Books about the CIA This list is made of books both critical and supportive of the agency. It's up to you to exercise media literacy while reading anything from this list.
created by trickynoodle
last updated May, 2026
Journey into Madness: The True Story of Secret CIA Mind Control & Medical Abuse
Gordon Thomas
Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond
Martin A. Lee
Programmed to Kill: The Politics of Serial Murder
David McGowan
The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA & Mind Control
John D. Marks
Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
Stephen Kinzer
Argo: How the CIA & Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History
Antonio J. Méndez
El Golpe: US Labor, the CIA, and the Coup at Ford in Mexico (Wildcat)
Rob McKenzie
The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations
Ervand Abrahamian
America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East
Hugh Wilford
In the Dark of War: A CIA Officer's Inside Account of the U.S. Evacuation from Libya
Sarah M. Carlson
The CIA Book Club: The Best-Kept Secret of the Cold War
Charlie English
The CIA: An Imperial History
The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century
Tim Weiner
Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro
Thomas Maier
Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA
John Lisle
The Secret History of the CIA
Joseph J. Trento
The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA
Liza Mundy
Mr. Death
Rothman Rothman
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
Tom O'Neill
Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America
Annie Jacobsen
White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa
Susan Williams
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
David Talbot
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