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The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton Kindle Edition
"The best book ever written about the strangest CIA chief who ever lived." - Tim Weiner, National Book Award-winning author of Legacy of Ashes
A revelatory new biography of the sinister, powerful, and paranoid man at the heart of the CIA for more than three tumultuous decades.
CIA spymaster James Jesus Angleton was one of the most powerful unelected officials in the United States government in the mid-20th century, a ghost of American power. From World War II to the Cold War, Angleton operated beyond the view of the public, Congress, and even the president. He unwittingly shared intelligence secrets with Soviet spy Kim Philby, a member of the notorious Cambridge spy ring. He launched mass surveillance by opening the mail of hundreds of thousands of Americans. He abetted a scheme to aid Israel’s own nuclear efforts, disregarding U.S. security. He committed perjury and obstructed the JFK assassination investigation. He oversaw a massive spying operation on the antiwar and black nationalist movements and he initiated an obsessive search for communist moles that nearly destroyed the Agency.
In The Ghost, investigative reporter Jefferson Morley tells Angleton’s dramatic story, from his friendship with the poet Ezra Pound through the underground gay milieu of mid-century Washington to the Kennedy assassination to the Watergate scandal. From the agency’s MKULTRA mind-control experiments to the wars of the Mideast, Angleton wielded far more power than anyone knew. Yet during his seemingly lawless reign in the CIA, he also proved himself to be a formidable adversary to our nation’s enemies, acquiring a mythic stature within the CIA that continues to this day.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSt. Martin's Press
- Publication dateOctober 24, 2017
- File size16943 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“The best book ever written about the strangest CIA chief who ever lived. No screenwriter or novelist could conjure a character like Angleton, but Morley's stellar reporting and superb writing animate every page of this work. It's essential history and highly entertaining biography.” --Tim Weiner, National Book Award–winning author of Legacy of Ashes
“The Ghost is the compulsively readable, often bizarre true-life story of American spymaster James Jesus Angleton. Capturing the extent of Angleton’s eccentricity, duplicity and alcohol-fueled paranoia would have challenged the writing skills of a Le Carre or Ludlum, and Jeff Morley has done it with flair.” - Philip Shenon, author of A Cruel and Shocking Act
"James Angleton's real life is the most intriguing, moving, and at times shocking spy story in American history. In The Ghost, Jeff Morley has captured the man in all his brilliant and sometimes delusional eccentricity. Angleton is woven through many of the strangest episodes of the 1950s and 60s--including the Kennedy assassination--in what was invisible thread, until Morley's book. A 'must read' for anyone who wants to understand just how strange and secretive the CIA was at the height of the Cold War." --David Ignatius, columnist for The Washington Post and author of The Director
“Americans are finally coming to know the Cold War spymasters and other hidden figures who lived their lives in secrecy while shaping our national destiny. The Ghost reveals a fascinating chapter of this hidden history. It is a chilling look at the global power that is wielded in Washington by people who are never known―until a book comes out to spill their secrets.” –Stephen Kinzer, author of The Brothers
“Anyone interested in the CIA should not fail to read The Ghost. I encountered James Angleton time and again, not only in the course of research but, one memorable evening, literally. I say ‘memorable,’ but only because―amongst hundreds of interviews I have conducted―he indeed came over as a phantom, seemingly cooperative yet always inscrutable. Nobody has focused on him, mined what can be mined, as Jefferson Morley has now done. Essential reading for anyone intrigued by the vital mysteries of U.S. intelligence at a pivotal time in our history.” –Anthony Summers, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Eleventh Day
“[Morley] does a fine job of filleting out [Angleton’s] talents and charisma from the dark deeds he committed…Morley adeptly builds a picture of a spymaster weaving a web in which his concept of duty gradually eroded his moral sense.” - Ben Macintyre, The Times of London
“A page-turning biography of an eccentric spy hunter...In Angleton, [Morley] has a character beyond the imagination of John LeCarré, perhaps even of Patricia Highsmith.” - StarTribune
"Scintillating... [the book] delves into an important and rarely visited terrain." - Mondoweiss
"Essential reading for anyone interested in how our intelligence network operated during the Cold War." - LewRockwell.com
"The Ghost, Jefferson Morley’s shrewd account of Angleton’s career as Langley’s counterintelligence chief from 1954 to 1975, shows the harm that can be done by an energetic spook who is permitted grossly excessive latitude." - New York Review of Books
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B06Y153FW2
- Publisher : St. Martin's Press (October 24, 2017)
- Publication date : October 24, 2017
- Language : English
- File size : 16943 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 325 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #144,662 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #24 in Biographies of Espionage
- #58 in Intelligence & Espionage (Kindle Store)
- #134 in Biographies of Political Leaders
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Jefferson Morley's latest book, SCORPIONS' DANCE: The President, The Spymaster, and Watergate is an "eye opening investigation" (Publishers Weekly) about "the corrosive impact of intelligence covert action on individuals and on democracy itself." (Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, former CIA operations officer)
"The lens is the relationship between President Nixon and Richard Helms, CIA Director through all but a few months of the Nixon presidency,' notes former U.S. Senator Gary Hart.
"Morley has captured, in all its surreal conspiratorial glory, the last sinister tango of a pair of wicked Richards," says John Aloysius Farrell, author of Richard Nixon: The Life. "A riveting story that will make you chuckle and shiver."
Morley's other books include:
THE GHOST: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton ("The best book ever written about the strangest spy who ever lived”--Tim Weiner, best-selling author.)
OUR MAN IN MEXICO: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA; (“A compelling page turner about a fascinating figure”—Jorge Casteneda, former foreign minister of Mexico.)
SNOW-STORM IN AUGUST: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Riot of 1835 (“History so fresh it feels alive”—David Mariniss, best-selling author.)
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Mr. Morley sees three important events and situations in particular regarding Angleton.
One was the betrayal of British intelligence agent Kim Philby. Angleton trusted Philby despite warnings from J. Edgar Hoover and William Harvey that Philby was a double agent spying for the Soviets. Angleton was devastated when Philby's treachery was finally revealed. As a result Angleton became obsessed with the fear that the Soviets would attempt to infiltrate the CIA. This mole hunting obsession may have affected Angleton's better judgement in certain ways and resulted in a witch hunt within the CIA.
Mr. Morley seems to suggest that Angleton was involved with allowing the State Of Israel to smuggle weapons grade uranium out of the United States for use in Israel's nuclear weapons program. If this is true it shows how someone like Angleton can affect the course of world history. This was highly illegal and a crime that carried the death penalty. But being a ghost Angleton operated outside of the laws of the United States or any country.
Then there's the theories about Angleton's and the CIA's possible involvement in the John Kennedy assassination. That a massive cover up about the true nature of this assassination occurred is beyond any doubt today and can be easily proven I think. The cover up doesn't tell us the who and why but it tells us a lot.
I believe in a lot of the conspiracy theories about the John Kennedy assassination. Angleton acted in the shadows for this monumental crime. The conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy came through the CIA I believe.
I'm not sure we need a lot of conspiracy theories to find out the truth about Angleton and the CIA anyway. Angleton himself stated that his pals from the OSS who were some of the founding members of the CIA were a bunch of liars and Judases. When he was near the end of his life Angleton had come to despise his old friends. And he realized he was just like them.
Those were people who served their country and risked their lives during World War II. But something went horribly wrong after the war. The CIA mutated into something Harry Truman never intended when he set up the Agency. Those are the words of Harry Truman himself, a former president who created the CIA. It's not just a conspiracy theory.
At the end of this book Mr. Morley included a page entitled Bibliographic Note. He lists some other books that will fill in more details about Angleton. If someone reads Mr. Morley's book and then some of those other ones they will understand James Angleton very well I think.
Trained to Kill: The Inside Story of CIA Plots against Castro, Kennedy, and Che
JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy
Mary's Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace: Third Edition
Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK
Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald
Countdown to Darkness: The Assassination of President Kennedy Volume II (Volume 2)
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters
The Dark Side of Lyndon Baines Johnson
The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ
On the Trail of the Assassins: One Man's Quest to Solve the Murder of President Kennedy
Sometimes, when their judgement turns out to be faulty, they are chastened – but not Jim Angleton. For years he ignored the most basic tenets of Liaison relationships and revealed sources and methods to his British counterpart, Kim Philby. Philby was his friend; Philby was his mentor: Philby had taught him the tradecraft of clandestine operations, and Angleton trusted him completely. But Philby was also a Soviet spy - and had been, since his days at Cambridge. So all the secrets Angleton revealed were promptly forwarded to Moscow.
Angleton was responsible for liaison with the Israelis, too, and committed the second sin of intelligence professionals: Falling in love with your sources – in this case Meir Amit Slutsky, head of the Mossad. Provided him with reams of intelligence not always reciprocated. As Amit confided to his boss, the Prime Minister, “he’s the biggest Zionist among us!” When the Israelis repeatedly strafed and bombed the USS Liberty in international waters, killing 34 crew and injuring 171 others, Angleton asserted they 'mistook our vessel for an Egyptian freighter.' “Rubbish!” Admiral Moore responded: “She was flying a 5’x8’ Ensign from her stern mast, and her name was prominently displayed on her transom.” The Israelis were secretly preparing their Six Day War against Egypt; the USS Liberty was Electronic Intercept (ELINT) capable, and the Israelis did not want us to become aware of their plans.
When John Hadden was CIA’s Israel Station Chief, he wanted to determine whether the secret Dimona reactor was really only producing low-grade nuclear fuel, as the Israelis asserted, and not weapons-grade uranium. As the author reveals, Hadden surreptitiously collected agricultural snippings from the area surrounding the reactor and sent them to Headquarters; the analysis determined it was weapons-grade uranium.
Like many Clandestine Service officers, I had my run-ins with Angleton - and seldom prevailed. He paralyzed our operations for seven critical years, contending that agents we were seeking to recruit were in fact controlled by Moscow. When asked to substantiate these objections he would condescendingly reply that they were based on inside knowledge, too sensitive to share. The late Bill Colby finally put an end to his nonsense when he became Director, and fired Jim Angleton.