The Strength of the Pack: The Personalities, Politics and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA

by Douglas Valentine

Through interviews with former narcotics agents, politicians, and bureaucrats, this expos

Genres: Politics, History

556 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Douglas Valentine is the author of four books of historical nonfiction: The Hotel Tacloban, The Phoenix Program, The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs, and The Strength of the Pack: The Personalities, Politics and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA. He is the author of the novel TDY, and a book of poems, A Crow's Dream. He is also the editor of the poetry anthology With Our Eyes Wide Open: Poems of the New American Century (West End Press, 2014). He lives with his wife, Alice, in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Tomasz]

Sadly, the weakest from Valentine that I have read. Very chaotic, poorly edited (especially the footnotes in the latter chapters are erratic, sometimes missing or in their crypticality suggesting that they were merely authorial notes to self). The author barks up every conspiracy tree, failing to back up his hypotheses with much of substance. Poor treatment of a very worthwile subject.

[Erin Chandler]

Douglas Valentine is a wonderful writer, an important writer who fearlessly and with vast knowledge about his subjects, delves into worlds we would not hear about otherwise. I highly recommend anything this author puts out into the world!

[Elizabeth]

Okay, I get this author is older but it's really odd that he calls black Americans 'Afro-Americans' in 2009 *_*

Other content related to race is definitely dated in this book as well. But it's a solid piece on the DEA in a lot of ways. Still in progress so I can't speak to the whole thing. I was hoping for more overview work and less on the individual people, but I guess it does say 'the personalities that shaped the DEA,' so you can't say he doesn't warn you. Guessing his other books such as The Phoenix Program are probably stronger, but I'm very interested in this era in American politics and it's hard to find books on this subject.

So far I like Huey Newton's thoughts on the DEA better, but he wasn't interviewing a bunch of agents who worked there either. So it goes.