Intelligence wars : American secret history from Hitler to al-Qaeda / Thomas Powers.

Chiefly articles originally published in the New York review of books.

The underground entrepreneur -- The conspiracy that failed -- Founding father -- Phantom spies at Los Alamos -- The plot thickens -- The riddle inside the enigma -- The bloodless war -- Saving the Shah -- And after we've struck Cuba? -- The heart of the story -- The mind of the assassin -- The interesting one -- Marilyn was the least of it -- Soviet intentions and capabilities -- The ears of America -- Notes from underground -- Doing the right thing -- Last of the cowboys -- The bottom line -- No laughing matter -- Who won the Cold War? -- The black arts -- The trouble with the CIA -- America's new intelligence war.

These essays about U.S. intelligence services, from Thomas Powers -- acknowledged secret intelligence authority and Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist --trace a history of brilliant successes, ghastly failures, and gripping uncertainties. They range from the exploits of Wild Bill Donovan during World War II, tothe CIA's elaborate cold war struggles with the KGB, to debates about the role of secret intelligence in the post-Cold War world. Here too are analyses of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Kennedy assassination, William Casey's years as CIA director under Ronald Reagan, the Aldrich Ames scandal, and such urgent contemporary issues as whether the CIA is up to the challenge of defending America against terrorism.