The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Gatekeepers, an "engaging...richly textured" (The New York Times), behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to run the world's most powerful intelligence agency. "The best book about the CIA I've ever read...one hell of a story" (Christopher Buckley). With unprecedented access to more than a dozen individuals who have made the life-and-death decisions that come with running the world's most powerful and influential intelligence service, Chris Whipple 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. At pivotal moments, the CIA acts as a counterforce against rogue presidents, starting in the mid-seventies with DCI Richard Helms's refusal to conceal Richard Nixon's criminality and through the Trump presidency when a CIA whistleblower ignited impeachment proceedings and armed insurrectionists assaulted the US Capitol. Si