Burn Before Reading, Stansfield Turner
Burn Before Reading, Stansfield Turner
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Burn Before Reading
Presidents, CIA Directors, and Secret Intelligence

Author: Stansfield Turner

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Unabridged: 10 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/15/2005


Synopsis

As never before, the American public is fascinated by how the United States government gathers intelligence. And there is no one better than Admiral Stansfield Turner, CIA Director under President Carter, to reveal the politics and personal issues that can interfere with how the President of the United States deals with the Intelligence Community and the CIA Director in particular.

In never before told anecdotes, Admiral Turner takes the reader inside the White House, into closed door meetings and tense discussions, showing the workings of the US government with a kind of understanding that comes from being an intimate of many high-level government officials, including ex-Presidents.

Admiral Stansfield Turner served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1977-1981. As such, he headed both the Intelligence Community (composed of all of the foreign intelligence agencies of the United States) and the Central Intelligence Agency. He was responsible for developing new procedures for closer oversight of the Intelligence Community by Congress and the White House, led the Intelligence Community in adapting to a new era of real-time photographic satellites and instituted major management reform at the CIA. Previously as an Admiral in the U.S. Navy he served as commander of the U.s. Second Fleet and NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic, and as the commander-in-chief ofNA TO's Southern Flank. This is his fifth book.

About Stansfield Turner

Stansfield Turner served as director of Central Intelligence from 1977 to 1981, heading both the intelligence community and the CIA. Previously, as an admiral in the U.S. Navy, he served as commander of the U.S. Second Fleet and the NATO
Striking Fleet Atlantic, as well as commander in chief of NATO's Southern Flank. He lives in Washington, D.C.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Austin

Helped me brush up on American History by examining the development of the CIA overtime. Personal anecdotes were sometimes distracting and came across as tangents. Interesting overall. The fact that all of his recommendations were lumped into the W. Bush presidency chapter and not in a separate both......more

Goodreads review by T.R.

The book suffered by providing only surface level details on the history of the DCI, the CIA, and their relationship with the presidency. 270 pages are simply not enough time to cover 80 years of history. What's there is a brief description and thesis before moving on to the next era. This seems to......more

Goodreads review by Nathan

Admiral Turner was Jimmy Carter's Director of Central Intelligence. In Burn Before Reading, Turner captures and comments on the relationship between each President and their DCI from the inception of the CIA in 1947 to the Bush - Tennet years. He touches on scandals, covert ops, illegalities and dir......more