Naval War College Review Volume 59 Article 16 Number 4 Autumn 2006 Burn before Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors, and Central Intelligence Tom Grassey Stansfield urT ner Follow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review Recommended Citation Grassey, Tom and Turner, Stansfield (2006) "Burn before Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors, and Central Intelligence," Naval War College Review: Vol. 59 : No. 4 , Article 16. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol59/iss4/16 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen 142Grassey NAVAL and WAR Turner: COLLEGE Burn REVIEWbefore Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors, and Central Intel find a single plan laid out in such com- expected to produce an atomic bomb is plete detail. mid-1950 and the most probable date is mid-1953.” RICHMOND M. LLOYD William B. Ruger Chair of Turner recounts subsequent intelligence National Security Economics failures, but because the manuscript was Naval War College submitted to the CIA for security review, few readers should be surprised by this history. While most facts are familiar, Turner’s Turner, Stansfield. Burn before Reading: Presidents, thesis is that the director of Central In- CIA Directors, and Central Intelligence. New York: telligence serves the president in two ca- Hyperion, 2005. 319pp. $23.95 pacities: leading the CIA in providing Presumably Stansfield Turner did not unbiased intelligence; and heading the devise the nonsensical title of this history intelligence community, “fifteen federal of the DCI’s (Director, Central Intelli- agencies, offices, and bureaus within the gence) relationship with the president of executive branch.” Turner evaluates the the United States.