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A review by maitrey_d
Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner
5.0
I rarely read American history. I've to confess, I like more of Ancient and Medieval history which rules American history out, but who doesn't like spies and the cloak and dagger world of espionage eh?
Enemies is a history of 20th Century America I could say. I only knew the FBI as an elite law enforcement agency, but Enemies really opened my eyes to a wholly different FBI.
Tim Weiner is a New York Times journalist whose previous book is a Pulitzer Prize winning history of the CIA (and next on my list!). Enemies is written in a droll, sometimes witty fashion that keeps you gripped from page one.
Weiner recounts that the FBI has spent most of its century long career as the secret police for American Presidents. From the 1920s onwards, the FBI was tasked with handling and removing subversives, foreign spies and communists (to Hoover, they probably were all the same). And boy do J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI make it a mission for Armageddon. Other enemies came and went: anarchists, Nazis, Fascists, Latin American terrorists, homosexuals, Vietnam war dissenters, even civil rights activists; but Hoover was relentless. Weiner stresses that this is finally not a biography of Hoover, but till almost the end of the book, Hoover and the FBI are inseparable. There's more to Hoover than the cross-dressing, living-with-his-mother persona we all know thanks to Hollywood. Then of course, there's Watergate and 9/11. Like I said, it was a good history of America in the 20th Century.
At its heart, Enemies is a sobering account of the mixed record of the FBI. They had some real breakthroughs, especially in WWII when they cracked Japanese ciphers (they missed Pearl Harbour though), and destroyed the Nazi spy network in the US; they even had a mole in the highest networks of the Soviet politburo. But they have a terrible record otherwise in the Cold War, and other foreign policy related issues. Hoover also ran a criminal regime with warrant less wiretaps, burglaries and other black-bag jobs whenever it suited him. His defense to other Presidents was that FDR had granted these to him in perpetuity (I kid you not) and every time he had to testify to Congress, he would disconnect all wiretaps a week before and truthfully say the FBI wasn't running any. What was the most shocking aspect was that while Congress and the American public would have taken Hoover to the cleaners if these details were known then, but Bush Jr. and co. have actually legalized these and countless other rights-violations over their sham War on Terror in the 21st Century.
Enemies is excellently footnoted and Weiner's research is impeccable. I can't imagine the amount of time he must have spent trawling through declassified and official accounts and documents to find some nuggets hidden underneath. The style with which Weiner presents all this dry information is just superb, and at times you forget you are reading a history. Since he is depending quite a bit on declassified material, Enemies is top-heavy with most of the best bits occurring from the 1920s to 70s. You really get a fresh look at characters such as FDR, Truman, Lyndon Johnson and of course Hoover.
I'd happily recommend this book to anybody remotely interested in history, and this book I think is now all the more significant in the light of Snowden's revelations.
Enemies is a history of 20th Century America I could say. I only knew the FBI as an elite law enforcement agency, but Enemies really opened my eyes to a wholly different FBI.
Tim Weiner is a New York Times journalist whose previous book is a Pulitzer Prize winning history of the CIA (and next on my list!). Enemies is written in a droll, sometimes witty fashion that keeps you gripped from page one.
Weiner recounts that the FBI has spent most of its century long career as the secret police for American Presidents. From the 1920s onwards, the FBI was tasked with handling and removing subversives, foreign spies and communists (to Hoover, they probably were all the same). And boy do J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI make it a mission for Armageddon. Other enemies came and went: anarchists, Nazis, Fascists, Latin American terrorists, homosexuals, Vietnam war dissenters, even civil rights activists; but Hoover was relentless. Weiner stresses that this is finally not a biography of Hoover, but till almost the end of the book, Hoover and the FBI are inseparable. There's more to Hoover than the cross-dressing, living-with-his-mother persona we all know thanks to Hollywood. Then of course, there's Watergate and 9/11. Like I said, it was a good history of America in the 20th Century.
At its heart, Enemies is a sobering account of the mixed record of the FBI. They had some real breakthroughs, especially in WWII when they cracked Japanese ciphers (they missed Pearl Harbour though), and destroyed the Nazi spy network in the US; they even had a mole in the highest networks of the Soviet politburo. But they have a terrible record otherwise in the Cold War, and other foreign policy related issues. Hoover also ran a criminal regime with warrant less wiretaps, burglaries and other black-bag jobs whenever it suited him. His defense to other Presidents was that FDR had granted these to him in perpetuity (I kid you not) and every time he had to testify to Congress, he would disconnect all wiretaps a week before and truthfully say the FBI wasn't running any. What was the most shocking aspect was that while Congress and the American public would have taken Hoover to the cleaners if these details were known then, but Bush Jr. and co. have actually legalized these and countless other rights-violations over their sham War on Terror in the 21st Century.
Enemies is excellently footnoted and Weiner's research is impeccable. I can't imagine the amount of time he must have spent trawling through declassified and official accounts and documents to find some nuggets hidden underneath. The style with which Weiner presents all this dry information is just superb, and at times you forget you are reading a history. Since he is depending quite a bit on declassified material, Enemies is top-heavy with most of the best bits occurring from the 1920s to 70s. You really get a fresh look at characters such as FDR, Truman, Lyndon Johnson and of course Hoover.
I'd happily recommend this book to anybody remotely interested in history, and this book I think is now all the more significant in the light of Snowden's revelations.