![]() ![]() Edgar Hoover gets a lot of “page time” and he is no less a villain in this telling than he is anywhere else. So many turning points that could have gone differently but for stubbornness, self interest, and sometimes plain old incompetence. ![]() One of the saddest things about this book is the list of missed opportunities: The Philippines, South and Central America, the death of Stalin, Iran, Hungary and the list goes on. Anderson has no liking for Ike, and spares none of the Cold Warriors from his unflinching analysis. I won’t ruin the ending, but suffice it to say, the subtitle: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War–a Tragedy in Three Acts is not misleading.įor those who are aware of how deeply the United States was involved in dirty tricks during the Cold War, there won’t be any real surprises here, but there is plenty of evidence that our current foregin policy difficulties are mostly self-inflicted. Told from the point of view of four different American spies, The Quiet Americans traces the Cold War from its origins in the aftermath of World War II until the 1960s, when his four subjects take their various paths away from the CIA. Journalist Scott Anderson has brought us a new entry to the recent riches of Cold War Nonfiction, as records are declassified and writers and historians begin searching the archives. ![]()
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