Chalmers Johnson reviews Tim Weiner’s CIA tome, destined to be this generation’s John Ranelagh’s. We’ve yet to read Weiner’s book for a variety of reasons, just like we feel little motivation to see Bruce Willis die hard, again. Been there, done that. Story known, man.
So let’s underscore the Stiftung has not yet even touched Weiner’s book in the McBookMarts.
Having said all that, if Johnson’s review is an accurate reflection of the book, we doubt its real usefulness outside feeding current public mood’s angina. Despite the interviews and documents reviewed. He really doesn’t tell us much that is not already known. David Wise praised the book but suggested the book’s one-sidedness was a flaw (and Wise exaggerates when he says the rickety nature of the coups in Guatamala and Iran are “news”).
Please allow the Stiftung to smack reality upside their heads with a two x four. The Soviet Union was the first, truly sealed Counterintelligence State (as the Stiftung noted earlier). Sealed off. As in denied. As in shoot to kill.
Until 1985/86 or maybe even 1988, unless you were there, on the ground, seeing and feeling the Counterintelligence State in action, you can not possibly grasp the fact that for all intents and purposes the Soviet Union might as well have been on an alien planet. Literally, there were times the Stiftung would look up at the sky and expect to see both Earth and Saturn overhead. It was the ultimate in “E” ticket alien planet rides. Today, North Korea is the closest echo.