CIA & OSS History - A bibliography

Christopher Andrew

For the President's Eyes Only-Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush.

New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1995.

Ray Cline
The CIA: Reality vs Myth--The Evolution of the Agency from Roosevelt to Reagan,

(Revised edition of The CIA under Reagan, Bush and Casey).
Washington, DC: Acropolis Books, 1982.

The author, a former top official of the Agency, discusses what clandestine work in an open society is like, why it is needed, and how it can be carried out effectively.

Arthur Darling

The Central Intelligence Agency: An Instrument of Government to 1950.

State College: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990.

A look at the bureaucratic struggles that led to the development of the CIA and the battles that ensued afterward.

Douglas F. Garthoff
Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community — 1946-2005

Washington, DC: Center for The Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, 2005.

A comprehensive study of how politics, institutions, and personalities influenced the DCI's ability to oversee the Intelligence Community.

Ted Gup

The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives

New York: Random House, 2000

Journalist Ted Gup presents the stories of many of the CIA officers who died in the service of their country.

Loch K. Johnson
The Central Intelligence Agency: History and Documents.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Johnson, a professor at the University of Georgia who worked for the Church Committee, discusses both the history of the Agency and the theory of intelligence as he grapples with the issues of secret intelligence in a free society.

Ronald Kessler

The CIA At War: Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror.

New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003

A look at the major events of the Agency from the 1980s to the present based mainly on interviews with DCIs and former Agency personnel.

William M. Leary, ed.

The Central Intelligence Agency: History and Documents.

Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1984.

This book reprints Anne Karalekas's "History of the Central Intelligence Agency," originally published in Book IV of the Church Committee's report. Leary has added an introduction and an appendix of historical documents.

G. J. A. O'Toole

Honorable Treachery: A History of Intelligence, Espionage, and Covert Action from the American Revolution to the CIA.

New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991.

A wide-ranging study by a former Agency officer places intelligence in general and the CIA in particular in historical context.

John Ranelagh
The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA.

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.

A comprehensive and well-researched history of the CIA written by a British author, this work provides a sharp description of the people and events that created the Agency.

Donald P. Steury
On the Front Lines of the Cold War: Documents on the Intelligence War in Berlin, 1946-1961.

Washington, D.C.: CIA History Staff, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1999.

A look at the beginnings of the Cold War from the front lines of Berlin.

Thomas F. Troy

Donovan and the CIA: A History of the Establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1981.

Troy studies the concept of centralized intelligence from 1939-1947 and describes the bureaucratic battles involved in trying to establish a central intelligence organization. He had access to many classified documents, some of which appear in the book.

Michael Warner, ed.

The CIA Under Harry Truman

Washington, D.C.: Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1994.

A valuable collection of primary documents that shed light on CIA's creation.

Michael Warner

The Office of Strategic Services: America's First Intelligence Agency.

Washington, D.C.: CIA History Staff , Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2000.

The story of CIA's WWII predecessor.

H. Bradford Westerfield, ed.

Inside the CIA's Private World: Declassified Articles from the Agency's Internal Journal, 1955-1992.

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.

Declassified articles from the Agency's "Studies in Intelligence" authored by mostly CIA employees and covering a wide range of intelligence topics.