Kindle Unlimited
Unlimited reading. Over 4 million titles. Learn more
Read for Free
OR
Kindle Price: $2.99

Save $17.00 (85%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Ralph W. McGehee
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA (Forbidden Bookshelf) Kindle Edition

by Ralph W. McGehee (Author), Mark Crispin Miller (Editor), David MacMichael (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 160 ratings
See all formats and editions
A veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency unmasks its culture of lethal lies in this devastating exposé, now with a new foreword by David MacMichael.

Ralph W. McGehee was a patriot, dedicated to the American way of life and the international fight against Communism. Following his graduation with honors from Notre Dame, McGehee was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1952 and quickly became an able and enthusiastic cold warrior. Stationed in Southeast Asia in the mid-1960s, he worked to stem the Communist tide that was sweeping through the region, first in Thailand and later in Vietnam.

But despite his notable successes in reversing enemy influence among the local peasants and villagers, McGehee found himself increasingly alienated from a company culture built on deceit and wholesale manipulation of the truth. While his country was being pulled deeper and deeper into the Vietnam quagmire, McGehee awoke to a chilling reality: The CIA was not a gatherer of actual intelligence to be employed in a legitimate war against dangerous enemies, but a tool of the president’s foreign-policy staff designed solely to stifle the truth and fabricate “facts” that supported the agency’s often immoral agenda.

With courage and candor, Ralph McGehee illuminates the CIA’s dark catalog of misdeeds in his stunning, no-holds-barred memoir of a life in the service of deception. Startling, eye-opening, and infuriating, Deadly Deceits is an honest and unflinching insider’s look at a toxic government agency that the author cogently argues has no useful purpose and no moral right to exist.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Book 11 of 27
    Forbidden Bookshelf
  2. Print length
    341 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Open Road Media
  6. Publication date
    March 3, 2015
  7. File size
    2574 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  11. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card
Next 5 for you in this series See full series
Total Price: $51.95
By clicking on the above button, you agree to Amazon's Kindle Store Terms of Use
More like Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA (Forbidden Bookshelf)
Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
Previous page
  28. Forbidden Bookshelf    27 book series
Next page
Loading...

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00S7EFYXE
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (March 3, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 3, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2574 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 341 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 160 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Ralph W. McGehee

Ralph W. McGehee

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

I served in the CIA for 25 years during which I was staioned in five Asian countries. I as distraught at its diplicitous intelligence written soley to

support its policies. The Vietnam lasted 30 years at trmendous damage to

worldwide opinion -- several million people were killed in this war that we could never win and that the CIA never understood. I wrote the book "Deadly Deceits" to bring that truth to the people.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
160 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Larry
5.0 out of 5 stars EX CIA Agent Exposes Reality
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2019
Verified Purchase
Author, Ralph McGehee tells it like it was when he was in the CIA for 25 years. What he found out was that the CIA was Not the All American group he originally thought it was. He became disillusioned about midway thru his 25 years. The Vietnam War and the "stuff" that was being fed to the public really bothered him, as it should have. He determined the CIA was just a political arm of the President and his main advisers. Truth was sacrificed for political gain and in the process tens of thousands of young American's died for basically no decent reason. In addition many, many more Vietnamese lost their lives in a war we didn't even try to win.

McGehee had to work hard to publish this excellent book and he felt he was being threatened by some who did not want him to publish his negative experience's. He moved from State to State to try to find safety for his family and himself.

Ralph was a tremendous football player for Notre Dame in the late 40's and his teams Never lost a game. He tried out for The Green Bay Packers in the 50's before being asked to join the CIA.

I had the honor of meeting Ralph two summers ago. He is an amazing individual who I greatly admire. His book is MUST READING! Learn the TRUTH!
21 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
baylor
4.0 out of 5 stars Very realistic, which means unexciting
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2000
Verified Purchase
Interesting book. i was half expecting something like in the more subdued spy movies, but McGehee is a very average, unremarkable person who was a paper pusher in the CIA
This book is a pretty detailed biography of McGehee's work at the CIA. i'm guessing that he was like the majority of CIA operatives, which is to say, he was a guy in the trenches with no special knowledge of the big picture and not a guy with any authority to change anything. He worked both in the field (primarily Asia during that whole Vietnam thing) collecting information and in the home office sorting paper. He devotes a lot of time to one of his biggest accomplishments, which was sorting index cards in a file cabinet
After reading the book, what i walked away with was that a)the CIA is really just a big, uninteresting, political, short-sighted, every-day bueracracy and b)that the managers at the top of this bueracracy just make up stuff and don't care about what their experts in the field say. Basically, the CIA is run like any large, terrible company
i thought this book would have a list of major crimes - assasinations, drug running, torture, political intrigue, coups and all that sort of stuff. In the non-crime category, i thought there'd be a lot of spying and covert activities. But there was practically none of that. Instead, he and his CIA buddies toured the country side, conducted surveys, established relations with remote hill tribes, paid informants for information, read reports and wrote reports. It's just so, what's the word, realistic
OK, so this book would make a lousy action movie. There's nothing exciting here. Even so, the book makes several very good criticisms of the CIA. Nothing criminal and whistle blowing. It's more like an in-the-trenches or middle manager corporate employee complaining about all the little things a bueracratic company and buerecratic managers do that, added together, make the company ineffective. i think McGehee's main point is that the CIA just plain doesn't work. Not necessarily that it does evil things, although he admits that the covert ops arm (which he wasn't part of) does horrible criminal things, but that it completely fails in its stated mission of collecting and understanding information
i don't think i'd recommend this book to fans of conspiracies and spy novels, but i'd definitely recommend it to people interested in management theory, organizational psychology and US intellectual capabilities
52 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
K S
5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched and factual
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
Not quite finished with it yet, and I'm considering giving up. It's one of those books with TMI and detail, which is probably needed considering the subject matter. I'll keep at it for a bit. It does remind me that the CIA, in my opinion, is an unnecessary evil. UPDATE: I decided to finish this book and am glad I did. McGehee jumped giant hurdles to get this book into print for you, so give it a chance. Yes, I still skipped through what was too much information for me, but I don't think I lost sight of his purpose. You can thank the CIA for screwing up the Vietnam war, among many other debacles. They are NOT an intelligence gathering agency. Their purpose is covert ops, and you'll be sickened, especially knowing that Ronald Reagan gave the CIA carte blanche to operate within the U.S., something that was previously forbidden. Watch your backs!
15 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
GKC
5.0 out of 5 stars Tells how American deceit brought on the Vietnam war
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2022
Verified Purchase
Despite all the CIA censorship, the book tells an important story, about how bureaucratic bungling and ego sucked the US into the Vietnam war (and other adventures of CIA deceit). Very readable.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
clang
5.0 out of 5 stars It is also very sad that this is a reality as well as the ...
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2018
Verified Purchase
I am still reading this book. A lot of the information isn't news to me but that is not the point. It is from the author's point of view and when "old news" happened, it was new to him. It is quite alarming to read about the corruption and agendas that go on in such a powerful agency in such detail. It is also very sad that this is a reality as well as the incredible disillusionment McGehee must have experienced. I haven't finished yet!
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
consumser CA
2.0 out of 5 stars Author is filled with personal disappointment rather than substantive information
Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book was published by a former CIA operative in 1983 complaining about the agency bureaucracy and poor handling of intelligence in Vietnam during the 60's-70s'. Imagine that we as a gov't create intel around our policy and not the other way around. Again, this is not surprise so I cannot even feign outrage. None of this is shocking to say the least and it reads like a form of catharsis from the author because of his trials and tribulations of wanting to do the right thing and getting punished for it. If you want to read about that, then go ahead but if you are looking for some real page turning accounts from a CIA operative, find another book.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Phil Hardin
3.0 out of 5 stars Views from just an average American engineer
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2016
Verified Purchase
Good read but history has revealed a few details the author was not aware of concerning Laos and N. Vietnam. HCM city is now way more capitalist than communist. Had breakfast with VN military guys in Nha Trang a few years ago and they were demoralized with the communist system. Same in Laos. Was there in 2005 and a vice minister there would love for their country to open up and be more commercially prosperous. And who do they fear? The aggressive communist neighbors to their north. My respect and graditude to the author for his service and bucking the system for truth and justice.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
jona(h) li, jona-li.eu
5.0 out of 5 stars Um Weltpolitik, Geheimdienste und deren Agenten
Reviewed in Germany on February 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
zu begreifen und zu verstehen, sollte man sich die Zeit für 'Ralph Walter McGehee, Junior' nehmen und seine Geschichte lesen ..... - eine aufschlussreiche Lese-Erfahrung!
Report
Rod P.
4.0 out of 5 stars As advertised
Reviewed in Canada on February 5, 2020
Verified Purchase
As advertised.
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report