Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
Steve Coll, then managing editor of The Washington Post, spent years interviewing officials in the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan to build Ghost Wars. The book traces the CIA's covert program to arm the mujahideen against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, the chaotic civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal, the rise of the Taliban, and the emergence of Osama bin Laden as a threat US intelligence tracked but never stopped. Coll narrates the story through a large cast of officials, spies, generals, and warlords, showing how good intentions, ambition, and institutional blind spots piled up into disaster. Ghost Wars won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2005 and is now standard reading in national security programs. It remains one of the most detailed accounts of how September 11 became possible.
What you might want to know about Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Steve Coll reconstructs two decades of secret US intelligence operations in Afghanistan and the rise of Al Qaeda from the Soviet invasion to the eve of September 11.
Sinek has cited Ghost Wars as a case study in what happens when leaders operate with a finite mindset and short term wins, and he has recommended it as essential background for anyone trying to understand long horizon consequences in geopolitics and organizations.
No, but the book is long and dense with names. Coll writes for a general reader and explains the players as he goes, though most readers keep notes or a bookmark to track the cast.
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 was written by Steve Coll, published in 2004 by Penguin Books.
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 is 736 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 takes most readers 11 to 16 hours to finish.
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
