The CIA and the Cold War: A Memoir

(Hardback)

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This book gives the true inside picture of the CIA during the Cold War and how the agency saw the events in which it was involved. Breckinridge started his career with the CIA as a briefing officer (and within a year had become White House Briefing Officer) in 1953 and concluded it as Deputy Inspector General in 1979. The issues Breckinridge reports on--the Bay of Pigs, the Warren Commission Report, Vietnam, Watergate, Chile, plots against foreign leaders, the Ramparts controversy, Laos, the Church and Pike committees--are among the most controversial in the lives of Americans since the mid-twentieth century. Breckinridge demostrates that the CIA was not a rogue elephant but an agency acting under high level policy directives, and he reveals a great deal about the internal life of the CIA.

Reviews

"Mr. Breckinridge has provided an important and useful 'insider's' view of the Cold War and the new assertiveness of Congress as it belatedly carried out its constitutional responsibilities to monitor and judge the work of the nation's intelligence services. . . . His personal approach to this book makes it appealing as it focuses on the way high policies were actually implemented in the field, and on the dilemmas its personnel frequently faced in the process. He does not whitewash the Agency, but he does provide a welcome sense of proportion between its failures and the policies it was instructed by our political leaders to carry out, and further gives credit to the many fine people who served it anonymously and in danger, but with pride in their contribution to their country's interests."-William E. Colby former Director of Central Intelligence
This is a serious book and a welcome addition to the scholarly literature on the Cold War and the CIA's role in it. . . . will help the reader understand the shadow world in which that war was fought.-Lexington Herald-Leader
"This is a serious book and a welcome addition to the scholarly literature on the Cold War and the CIA's role in it. . . . will help the reader understand the shadow world in which that war was fought."-Lexington Herald-Leader

Author Bio

SCOTT D. BRECKINRIDGE joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1953 and served for twenty-six years. During that time he served as the CIA's briefing officer for the White House staff liaison with the Australian intelligence services, a member of a special policy staff in Washington and he spent sixteen years on the staff of the CIA's Inspector General, the last six of which were spent as Deputy Inspector General. Twice he was assigned as a special liaison officer with special congressional investigating committees. Breckinridge received the CIA's highest award--the Distinguished Intelligence Medal--two times during his service. He retired from the CIA in 1979 and taught at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce of the University of Kentucky. He is the author of The CIA and the U.S. Intelligence System (1989), which received a best book award from the National Intelligence Study Center in Washington, D.C.