Letterboxes and postboxes in various colours and available personalised in the UK Home Contact About Us

Slightly Better Books

Category Focus:

Intelligence Agencies

  Rock n Romance Vintage, Authentic 1940s and 50s Inspired Style Clothing
AbeBooks.co.uk
Intelligence Agencies: Spies, espionage, eavesdropping, monitoring, structure, intelligence agents, scope, lawfulness, policies, conduct
In Pictures:

****Hyperlinked titles will take you to our copy on sale or prebuilt searches of copies on sale****

Useful Links:
Books on Ebay-see our specially prebuilt search below
Books on Amazon-see our specially prebuilt banner below

Titles to Look Out For:
[in order of first year of publication. Each entry includes later editions]
1964. The Invisible Government by David Wise and Thomas B. Ross

On Amazon:
Wise, David; and Ross, Thomas B. 'The Invisible Government', published in 1964 in the United States in hardcover with dustjacket, 376pp, no ISBN. Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title
1964, Random House, hbk
Sorry, sold out, but click image above to access prebuilt search for this title

Alternative online retailers to try:

Click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Abebooks

Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris

Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Ebay

Click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Biblio

Alibris UK: books, movies & music

AbeBooks.co.uk

Find this book at Biblio.com!

 

 

  • The Invisible Government [top]
    Written by David Wise and Thomas B. Ross
    First published in 1964 in the United States by Random House, New York (and printed at least 6 times), in hardback with dustjacket, 376pp, no ISBN
    Jacket design by Barry Martin; Typography by Tere LoPrete. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64:17933. Original retail price of the 6th printing when first sold: $6.95
    Also authored 'The U-2 Affair'

About this book: This startling and disturbing book is the first full, authentic account of america's intelligence and espionage apparatus - an invisible government with the CIA at its center, that conducts the clandestine policies of the United States in the Cold War. The invisible government is made up of many agencies and people, including the intelligence branches of the State and Defense Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force; specialists in codes, propaganda and espionage; and even seemingly private companies and institutions, academic groups, radio stations, a steamship line and a publishing house. But largest and most important of all is the Central Intelligence Agency. Aside from the tremendous power these agencies wield, they spend literally billions of dollars yearly. Moreover, as the authors show, this money is concealed in the Federal Budget and is approved by Congress without debate and without any real knowledge of how it will be spent. This challenging book not only presents a history of the invisible government and its present-day power structure, but it reveals, in detail and often for the very first time, how it has engaged in special operations abroad.

There are four important chapters looking specifically at the Bay of Pigs - disclosing the CIA's intricate but doomed plan for the operation and how the cover story failed; what the issue was behind the controversy over the question of "air cover" during the invasion; and the nightmarish aftermath in which four American widows desperately tried to find out what had happened to their husbands in vain.

There is the explosive story of how the Invisible Government supported an attempt to overthrow President Sukarno in Indonesia and how an American mercernary was captured in the operation (and whose release was secured by Robert Kennedy). Here are the first authoritative accounts of the CIA's coups in Guatemala and in Iran (where a President's grandson directed a revolution). Other chapters look at the US's intervention in Laos; the CIA's commitment to a government which failed in Vietnam; and the disturbing experiences of the US ambassador in Burma, whose efforts were undermined by the US intelligence apparatus.

Part of the book deals with the [then] incipient electronic espionage and spy satellites; and how the Peace Corps believed they had taken all the necessary steps to prevent infiltration by the CIA. It also tells how "black radio" had become a powerful propaganda weapon; and how, unknown to the voting public, a presidential campaign was influenced by a pending CIA operation. This book reveals the Invisible Government's activities in the United States for the first time.

By default, this shadow government shapes the lives of millions of Americans - it did in the 1960s and it does today. Major decisions involving peace or war, are taking place out of public view and even without the knowledge of elected representatives. This book was valuable (and still is valuable) for defining and describing this massive secret government as never before; and in allowing the reader to make a more accurate and intelligent evaluation of it. It begs the questions: what new controls are needed? And how can they best be applied? These questions and others are answered in an outspoken conclusion which looks at whether an Invisible Government is necessary; and how it can be made more compatible with our free society.

Chapters:
1. The Invisible Government
2. 48 Hours
3. Build-Up
4. Invasion
5. The Case of the Birmingham Widows
6. A History
7. Burma: The Innocent Ambassador
8. Indonesia: "Soldiers of Fortune"
9. Laos: The Pacifist Warriors
10. Vietnam: The Secret War
11. Guatemala: CIA's Banana Revolt
12. The Kennedy Shake-Up
13. The Secret Elite
14. The National Security Agency
15. The Defense Intelligence Agency
16. CIA: "It's Well Hidden"
17. CIA: The Inner Workings
18. The Search for Control
19. Purity in the Peace Corps
20. A Gray Operation
21. Missile Crisis
22. Electronic Spies
23. Black Radio
24. CIA's Guano Paradise
25. The 1960 Campaign - and now
26. A Conclusion
Notes; Index

Other Books on Government Intelligence Agencies:

 



Books/Magazines on Ebay:
[top]
 
Books on Amazon:
[please note that lack of pricing for a book does not mean book is out of stock, but that there are only secondhand copies available]
[top]