The CIA and the cult of Intellgience by Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks

Paperback. Condition: Good+. 1975. Dell. Second Printing. Stock Image.

Sticker residue on front cover, no creases to spine.

The book discusses how the CIA works and how its original purpose (i.e. collecting and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons in order to advise public policymakers) has, according to the author, been subverted by its obsession with clandestine operations.

It is the first book the federal government of the United States ever went to court to censor before its publication. The CIA demanded the authors delete 339 passages but they resisted and in the end only 168 passages were deleted. The publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, published the book with blanks for deleted passages and with boldface type for items which the CIA initially wanted deleted, but later withdrew its objections. It is perhaps the earliest published book to adopt this format. The book was published in paperback by Dell Publishing in 1975.