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THE SPYMASTERS

Chris Whipple

How the CIA's Directors Shape History and the Future

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Gatekeepers, comes a remarkable, deep-access look at what it's like to run the world's most powerful intelligence agency: the CIA. The SPYMASTERS is also a thought-provoking look at the espionage and surveillance challenges of the future.

Only fourteen men, and one woman, are alive today who've made the life-and-death decisions that come with running the world's most powerful intelligence service. With unprecedented, deep access to all these individuals, THE SPYMASTERS tells the story of an agency that answers to the United States president alone, but whose activities - spying, espionage and covert action - take place on every continent.

Since its inception in 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency has been a powerful player on the world stage, operating largely in the shadows to protect American interests. In THE SPYMASTERS, Chris Whipple, New York Times-bestselling author of The Gatekeepers, extensively interviews the men and women charged with keeping the secrets to uncover the inside stories behind the CIA's seven decades of activity and to elicit predictions about which issues - and threats - will dominate the espionage and surveillance landscape of the future.

Overarching the stories that Whipple tells is one fundamental question: What should the CIA's mission be?

CHRIS WHIPPLE is an acclaimed writer, journalist, documentary filmmaker, and speaker. A multiple Peabody and Emmy Award-winning producer at CBS's 60 Minutes and ABC's Primetime, he is the chief executive officer of CCWHIP Productions. He is an on-air contributor at MSNBC, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere. Most recently, he was the executive producer and writer of Showtime's "The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs." A graduate of Yale University, with honors in history, he now lives in New York City with his wife, Cary. He is also the author of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.

Available products
Book Published 2020-09-15 by Scribner
Book Published 2020-09-15 by Scribner

Comments

Provides astute profiles of the men, and one woman, in charge of the modern Central Intelligence Agency, and the presidents for whom they have worked. At a time when America's intelligence community is under attack from conspiracy theories and fake news, Whipple provides a real-world history of those who have held one of the most difficult posts in Washington. These portraits are accurate, fair and informative.

A welcome and fascinating look at the men and women who dedicate their lives to the mission of spycraft. Whipple parts the curtains on the dark art to show the triumphs and failures, the personalities and rivalries of those who work in the shadows of espionage.

The job of CIA Director is as difficult as it is important. He or she must predict the future while steering through a moral morass. No wonder the spymasters in Chris Whipple's engrossing story so often trip up. Whipple is at once clear-eyed and fair-minded while giving us a riveting read.

Chris Whipple has in recent years become something of a Washington elite-whisperer. In The Spymasters - as in his equally masterful book, The Gatekeepers - he gets almost everyone to spill their secrets.

Chris Whipple's The Spymasters is masterful at every level, the best book about the CIA I've ever read. Its revelations are eye-popping, alternately exhilarating and depressing, as he tells the story of the people who have guided our nationand misguided it. ... How he managed to pull so much history together, how he extracted such a wealth of detail from his principal sources - the CIA leaders themselves - is quite simply mind-boggling.

Chris Whipple has previously garnered wide acclaim for his history of the White House chiefs of staff. He now replicates that methodology with equal success in this history of CIA directors from Richard Helms to Gina Haspel. His group portrait of the DCIs offers a highly readable, fair, and well researched history of the CIA over the past fifty years. He comes neither to pillory the CIA nor to praise it but, rather, to understand itand he fully succeeds.

UK: Simon & Schuster UK (US and UK will be publishing simultaneously) ; Estonian: Aripaev ; Romanian: Grup Media Litera

This is the CIA with the bark off and Washington reporting at its best.

Chris Whipple is an accomplished historian, hard-nosed journalist, and master story teller with a knack of getting to the heart of an issue. His latest book, The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future, is a must read for anyone interested in America's intelligence gathering and national security.

A riveting history of the CIA told from the top down, focusing on the spy agency's colorful, and often controversial, directors. Chris Whipple's The Spymasters is a timely reminder of the outsized influence of our nation's intelligence bureaucracy - and the men and women who live in this wilderness of mirrors. 'They were all asked to do things they shouldn't do,' says Cynthia Helms, wife of the legendary CIA Director Richard Helms. Whipple explores these ethical quandaries with nuance and fairness.

Here's a secret: The best way to learn the history of the CIA is from the top, and Chris Whipple goes there, with amazingly candid interviews with the spymasters. This engrossing, well-researched book also breaks new ground with the untold story of the CIA's biggest-ever manhunt.