Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts The Hidden Hand: A Brief History of the CIA

The Hidden Hand: A Brief History of the CIA

  • November 11, 2014
Richard Immerman

Edward J. Buthusiem Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow, Temple University

Director, Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy, Temple University


Join Host Ron Granieri as he “interrogates” Richard Immerman on the subject of his new book, The Hidden Hand: A Brief History of the CIA (Wiley 2014). The Hidden Hand is a succinct accessible and up-to-date survey of the Central Intelligence Agency’s history from its inception in 1947 to the present, and covers both aspects of the CIA’s mission – the collection and analysis of intelligence and the execution of foreign policy through covert, paramilitary operations. This book de-mythologizes the CIA’s role in America’s global affairs while addressing its place within American political and popular culture. Drawing on the latest research, Immerman assesses the agency’s successes and failures, with an eye to the complex and controversial nature of the subject.

Richard ImmermanRichard H. Immerman is Professor and Edward J. Buthusiem Distinguished Fellow in History at Temple University and Marvin Wachman Director of its Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy. The recipient of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations’ Bernath Book Prize in 1983 and its Bernath Lecture Prize in 1990, he served as SHAFR’s president in 2007.  His most recent publications include The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War (2013) and Empire for Liberty: A History of U.S. Imperialism from Benjamin Franklin to Paul Wolfowitz (2012). From September 2007-December 2008, he served as Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analytic Integrity and Standards and Analytic Ombudsman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He currently chairs the Historical Advisory Committee to the U.S. Department of State.

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