This is a book about four men who worked with the founder of OSS and what would later become the CIA. During World War II each one would play a role during WWII in espionage, sabotage. Richard Helms even ran intelligence programs against the Russians after Germany fell in Berlin. But when each man would become director of the CIA they would almost bring down the agency one way or another. The author begins though by taking you back in time to the beginnings or before we are involved in WWII. How Wild Bill Donavon got to where he was and how they were picked and trained. He goes into some of their missions during WWII and you get to see that in the field they were very successful. Each man had certain strengths and weakness and each would play a role. Then he goes into the fifties and the U-2 spy incident, Iran and Guatemala. Helms would be fired by Nixon because he did not want to help with the Watergate which had to do with the “bay of pigs”. Colby was in charge when the leaks of what was called the “church files”. Casey was part of the Iran-contra scandal. Each one really had their hands in more than what was mentioned by reading this book you get a clear picture of what was and is going on. A good book.