimes produced convoluted careers like that of James Angleton, recounted in umpteen titles (e.g., Molehunt, 1992, by David Wise) since the revelations of the 1970s. In part, Riebling reworks revealed material, but he does bring forth new angles, thanks to his entr{‚}ee to a web of retired agents. However, blemishes appear in the otherwise sober work: speculative conclusions (that FBI/CIA conflict caused Watergate and JFK's death); a mistake, intentional or inadvertent, that has Nixon using Haldeman's words in the infamous "smoking gun" tape of June 23, 1972; and the failure to incorporate in his account the testimony of eyewitness O. Kalugin (The First Directorate ) that would have filled out his account of the CIA blowing an agent whom the KGB kidnappped and killed in 1975. Withal, a well-organized, engaging account. Gilbert Taylor
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