The man who kept the secrets: Richard Helms & the CIA

About this book

Richard Helms is the quintessential CIA man. For 30 years--from the very inception of the Central Intelligence Agency & before--he occupied pivotal positions in that shadowy world: OSS operator spymaster planner plotter & finally for over 6 years Agency director. No other was so closely & personally involved over so long a period with so many CIA activities successful & otherwise. His story is the story of the CIA. In portraying Helms extraordinary career Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Powers has in fact written the 1st comprehensive inside history of the CIA itself. Its a history moreover that is entirely uncensored. While the information on which its based has been drawn from intensive interviews with dozens of former key Agency officials including Helms himself as well as from exhaustive research thru hundreds of published & unpublished sources the author isnt subject to the kind of legal restraints that have burdened others writing about the CIA. The result is a picture of the Agency more objective more complete & more revealing than any hitherto available. Because its written with an eye for character & anecdote its as readable as its important.