Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA

Perry, Mark

ISBN 10: 0688093868 / ISBN 13: 9780688093860

Published by William Morrow and Company, Inc, New York, 1992

About this Item

Sewn binding. Paper over boards. 528 p. Bibliography. Index. Based on interviews with top ranking C.I.A. insiders, Mark Perry's Eclipse is at once a history of the governmental agency and an expose of its most recent cover operations. From George Bush to William Casey to William Webster to Robert Gates, the author examines both the triumphs and the blunders made on behalf of the American public. From Wikipedia: "Mark Perry (born 1950) is an American author specializing in military, intelligence, and foreign affairs analysis. He has authored eight books: Four Stars, Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA, A Fire In Zion: Inside the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, Conceived in Liberty, Lift Up Thy Voice, Grant and Twain, Partners In Command, and Talking To Terrorists. Perry s articles have been featured in a number of leading publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Newsday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Christian Science Monitor, and The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio). He is a graduate of Northwestern Military and Naval Academy and of Boston University. Perry is the former co-Director of the Washington, D.C., London, and Beirut-based Conflicts Forum, which specializes in engaging with Islamist movements in the Levant in dialogue with the West. Perry served as co-Director for over five years. A detailed five-part series on this experience was published by the Asia Times in March and in July 2006. Perry served as an unofficial advisor to PLO Chairman and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat from 1989 to 2004. Perry has appeared on numerous national and international televised forums. He is a frequent guest commentator and expert on Al-Jazeera television, has appeared regularly on CNN s The International Hour and on Special Assignment. Perry s work on the CIA s program to destabilize the Saddam Hussein regime, originally published by Regardies magazine, was the basis for an award winning BBC Panorama production of The Intelligence War Against Iraq. His son, Cal Perry, was a CNN Mideast correspondent and is currently al-Jazeera's Jerusalem correspondent. Perry s books have met with critical acclaim from Kirkus Reviews, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and many other publications. He has served as editor of Washington D.C. s City Paper, and the Veteran, the largest circulation newspaper for veterans. Perry was also Washington correspondent for The Palestine Report, and is currently a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. Perry was a senior foreign policy analyst for Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF). VVAF, a leading international humanitarian organization, co-founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Perry served as the political director for the VVAF s Campaign for a Landmine Free World." Very good in very good dust jacket. Signed by author. Inscription signed on half title page. First edition. First Edition [stated]. First printing [stated].

Seller Inventory # 68121

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA
• Publisher: William Morrow and Company, Inc, New York
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688093868
• ISBN 13: 9780688093860
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • CIA
  • Iran-Contra

About this title

Synopsis

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.

Reviews

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.