“Ghost Wars” by Steve Coll – The Truth Behind the Secret

As you all probably know, the CIA is one of the world’s most secretive organizations, lending covert assistance when it comes to civil and military operations alike. In Ghost Wars, Steve Coll comes out with a detailed overview of the CIA’s history, starting with their involvement in Afghanistan with the Soviet Union, going all the way to September 10th, 2001, when they began an invasion. 

The book is a factual one, although there is a slight bit of novelization to it, and even though it is true that some of the so-called facts may have been fabricated, everything points to this being a true, honest and legitimate account of one of history’s most secretive organizations.

I have to say that out of all the factual books I have read in my life, Ghost Wars may very well take the cake as being the most engaging one in terms of the facts and events presented. Coll always takes the time to depict the context in which events are unfolding, taking great care to describe all the details that have impacted the CIA over the many years of operations they have had. He even takes the time to go into the politics of it all, both on the homeland and in foreign countries.

In addition, this isn’t a purely patriotic book that depicts the CIA as being harbingers of good. As a matter of fact, it felt like Coll didn’t hold back one single bit, describing the many failures of the CIA alongside their successes.

I was honestly quite impressed at the way Coll managed to knit all the classified facts and information together in order to make it feel more like a narrative rather than a listing of facts and dates. In the end, this isn’t just some narrative that aims to describe what has happened to the CIA and what they did. 

It also serves as an exploration and analysis of how valuable and important the secret intelligence service is to the country, how it can harm it, as well as how a small band of men with extremist beliefs have managed to damage America more than we ever thought possible. If you are interested in the CIA even remotely, this definitely the novel for you.

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Steve Coll Steve Coll is a journalist and author of American nationality who is also the dean of Columbia Journalism School. He was awarded two Pulitzer Awards amongst a large number of others, having published many interesting, eye-opening and successful books, with perhaps his best-known one being Ghost Wars.