FROM THE SHADOWS: THE ULTIMATE INSIDER’S STORY OF FIVE PRESIDENTS AND HOW THEY WON THE COLD WAR,
by Robert M. Gates (Simon & Schuster, 604 pages, $30.00).
Gates, the only person to rise from an entry level position at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to become its director, provides an insider’s account of the intrigues engaged in during the administrations of Presidents Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994), Gerald Ford (1913- ), Jimmy Carter (1924- ), Ronald Reagan(1911- ), and George Bush (1924- ). Drawing on his personal experience at the CIA, his years of service on the National Security Council staff in the White House, and his knowledge of undisclosed or declassified activities, Gates reveals the conflicts, fears, miscalculations, and courage shown during the period from the late 1960s, when the Vietnam War dominated political life in the United States, to the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.
