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

The initial publication of "The Old Boys" in 1992 raised so much dust that it has taken a decade for the air to clear. Subtitled "The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA," the work laid out the involvement of the lawyers who founded civilian intelligence in the United States -- 'Wild Bill' Donovan, Allen and Foster Dulles, Frank Wisner -- with several generations of reactionary, even Nazi-lining clients. Abetted by counterparts from the diplomatic side of the sheets, from Bill Bullitt to George Kennan and the notorious Carmel Offie, the founders incorporated both practices and personalities long associated with the Third Reich into their anticommunist crusade, and by so doing undermined almost everything they attempted. Patriotic and well-intentioned men, they played into the hands of forces that threatened us.