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A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency
by Richard Helms

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198796.A_Look_Over_My_Shoulder_A_Life_in_the_Central_Intelligence_Agency?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172615390m/198796.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198796.A_Look_Over_My_Shoulder_A_Life_in_the_Central_Intelligence_Agency?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/115904.Richard_Helms">Richard Helms</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9893397?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>One of the biographies of former CIA director Richard Helms is called "The Man Who Kept the Secrets". In his autobiography, "A Look Over my Shoulder", Helms lives up to his previous biographer's title. Helms was a career CIA officer, in the agency from its genesis in OSS through CIA's birth through the aftermath of E. Howard Hunt's little field trip. He was Director of Central Intelligence at the end of Johnson's administration, was kept by Nixon, and was then fired by Nixon after refusing to have the CIA block the FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in. All of this, against a backdrop of the Vietnam War, James Angleton's mole hunts, MKULTRA, the CHAOS program, Nosenko & Golitsyn, the Kennedy assassinations, Air America, the Pentagon Papers, the Castro assassination plots and the Bay of Pigs. Fascinating times, by any man's estimation. Yet Helms manages to write 452 pages of text without revealing one shred of new information not previously revealed by someone else. It is one of the few books I've ever read by a CIA officer or director without one line of redacted text. Fitting, for a man who took a perjury conviction because he refused to reveal classified information in a Senate hearing. Anyone reading "A Look Over my Shoulder" for new revelations or new hints about old cases should look elsewhere, and assume this book gets a 1 star rating. Helms really is the man who kept the secrets. As a memoir, however, "A Look Over my Shoulder" lives up not to another biographer's title, but its own subtitle: "A Life in the CIA". Helms started his career as a journalist, and early in life, he dreamed of owning his own paper. In his biography, the pleasure he takes in writing is obvious, and his wit and personality come out in ways rarely seen in the rather dry world of intelligence memoirs. His reflections on the CIA focus on some unheralded (if previously reported) successes, and illustrates, more so than many recent CIA "histories" (Tim Weiner's "Legacy of Ashes", for example), the constant misuse of the agency by president after president. Despite the lack of revelations, there are subtle surprises in the book. He often seems to be saying as much between the lines as he does in them. An entire chapter, for example, is devoted to a solid defense of the much reviled James Angleton, even taking responsibility for many of Angleton's perceived mistakes. He also manages a whole chapter on Yuri Nosenko, all without ever mentioning Anatoliy Golitsyn. Also noteworthy is the respect and admiration Helms seems to have for most of his fellow veterans and associates, regardless of political affiliation, religion, sex and even sexuality. The tone changes somewhat, and a slight ugliness creeps into the work, when Helms speaks of Richard M. Nixon. The vindictive firing of Helms by Nixon notwithstanding, there clearly was no love lost between the two men. He also has a difficult time hiding his frustrations with subsequent DCI William Colby's decision to hand over classified material to the Church and Pike committees investigating CIA's activities, and his contempt for the congressmen leading the investigation. It is frustrating, as a reader, to see Helms lose his wit, and at times, his class, when discussing these matters toward the end of "A Look Over my Shoulder". His actual sound arguments against the committees would have been better communicated in the same tone reserved for the rest of his book. Ultimately, it is his humor and the quality of his narrative that makes his story interesting, and his biography is most successful when it stays on course. He took his secrets to his grave, and books about him by other authors probably reveal more about the CIA and his role in it. Despite it all, "A Look Over my Shoulder" leaves the distinct impression that Richard Helms was probably a very fascinating man.
<br/>
<br/>NC
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/368200?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Nathan's review
rating:

bookshelves: biography, cia, cia-angleton, history, history-politics, nixon-craziness
recommended for: Nixon's ghost.
status: Read in December, 2007

One of the biographies of former CIA director Richard Helms is called "The Man Who Kept the Secrets". In his autobiography, "A Look Over my Shoulder", Helms lives up to his previous biographer's title. Helms was a career CIA officer, in the agency from its genesis in OSS through CIA's birth through the aftermath of E. Howard Hunt's little field trip. He was Director of Central Intelligence at the end of Johnson's administration, was kept by Nixon, and was then fired by Nixon after refusing to have the CIA block the FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in. All of this, against a backdrop of the Vietnam War, James Angleton's mole hunts, MKULTRA, the CHAOS program, Nosenko & Golitsyn, the Kennedy assassinations, Air America, the Pentagon Papers, the Castro assassination plots and the Bay of Pigs. Fascinating times, by any man's estimation. Yet Helms manages to write 452 pages of text without revealing one shred of new information not previously revealed by so...more One of the biographies of former CIA director Richard Helms is called "The Man Who Kept the Secrets". In his autobiography, "A Look Over my Shoulder", Helms lives up to his previous biographer's title. Helms was a career CIA officer, in the agency from its genesis in OSS through CIA's birth through the aftermath of E. Howard Hunt's little field trip. He was Director of Central Intelligence at the end of Johnson's administration, was kept by Nixon, and was then fired by Nixon after refusing to have the CIA block the FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in. All of this, against a backdrop of the Vietnam War, James Angleton's mole hunts, MKULTRA, the CHAOS program, Nosenko & Golitsyn, the Kennedy assassinations, Air America, the Pentagon Papers, the Castro assassination plots and the Bay of Pigs. Fascinating times, by any man's estimation. Yet Helms manages to write 452 pages of text without revealing one shred of new information not previously revealed by someone else. It is one of the few books I've ever read by a CIA officer or director without one line of redacted text. Fitting, for a man who took a perjury conviction because he refused to reveal classified information in a Senate hearing. Anyone reading "A Look Over my Shoulder" for new revelations or new hints about old cases should look elsewhere, and assume this book gets a 1 star rating. Helms really is the man who kept the secrets. As a memoir, however, "A Look Over my Shoulder" lives up not to another biographer's title, but its own subtitle: "A Life in the CIA". Helms started his career as a journalist, and early in life, he dreamed of owning his own paper. In his biography, the pleasure he takes in writing is obvious, and his wit and personality come out in ways rarely seen in the rather dry world of intelligence memoirs. His reflections on the CIA focus on some unheralded (if previously reported) successes, and illustrates, more so than many recent CIA "histories" (Tim Weiner's "Legacy of Ashes", for example), the constant misuse of the agency by president after president. Despite the lack of revelations, there are subtle surprises in the book. He often seems to be saying as much between the lines as he does in them. An entire chapter, for example, is devoted to a solid defense of the much reviled James Angleton, even taking responsibility for many of Angleton's perceived mistakes. He also manages a whole chapter on Yuri Nosenko, all without ever mentioning Anatoliy Golitsyn. Also noteworthy is the respect and admiration Helms seems to have for most of his fellow veterans and associates, regardless of political affiliation, religion, sex and even sexuality. The tone changes somewhat, and a slight ugliness creeps into the work, when Helms speaks of Richard M. Nixon. The vindictive firing of Helms by Nixon notwithstanding, there clearly was no love lost between the two men. He also has a difficult time hiding his frustrations with subsequent DCI William Colby's decision to hand over classified material to the Church and Pike committees investigating CIA's activities, and his contempt for the congressmen leading the investigation. It is frustrating, as a reader, to see Helms lose his wit, and at times, his class, when discussing these matters toward the end of "A Look Over my Shoulder". His actual sound arguments against the committees would have been better communicated in the same tone reserved for the rest of his book. Ultimately, it is his humor and the quality of his narrative that makes his story interesting, and his biography is most successful when it stays on course. He took his secrets to his grave, and books about him by other authors probably reveal more about the CIA and his role in it. Despite it all, "A Look Over my Shoulder" leaves the distinct impression that Richard Helms was probably a very fascinating man.

NC...less

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