In Washington Decoded, David Barrett questions the sourcing of a passage regarding CIA director Walter Bedell Smith in The Arrogance of Power, my biography of Richard Nixon. He further refers to that book as being “replete with badly-sourced stories.” …
The headline of the Washington Decoded review, Who Needs Soviet Propaganda? gives fair warning to the faint-hearted reader that a polemical bog lies ahead. Beyond this billboard, you will find a review enshrouded with disdain, intent on score-settling, and (per the headline) determined to wage Cold War. This is ancient turf haunted by huffy men, Proceed with caution.
Reviewer David Barrett is perturbed that David Talbot’s new book, “The Devil’s Chessboard,” portrays CIA director Allen Dulles as a freewheeling power broker, devil-may-care administrator, ruthless philanderer, occasional liar, and amoral covert operator whose actions destroyed lives and democracies.
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