
Scott Anderson is the author of two novels and four books of nonfiction.

held in the developing world and led to a disastrous war in Vietnam.Īnderson tells the story through the lives of four young men who played important roles in the CIA. Anderson concludes that the CIA's rigid commitment to anti-communism and willingness to topple democratically elected governments squandered the goodwill the U.S. It was a time, Anderson writes, when Americans wielded great moral authority in the world and nations struggling to throw off colonial rule looked to the United States as a beacon of freedom and democracy.

Our guest today, writer Scott Anderson, has a new book about the early years of the CIA, when America was victorious in World War II and former soldiers were improvising a campaign of spying and covert operations to contain and undermine the nation's new adversary, the Soviet Union. We're used to a world in which American intelligence services operate with enormous power and reach. I'm Dave Davies, in today for Terry Gross.
