My Library

(1964) by David Wise and Thomas B. Ross. I’ll simply quote the summary on the flaps of the book’s dust jacket. "This startling and disturbing book is the first full, authentic account of America’s intelligence and espionage apparatus -- an invisible government, with the CIA at its center, that conducts the clandestine policies of the United States in the Cold War. "The Invisible Government is made up of many agencies and people, including the intelligence branches of the State and Defense Departments, of the Army, Navy and Air Force; specialists in codes, propaganda and espionage; and even seemingly private companies and institutions, academic groups, radio stations, a steamship line and a publishing house. But largest and most important of all is the Central Intelligence Agency. "Aside from the tremendous power these agencies wield, they spend literally billions of dollars yearly. Moreover, as the authors show, money is concealed in the Federal budget and is approved by Congress without debate and without any real knowledge of how it will be spent. "Inevitably, this shadow government is shaping the lives of 190,000,000 Americans. Major decisions, sometimes involving peace or war, are taking place out of public view -- and even without knowledge of our elected representatives." This book was rather well-documented. It contained informative chapters on the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). I soon became entirely fascinated with this subject matter. I DID like to find out how things worked. I was a bookworm. I understood libraries and how to organize information. I still try to keep up-dated on this today.