Marchetti, Victor and Marks, John D. The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence.
New York: Dell Publishing, 1975. 397 pages.
The CIA went to court prior to publication of this book, claiming
that it would harm national security. The court disagreed, but the
publisher had to submit the manuscript to the CIA for prior review. They
asked for 339 deletions, most of which were refused by the court. Along
with Philip Agee's "Inside the Company: CIA Diary," this was one of the
most important works on the CIA to appear in the 1970s. While Agee's book
is a detailed look at one officer's activities in several Latin American
countries, Marchetti and Marks give an overview of the CIA's administrative
structure and operational history. (An appendix reprints the detailed
notes from a secret four-hour 1968 Council on Foreign Relations meeting
that discussed intelligence issues. Richard Bissell gave the talk while
nineteen other luminaries, such as Allen Dulles, listened and offered
comments. It's clear from gems like this that the ruling class knows who
they are, even if most of their subjects don't.)
Victor Marchetti spent 14 years in the CIA, where he became an
executive assistant to the deputy director, and John Marks spent five
years in the State Department, where he worked as an analyst and as staff
assistant to the intelligence director. Currently Marchetti lives in
Vienna, Virginia while Marks lives in Washington, D.C.
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