Old Boys

by Burton Hersh

"The Old Boys is the first book to trace the evolution of America's fledgling intelligence apparatus from its origins in the aftermath of World War I to its climactic debacle at the Bay of Pigs. This is the never-before told story of how an elite East Coast Ivy League Wall Street clique, patriotic but arrogant, and often amateurish, dominated the OSS and later the CIA. Taking a hitherto unexplored perspective on the years between the wars, Burton Hersh reveals 'America's unadvertised geopolitical intent' as it manifested itself through the lives of the men who directed the secret campaigns of an undeclared intelligence war with our global 'enemies." Hersh uncovers the history of how a secret government alien to our constitutional system grew into the CIA, which ultimately fostered the extralegal scandals of the Iran-Contra affair. He brings to life the entire circle of 'would-be global salvationists' who built a world parallel to the known corridors of power in Washington. He relates,