# Can someone reccomend me a good book on the CIA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 1, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-reccomend-me-a-good-book-on-the-cia/158448 "2003-03-01T21:09:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pantone\_Swatchbook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@Pantone\_Swatchbook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantone_Swatchbook)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-reccomend-me-a-good-book-on-the-cia/158448/1 "2003-03-01T21:09:42Z")
I have a friend who is borderline schizophrenic, and highly afraid of the CIA. He believes that experiments were conducted on him while he was an inpatient in a hospital. Its a grand, complicated delusion with lots of holes. I have tried to reason with him on the improbability of an oft-incompetent government agency to perform and afford such clandestine activities and still maintain any form of secrecy. But he keeps shouting back “MK-ULTRA”, as if it was some amazing precedent that could justify the logistics of any operations they commit. He does see a doctor, but I doubt its making progress. He is otherwise very lucid and quite rational. So I want to point him to a good, relatively objective resource on the history of the CIA, what they can or can not do, their past evils, etc - dispell the idea of a monolithic, all-powerful government force. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-reccomend-me-a-good-book-on-the-cia/158448/2 "2003-03-01T21:20:06Z")
I could, but then I’d have to kill you… sorry Pantone, couldn’t pass that up. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-reccomend-me-a-good-book-on-the-cia/158448/3 "2003-03-01T21:24:16Z")
I don’t think a book would really help your friends much. IANA phsychologist, but from what I know of schizophrenia they can’t tell fantasy from reality, and so no amount of factual information you present to them is going to change their mind, once made up. ---
**Author:** ![Pantone\_Swatchbook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@Pantone\_Swatchbook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantone_Swatchbook)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-reccomend-me-a-good-book-on-the-cia/158448/4 "2003-03-01T21:33:45Z")
He is open-minded though, and I feel that seeds of doubt will make him question many aspects of his delusion. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-reccomend-me-a-good-book-on-the-cia/158448/5 "2003-03-01T21:40:50Z")
The only one I found online written recently by a CIA insider doesn’t seem it would do much but inflame your buddy’s beliefs. But here it is, nevertheless: [CIA, Inc.: Espionage & the Craft of Business Intelligence](http://www.newsmaxstore.com/nms/showdetl.cfm?&Product_ID=625&DID=6) > [@](#): > > How to use the Internet, and how the CIA even uses easy online tools to locate secret information on you, your neighbors and your business competitors. This will surprise you! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-reccomend-me-a-good-book-on-the-cia/158448/6 "2003-03-01T22:04:02Z")
I see a contradiction between paranoid and open-minded. I can’t imagine that reading a book will do anything more than slew how paranoia onto some other tangent. Was he in the military at the time? The army used to spike people with LSD. The Navy release clouds assorted germs off coastlines and in subways. My aunt was convinced she was the secret ruler of America for nearly 20 years. Her family finally got in inpatient psychiatric treatment about 6 months ago, and she’s just beginning to realize that she’s lived in a fantasy world for many years. ---
**Author:** ![S\_Puppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@S\_Puppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/S_Puppy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-reccomend-me-a-good-book-on-the-cia/158448/7 "2003-03-02T01:21:15Z")
If the book does not agree with my beliefs that it is a very good sign that it is in reality just disinformation put out by the CIA, which should pretty much prove my point. ---
**Author:** ![Pantone\_Swatchbook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@Pantone\_Swatchbook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantone_Swatchbook)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-reccomend-me-a-good-book-on-the-cia/158448/8 "2003-03-02T01:47:29Z")
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