If you believe that the authors were actually permitted to reveal the secrets contained in this book, it is monumental.

But knowing "The Company", it is more likely that this work is some sort of 'controlled' leak, softening the blow for the revelations of the inevitable congressional investigations that followed in the aftermath of the Watergate fiasco, the death of J. Edgar Hoover, and the continuing insinuations implicating the CIA of complicity in everything from the murder of JFK, to secret, malevolent control over the war in SE Asia.

Irrespective of ones' take on the voracity of the means of disclosure (whether legitimate whistle-blowing, or CIA damage control) this heavily-censored/redacted book ostensibly blew the lid off at CIA, with at least superficial examination of the structure, operations, methods, and mind-set of the U.S. intelligence apparatus. In the main, time has tended to validate this contents of this expose'.

Out of print and hard to find, this book nonetheless remains must-reading for anyone interested in intelligence, the Cold War, Vietnam, and the defense of the Free World up to the early 1970s. Buy it.

This is one of perhaps ten books from prior to 1985 that I decided to include because of their continuing value. I believe that both history and historians will credit these two individuals with having made a difference by articulating so ably both the clandestine mentality and the problems extant in the lack of oversight regarding proprietary organizations, propaganda and disinformation, and intrusive not-so-clandestine operations.

Professionals at work. This reviels it all. Don't read encyclopedias read crediable books by credible authors in the know. It teaches you the truth. Highly recommendeed by me and everybody else. Thanks for reading my review.

Victor Marchetti's The Rope-Dancer is a poorly written suspense novel which I can't recommend. Littered with quotes from Nietzsche, it reads like a poorly written Ayn Rand novel (and yes, I'm aware of the redundancy of this remark) with characters to match. The themes of bureaucratic rivalry and in-fighting and the psychological 'insight' that egotism is a central component of a spy's psychological makeup are repeated throughout the 350+ pages. 'Critical' remarks about the conduct of the Vietnam war (published 1971) and an occasional operational tidbit are about all that I found interesting in this novel.