The Mission - by Tim Weiner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A New York Times Bestseller * A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Washington Post, Kirkus, Bloomberg, Chicago Public Library * A New York Times "Editors' Choice"

Updated with a new postscript on the CIA's role during Trump's second term.

"No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win Weiner a second Pulitzer." --The Guardian

A masterpiece of reporting based on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors and scores of spies, station chiefs, and top operations officers: The Mission is a gripping and revelatory history of the modern CIA, reaching from 9/11 through its covert operations in Afghanistan and Iraq to today's secret battles with Russia and China, concluding with the Agency's own fight for survival under the current president of the United States

Tim Weiner's epic successor to Legacy of Ashes, his National Book Award-winning classic about the CIA's first sixty years

At the turn of the century, the Central Intelligence Agency was in crisis. The end of the Cold War had robbed the agency of its mission. More than thirty overseas stations and bases had been shuttered, and scores that remained had been severely cut back. Many countries where surveillance was once deemed crucial went uncovered. Essential intelligence wasn't being collected. At the dawn of the information age, the CIA's officers and analysts worked with outmoded technology, struggling to distinguish the clear signals of significant facts from the cacophony of background noise.

Then came September 11th, 2001. After the attacks, the CIA transformed itself into a lethal paramilitary force, running secret prisons and brutal interrogations, mounting deadly drone attacks, and all but abandoning its core missions of espionage and counterespionage. The consequences were grave: the deaths of scores of its recruited foreign agents, the theft of its personnel files by Chinese spies, the penetration of its computer networks by Russian intelligence and American hackers, and the tragedies of Afghanistan and Iraq. A new generation of spies now must fight the hardest targets--Moscow, Beijing, Tehran--while confronting a president who has attacked the CIA as a subversive force.

From Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner, The Mission tells the gripping, high-stakes story of the CIA through the first quarter of the twenty-first century, revealing how the agency fought to rebuild the espionage powers it lost during the war on terror--and finally succeeded in penetrating the Kremlin. The struggle has life-and-death consequences for America and its allies. The CIA must reclaim its original mission: know thy enemies. The fate of the free world hangs in the balance.

A masterpiece of reporting, The Mission includes exclusive on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors, the top spymaster, thirteen station chiefs, and scores of top operations officers who served undercover for decades and have never spoken to a journalist before.

Review Quotes

"A riveting, must-read, deeply reported continuation of Weiner's prize winner, Legacy of Ashes." - "Esquire, "The Best Books of Summer 2025"

"Weiner draws on deep sourcing to lay bare the errancies of American intelligence--this time, as the war on terror endlessly expands. He documents the agency's torture programs and its growing reliance on drone strikes, tracking how the campaign against terrorism blurred legal and ethical boundaries. But The Mission also brings the story into the disorienting present, chronicling the astonishing reversal in the C.I.A.'s public standing during Trump's first term, when the President openly feuded with the agency over Russian election interference. Weiner closes with a cautious faith in the agency's rank and file, shadowed by a clear sense of foreboding." - The New Yorker

"This masterful new history should be required reading. . . . Astonishing. . . . A singular triumph." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"In this triumphant follow-up to Legacy of Ashes, National Book Award winner Weiner continues his history of the CIA. . . . Chilling. . . . A crucial document of the present times." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Riveting. . . . How Weiner persuaded so many people to talk on the record is a journalistic feat that should make The Mission impossible to dismiss." - Associated Press

"This masterful new history should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the CIA's place in U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century. Weiner takes us through every foreign policy crisis since 9/11 and describes the CIA's role, often in astonishing detail. . . . Weiner's new book stands out for his unprecedented access to CIA officers past and present. . . . A singular triumph--an intimate chronicle of the CIA, its crises, and its opportunities since 9/11." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The Mission is an outstanding book. The most important CIA intelligence activities of this century are examined here, fairly and in lively prose." - Loch K. Johnson, SpyTalk

"An absorbing, informative portrait of an embattled organization that is facing formidable challenges abroad and at home." - Minneapolis Star Tribune

"In 2007, Weiner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, rankled U.S. spy organizations with Legacy of Ashes, a chronicle of the C.I.A.'s 20th-century failings that won a National Book Award. He's back with the story of the agency's evolution since Sept. 11 -- a period when American covert services took an increasingly militaristic role in the Middle East and, Weiner contends, pushed the business of war deeper into the dark." - New York Times, Editors' Choice

"No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win Weiner a second Pulitzer." - John Simpson, The Guardian

"Weiner has made tracking the fluctuating fortunes of the American intelligence community his life's work. His masterly Legacy of Ashes, detailing the C.I.A.'s first half-century, won a National Book Award in 2007. The Mission picks up where that book left off, narrating the agency's history well beyond the fall of communism. It is exhaustive and prodigiously researched." - Scott Anderson, New York Times Book Review

"A remarkable piece of journalism and history, based on scores of on-the-record interviews with CIA veterans. Weiner takes us deep into that covert world, exposing its scandals and chronicling the agency's little-known successes. . . . I marvel at Weiner's accomplishment." - David Corn, Mother Jones

"The Mission reads like a thriller. . . . a remarkable collection of information we never had before and wouldn't have without Weiner." - Rachel Maddow

"Readers of The Mission may wonder whether spy fiction and political dramas have a future. The author certainly provides rich background for aspiring thriller writers. But he suggests that reality, in the US at any rate, is intriguing enough, and scary. . . . Weiner brings a sharpness and added value mainly through his interviews with many of the players involved, along with his cutting and perceptive observations." - Times Literary Supplement (London)

"The Mission is a fantastic read. . . . reminds us of the importance of the human element when it comes to high-stakes diplomacy, and the life-and-death decisions on which our national security depends." - The Observer (London)

"Weiner meticulously documents a level of chaos, deception and politicization in the upper echelons of the CIA that put in perspective current debates over Donald Trump's own efforts to reshape and purge the agencies."

"Any serious student of U.S. national security should immediately pick up a copy of "The Mission." Beyond the history-making details uncovered through on-the-record interviews with former senior CIA officials, it is guaranteed to serve as fertile ground for investigations which extend beyond the boundaries of the book itself." - Jack Poulson, All-Source Intelligence

"Drawing the threads of these personal stories together into a broader narrative. . . . is the stuff of good popular history, as The Mission is." - The Times (London)

"Riveting. . . . The Mission is a penetrating portrait of the nation's most powerful intelligence service and its existential evolution as a last line of defense against enemies foreign and domestic."

"Rudnicki takes Weiner's impeccable research and storytelling to near cinematic heights as he shares victories and losses by America's--and the world's--premier spy agency. This audiobook covers the irrefutable damage the two Trump administrations have inflicted on the Agency. But more than that, it offers a real-life look at the work of spycraft. It's for anyone who cares about the current state of the CIA--or who wants to learn how much fact there may be in spy fiction. "

- AudioFile, "Earphones Award Winner"

A riveting history of the agency for anyone fascinated by real-life global espionage. Sourced from exclusive interviews with six former CIA directors, The Mission is highly readable, enlightening and chillingly timed. - Seven Days

"Weiner constructs a detailed genealogy of the political pathologies that now shape American life. . . . By zeroing in on the CIA's institutional failures, Tim Weiner does a great job of explaining how the United States went wrong." - The Battleground

"Powerful. . . . The Mission is the product of massive research, including on-the-record interviews with more than 100 veterans of the agency. . . . Weiner's stories of danger, courage and -- not infrequently -- pure folly will keep readers turning briskly through these pages." - The Washington Post, A Notable Book of the Year

"Weiner, who has spent decades reporting on the Central Intelligence Agency, chronicles the CIA's struggle to understand its mission after the end of the Cold War with rare on-the-record interviews. After the 9/11 attacks, the CIA found itself in charge overnight of a global war against an enemy about which it knew almost nothing. . . . More hair-raising because it is less well known is Weiner's definitive treatment of Russia's massive, unprecedented political warfare on Donald Trump's behalf in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign." - Foreign Affairs

"A much better book than Legacy of Ashes. . . It's told with thoroughness and a degree of completeness which is quite surprising. For anybody who has even a passionate interest in intelligence organizations, this book is revelatory." - Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)