The Wizards of Langley, Book Review Example

“The Wizards of Langley: Inside The CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology” by Jeffrey T. Richelson is considered the first detailed study about the Directorate of Science and Technology, in which the author takes us to the CIA’s corridors that are headquartered in Langley, Virginia, and in the course of four decades in relation to the scientists, science, and managers that established the CIA that we have at present. Richelson presents an amazing story about the innovation of technological nature in intelligence gathering service, of unpleasant infighting of bureaucratic type, and in some situations, as in the instance of its adventure called “mind-control”, of striking moral failure. Consisting on the extensive research and original interviews, “The Wizards of Langley” turns a lamp of piercing nature on many of the activities related to agency and many of them never appeared in the public.

Richelson provided that the media have provided numbers of information about the scandalous and tragic death of the scientist of army named as Frank Olson in 1953. He provided that ten days before the Frank Olson died, a researcher of Central Intelligence Agency had mixed LSD dose into the unwitting drink of Frank Olson. The unlucky scientist of army literally turned as a mad person quietly and died after jumping from the New York hotel room’s window. The accounts of press have couched the death of Olson as the work of a threatening CIA. In the presentation of Richelson, the case of Olson is less linked to the run of CIA amok than it is of a suspicious Cold War approach in which the premier of nation intelligence agency was given the task with establishing measures of surprising nature for extraordinary times. Richelson provided that the directorate is responsible for these measures is the state of mind of this meticulously and fine research conducted by Richelson. The author places into context of operations related to the directorate of science and technology, from Sci-Fi style remote-screening researches to scientific advances that are very practical in nature and that would ultimately find application in the technology of heart pacemaker.

Richelson stated that, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor Japanese attack, the CIA was established by President named as Truman as a policy of insurance against that surprise kind that captured America in World War II as off guard. According to Act of National Security passed in 1947 the major function of CIA was to establish the evaluation and correlation of intelligence gathered by other related departments. In other sense, the CIA was considered as All-Source Fusion Agency. The differentiation including the CIA direction throughout the cold war and the role that agency performs now have somewhat changed, but these functions in essence remain the same.

Richelson provided that throughout the cold war, the global security was mainly on the two greatest nations’ shoulders, i.e., the Soviet Union and the United States. However, the other nations had the tasks to destroy other nations that were of smaller in size, but none of them hold the control of world power regarding the two largest nations (Richelson, 217).

Richelson further provided that the need for the CIA in current society as a global village has directed to a great level than that it was required in the cold war. Today there people have threat from all over the world, rather than only from the major world powers. With the United States of America (USA) being the single world power and the Soviet Union distorted and collapsed, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) have influenced the open market. This recent missile sale that is of over-the-counter nature has doubled the potential foes of America (Richelson, 205). He further added that the evil mix of flexibility and fanaticism that is the symbol of today’s terrorist makes the subsequent attack not a question of if, but of where and when.

The quest of China to be identified as a world power can be considered one of the toughest challenges of CIA, said Richelson. The leaders of China view strong associations with the United States as important to attaining their ambitions that takes to a disagreement for the nation. The development of China remains greatly dependent on Western markets and technology access, but the Chinese also consider the city of Washington as their major hindrance for the reason that they take the USA as turn on holding China from emerging as a great power. The long and slim line between United States and the China could drop down on Taiwan. The main reason for the modernization buildup of China’s military is to discourage the United States from taking interferences into the matter of Taiwan. The military of Russia is an important part of this buildup, and therefore the CIA even today chasing the missiles of Soviet Union.

The success and achievement of intelligence collecting the agencies is difficult to identify. It is really hard to contend that operations of covert had a great influence on the results related to the cold war; however the cold war is not and was not the single goal for intelligence agencies. In reality, because of the cold war the United States intelligence agencies have achieved numbers of operations before them; for example, helping other nations in determining terrorists like in Sudan named as Carlos the Jackal, who is the chief of the Shining Path in the region of Peru, and the leader of ring in relation to the bombing of World Trade Center in the Philippines. As the being the world leader in the 21ST century, the intelligence agencies of United States must consider this great level of information collecting processes so as to continue ahead of any forthcoming problems.

With the operations of intelligence gathering being practiced as on embassies’ collection assets for confronting countries depend on the United States, careful deliberation should be practiced when closely working with the general public of America. The daily information that may be considered immaterial could be very helpful and important to foreign-based or domestic companies for the campaigns of advertisement, forecasts of marketing, and gouging of prices. These sorts of leakages about the information are a violation of the rights of American.

In this book, Richelson provided that the major issue with having numbers of information at domestic and international level is considering the exact method to solve the problems before they emerge. While in questionable ethics related to war actions often not replied and are barely provided a second thought. In the year of 1941, when the military intelligence service of Czech Republic contacted the executive of British Special Operations for help in a German SS Officer assassination then at that time no questions were shouted, not even it was asked about that who the main target can be (Richelson). Richelson stated that with any intelligence agency having too much information internally, it may select to adopt a short road to make sure that the success of a mission is possible. Therefore, the public of America must support the intelligence agencies of United States, but keep a bird eye view on them as well. However, the other resources are not so simple to cooperate.

In conclusion, “The Wizards of Langley’” will be helpful for those people who take interest in the politics and personalities behind an important element of intelligence apparatus of United State of America. Specialist historians and journalists, etc., for instance. But it is also possible that the layman with an interest about the intelligence operations may consider this book rough, sledding and even unrewarding.

Work Cited

Richelson, Jeffrey T. The Wizards Of Langley: Inside The CIA’s Directorate Of Science And Technology, 1^st Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2001.