The U.S. Intelligence Community

by Jeffrey T. Richelson

This book provides a detailed overview of America's vast intelligence empire—its organizations, its operations (from spies on the ground to satellites thousands of miles in space), and its management structure. Relying on a multitude of sources, including hundreds of official documents, it provides an up-to-date picture of the U.S. intelligence community that will provide support to policymakers and military operations into the next century.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Espionage, Military Fiction, Textbooks, Education

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Mariam Keshealshvili · Rating 4 out of 5]

ეს წიგნი სხვათაშორის წელს ერთ-ერთი საგნის მთავარი საკითხავი მასალა იყო და დიდ რეკომენდაციას გავუწევ ვისაც სურს რომ ამ თემაზე მეტი გაიგოს და ზოგადად სადაზვერვო ლიტერატურა აინტერესებს highly recommended.

[Dameon Launert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for the seventh edition published in 2016 and read in 2026. I had read a previous edition of the book perhaps 10 years ago.

This book takes a lot of effort to get through, even for someone familiar with the material. The problem is that it is so information dense. Imagine slogging through several hundred pages of government jargon: "About us" webpages; official report executive summaries; program histories and name changes; organizational charts and reorganizations; and so forth. Sometimes this is provided verbatim and sometimes it is paraphrased, but most of the time it is with little or no context, interpretation, or commentary. In a word, it is dry. One major exception is the final chapter titled Issues.

There are also a couple dozen typos in the book, including a factual error about the electromagnetic spectrum. (A chart listed microwaves in two separate bands, when one of them was actually radio waves.) This is unacceptable for a graduate level tome such as this, especially a seventh edition.

Yet I still give the book four stars because it is such a valuable resource, especially for reference or launching pad to look further into a particular subtopic. I would much rather have given it five stars if only because I enjoy the subject matter so much. Perhaps an eighth edition will rectify my criticisms.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this for a college course. Basically this is a cut and paste of different sources, with absolutely no flow from paragraph to paragraph or original thought. Every time I tried to read it I would be overcome by an overwhelming desire to close my eyes and sleep. I highly recommend this book to insomniacs or people who gather information for research papers by typing in a search string on Google and then copying the first paragraph of everything that Google spits back at them.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I went on a kick of spy/intelligence books last year, and bought this one as part of it. As it turns out, this book appears to be a textbook for at least a 300 or 400 level government class. It goes into painstaking detail about the names of departments, delineation of responsibilities, history of who merged into what and so on. I wouldn't have bought this book without taking a class that needed it if I hadn't realized, although I did learn a huge amount of detail by reading it.

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have actually read the fourth edition that was written in 1999. I am interested to take a look at this new edition and see what changes are in it since the intelligence community has changed so much since 9/11.

[Spencer Willardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to know the who, what, where, and why of intelligence in the U.S. this is the first place you should start. Richelson is thorough in his description of agencies and their relationships with one another.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a hard read per se. Lot's of graphs and charts. Probably the worst thing about this book is it's littered with alphabet soup. As a friend pointed out if you want a good book on the IC, Intelligence by Lowenthal is a better read.

[Jeremiah Genest · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the definitive pieces on US Intelligence.

[Dr. Barrett Dylan Brown, Phd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A decent, if now outdated, attempt to catagorize and map out the various U.S. Agencies with an investment in Intelligence.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A concise and nonpolitical primer on US intelligence, useful as a quick desk reference for researchers but only scratches the surface.

www.cryptome.org
www.wikileaks.org
www.governmentattic.org

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome information source

[Strain · Rating 2 out of 5]

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry but informative.