Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA

by Mark Perry

Based on interviews with top-ranking CIA insiders & informed by classified & Top Secret documentation, Eclipse is an investigation of the CIA from the death of Wm Casey to the swearing-in of its newest director, Rbt Gates. Its subject is something far less understood than any covert, overseas action taken on behalf of the USA. It's the battles waged within the agency that form the explosiveness of this groundbreaking book. Key incidents in Eclipse deal with: the bombing of PanAm 103, the seizure of Manuel Noriega, the breakup of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, the political fallout of the Iran-contra affair, the collapse of the USSR & its empire, the enormously controversial confirmation of Rbt Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence &, most important, the politicization of the CIA's intelligence findings. It also details considerable new information on how the CIA provided defense information to Saddam Hussein that would later be used to confuse American bombers during the Iraqi War, how Geo Bush undermined CIA independence, the CIA's role in the student massacre at Tiananmen Square & why the White House didn't respond to warnings that Iraq would invade Kuwait. From Geo Bush to Wm Casey to Wm Webster to Rbt Gates, Eclipse exposes both the triumphs & the blunders made on behalf of an American public who believe in the CIA's power to protect them as well as provide accurate, objective intelligence analysis--& have often been tragically let down.

Genres: History

528 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1992

About the author

Mark^Perry. From Wikipedia:

Mark Perry (1950 – 8 August 2021) was an American author specializing in military, intelligence, and foreign affairs analysis.[1][2]

He authored nine books: Four Stars,[3] Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA,[4] A Fire In Zion: Inside the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process,[5] Conceived in Liberty,[6] Lift Up Thy Voice,[7] Grant and Twain,[8] Partners In Command,[9] Talking To Terrorists,[10] and The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur.[11]

Perry’s articles have been featured in a number of publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Newsday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Christian Science Monitor, and The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio).

Background
Perry was a graduate of Northwestern Military and Naval Academy and of Boston University.

Career
Perry was the former co-Director of the Washington, D.C., London, and Beirut-based Conflicts Forum,[12] which specializes in engaging with Islamist movements in the Levant in dialogue with the West. Perry served as co-Director for over five years. A detailed five-part series on this experience was published by the Asia Times in March and in July 2006.[13] Perry served as an unofficial advisor to PLO Chairman and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat from 1989 to 2004.[14][15]

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Mark Perry: author of Grant and Twain: The Story of an American Friendship

Mark^^Perry: author of War of Darkness (Role Aids/Advanced Dungeons and Dragons)

Mark^^^Perry: author of A Dress for Mona

Mark^^^^Perry: author of Dead Ringers: The Television Series

Mark^^^^^Perry: Illustrator

Mark^^^^^^Perry: author of The Climb: First Steps

Reviews

[Ferris Mx · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loathed this book so much. The use of extravagant and unsupported adjectives was disturbing. People don't get upset, they get demoralized. I really doubt that the general population of the agency became demoralized every time a DCI sneezed. The book loves to be critical, but the criticism is blisteringly inconsistent. People are too far to the right, and too far to the left. They are too suspicious of Soviet intentions and too trusting. All on the same page. Despite all the emotion and appearance of insightful revelation, there is nothing credible or useful here.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have come to rely less upon the daily news and magazines and more upon books for my understanding of current events. I still listen to BBC radio regularly, read The Nation after Jim DeVoto is finished with his copy and scan the NYTimes and even the miserable local papers when they appear in the cafe, but I don't really believe most of what is promulgated by them. The local papers, the Sun Times and the Tribune, have very little investigative reporting any more. Most of what they report, beyond sports and gossip, appears to derive from other sources, including those most suspect of sources, agencies and representatives of governments. The Nation has some investigative reporting, but their coverage of the world is sketchy. The BBC, what we get here on Public Radio at least, has some decent reporting, but usually only reporting which skims the surface of things (at least they appear to recognize the existence of a world beyond the English-speaking portion of it, however).

Despite the paucity of data available from the traditional news sources, there continue to appear books, many of them in the first waves of coverage written by professional journalists, many in the later waves written by professional historians, which do trace their stories adequately. For one thing, obviously, authors have the time and apace with book publishing to do a real job of reporting. For another thing, there still remain publishers who are not dependent upon major corporate advertisers who might censor their products. Additionally, when the topic is a political hot potato, intial reports are often distorted by the self-interests of the principals. Facts are distorted or concealed. Given time, however, a student of the material can ferret out accurate--or at least a range of--accounts and sometimes essential information withheld by governments has been declassified or even uncovered.

The CIA is an agency of government least given to accurate self-exposure. It's covert operations, however, are among those most indicative of the true moral position of at least the Executive branch of government, the Director of the agency being a political appointee and the agency itself being the dark hand of the presidency.

Perry's Eclipse is a fascinating overview of the history of the CIA from the Reagan administration through that of George Bush in the first Iraq war. It is neither a pretty story nor one which inspires much confidence in the agency.