The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA

Rating:
Summary: Important, but too much eloquence, sarcasm and obscurity
Review: I was born in 1950, so most of the key players in the story were dead and buried before I even started to learn what a bunch of assholes they were. There is certainly much in this book to support that attitude, a good deal more than I realized even as a screaming anti-Viet war protester in 1969-70. The comprehensive fascist economic,legal and social entanglements - especially the Dulles Boys, in Germany, Italy, England, Rumania, etc. are laid bare, with 64 pages of footnotes! Before, during and after the big bad war. Hersh provides the basis for a rather more realistic appraisal of the early-mid cold war, but only hints at the outrage aroused in the Soviets (not just bad old boy Stalin)when we scooped up all those Nazis- Gehlen and hundreds more, and put them right back to work on our payroll, within months if not weeks after VE Day. However, most of the names dropped by Mr. Hersh mean nothing to me, or to the very large majority of the literate population alive today. I occasionally had a very tough time understanding his repeated but highly variable references to dozens of old Wall Street law firms, German corporations, and the go-betweens and flunkies skittering around in every chapter. A big chart with arrows and color coding would be helpful, and a few lists of the old characters. A glossary would also be good, to define the arcane Brit, Frenchy and German lingo that is tossed in like pepper on your salad. At times even my unabridged dictionary was no help. I suppose that 20 years from now, almost no one will have the motivation to plow through the pointless bric-a-brac to find the fascinating historical data. A pity.

Rating:
Summary: The Old Boys
Review: The trouble with Burton Hersh is that he never bothered to read what he wrote. If he had he'd have realized that it is uncomprehensible. This is partly due to the fact that he is a functional illiterate. He doesn't have a basic understanding of what a sentence is.He also has a very poor choice of words. He uses words that he obviously does not know what they mean.

Secondly I am old enough to know that most of his "information" is sheer hogwash. It's either badly distorted or false. It's a figment of his imagination. I am 76 and fought in World War II and knew some of those he writes about. They are mostly bland liveless bureaucrats. Not the bizarre creatures he depicts. I have suffered through 83 pages and can sight any number of lies and distortions.

Rating:
Summary: essential for anyone interested in US intell history
Review: This is a remarkable book by a remarkable writer. It caused howls of protest from the CIA and US media elite when first published, but there is no doubt that Hersh has the goods: the book is now on the CIA reading list!
Hersh himself clearly did vast independent primary research and interview work for the book. His anatomy of the Dulles brothers, Frank Wisner, Wild Bill Donovan, Bill Casey,and the creepy but omnipresent Carmel Offie is superb. Wall Street staffed the US intelligence elite, in 1941 as in 2001---and oil and high finance were and still are that world's elixir. Lastly, the index and notes are a boon to future researchers. [Interestingly, none of the Dulles-adoring biographies published of late cites any of Hersh's work. Hmmmm.]
Hersh has a novelist's skill in bringing this cast of real characters to life: the descriptions are unforgettable, but the research, especially to me, a fellow digger in contemporary intelligence history, is awe-inspiring. Hersh has not written a book predicated on others' books: there is a treasure trove here of original research, especially in relation to the Wall Street connections to Nazi business and, critically, to the SAFEHAVEN investigation, rediscovery of which of course broke the Holocaust gold story some years back.
But most of all, this book is hugely entertaining and not a little amusing, told in a confidingly baroque language, it's true, but imagine you're hearing these stories in a clubland chair, from someone Who Knows Stuff, of a long and fascinating evening. Listen carefully: your attention'll be rewarded.
This is nuanced, detailed writing about complicated history: one's reading effort, I found, rewards---this is an important book laying open the defining people and defining events of the US intelligence empire. It's no surprise Hersh is in high demand as an intelligence expert since Sept 11th, as the CIA and its watchers look for answers.