1964 June 9

CIA Pressures Publisher of Second-Ever Book on Agency

 

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), it was reported on this day, pressured the publisher of Invisible Government by David Wise and Thomas Powers, only the second book ever published on the CIA, to either make a number of changes or not publish the book at all, claiming that it contained inaccuracies about CIA activities.

Random House, the publisher, publicly denied any attempt to censor the book, but reports indicated the CIA did exert pressure regarding publication of the book.

Invisible Government was far more critical of the CIA than the first book, Andrew Tully’s, CIA: The Inside Story (1962). Prior to the publication of Invisible Government there had been no published book critical of the agency, and no serious investigations by mainstream news media.

The American public did not learn the full story of the CIA’s secret activities (and even then not all of them) until the 1975–1976 investigations of the Senate Church Committee, established on January 27, 1975, and the House Pike Committee, established on February 19, 1975.

Read the second book on the CIA: David Wise and Thomas Powers, Invisible Government (1964)

Read the first book ever published on the CIA: Andrew Tully, CIA: The Inside Story (1962)

Learn more about the CIA: Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (2007)

Read: Hugh Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (2008)

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