Woodward, Bob. Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987. 543 pages.

This is partially a biography of former CIA Director William Casey, but is not exhaustive or analytical in this respect and is not considered a biography. The book is famous for its corny ending, where Woodward claims to have slipped past tight security and quotes Casey on his deathbed as saying, "I believed." Most reviewers don't.

Other portions of the book contain numerous nuggets of interest to historians, but it treats its stated subject entirely unsystematically -- various bits and pieces about each "war" are scattered here and there. A hazard of star status, one suspects, is that anything you write makes the bestseller lists. The temptation to throw a couple years of random notes in the air, and string them together in the order in which they are picked up, must be overpowering.

At his best Woodward provides a look at the people who make political news and a description of the policy-making process at Washington's rarefied heights: the intense rivalries and suspicions, the scheming, the personal ambition, the cover-your-ass of bureaucrats everywhere. It's not a pretty picture, but it's where the book makes a contribution. -- William Blum
ISBN 0-671-60117-2

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