Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors: Religion and the History of the CIA

by Michael Graziano

Reveals the previous underexplored influence of religious thought in building the foundations of the CIA.

Michael Graziano’s intriguing book fuses two landmark titles in American Perry Miller’s Errand into the Wilderness (1956), about the religious worldview of the early Massachusetts colonists, and David Martin’s Wilderness of Mirrors (1980), about the dangers and delusions inherent to the Central Intelligence Agency. Fittingly, Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors investigates the dangers and delusions that ensued from the religious worldview of the early molders of the Central Intelligence Agency. Graziano argues that the religious approach to intelligence by key OSS and CIA figures like “Wild” Bill Donovan and Edward Lansdale was an essential, and overlooked, factor in establishing the agency’s concerns, methods, and understandings of the world. In a practical sense, this was because the Roman Catholic Church already had global networks of people and safe places that American agents could use to their advantage. But more tellingly, Graziano shows, American intelligence officers were overly inclined to view powerful religions and religious figures through the frameworks of Catholicism. As Graziano makes clear, these misconceptions often led to tragedy and disaster on an international scale. By braiding the development of the modern intelligence agency with the story of postwar American religion, Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors delivers a provocative new look at a secret driver of one of the major engines of American power.

Genres: Politics, Religion, History, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

Published June 17, 2021

Reviews

[Barron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting thesis.

Alas, one can't help but wonder why there isnt a chapter on the mujahidin, given that the topic is so absolutely center of mass for the book's main argument.

[windsor · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

“It is permitted to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge. The OSS was in a death struggle with the Gestapo and, like Churchill, allied itself with devils to survive. We deserve to go to hell when we die. We used Communists, telling them that we would help them overthrow Franco, which we did not do. We false-promised Riff Moorish officers to work for independence of Morocco from Spain…the OSS had no conscience. […] It is still an open question whether an operator in OSS or in CIA can ever again become a wholly honorable man.”
—William Eddy

Anyone who knows me and my reading habits knows how much i love a niche topic. So to start my research project on the CIA and related topics with a religious angle was absolutely fantastic.

I really don’t know much about the CIA or its predecessor, OSS, but this book served as a very interesting introduction. I took about 10 pages of quotes as I read through it, and I think it will serve me well.

It’s honestly fascinating how much of an impact religion has had on the history of the CIA: from recieving World War 2 intel directly from the Vatican—sometimes the pope himself—to the honestly humorous failure of Project Windpipe, the thread of religion has entwined itself deep into the Agency, and this book did a fantastic job at telling that story.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is exceptionally well-researched and beautifully written. It tells a cohesive, compelling story about how OSS and then CIA officers sought to understand world religions and operationalize their understandings in the service of U.S. foreign policy aims from World War II through the 1980s. A must-read for U.S. diplomatic/foreign relations historians.

[Stephanie Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this fascinating and deeply researched study of how the United States used religion as a tool of power during the twentieth century, Graziano traces how American intelligence agencies, beginning with the Office of Strategic Services and later the CIA, adopted what he calls a “religious approach to intelligence.” They assumed that understanding one religion could unlock insight into all religions and that faith could serve the goals of democracy and national security.

The result is both compelling and troubling. Graziano reveals how this way of thinking shaped wartime propaganda, Cold War alliances with Catholic media, and misguided analyses of non-Christian contexts such as Islam during the Iranian Revolution. His writing connects theology, ideology, and espionage in a way that sheds light on how moral language and religious identity were used to justify American influence abroad.

This book is an excellent choice for readers interested in religion, intelligence history, or U.S. foreign policy. Graziano reminds us that studying faith is never neutral. It always reflects who is interpreting, what they believe about truth, and how those beliefs are used in the pursuit of power.

[Beccabrewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another ”niche” history (although the CIA and foreign relations really aren’t niche per se) book I really enjoyed. I knew vaguely that the CIA was jokingly called the Catholic intelligence agency and they were involved in both the instability and eventual revolutions in Vietnam and Iran. This book touches on those topics with a thesis of how the CIA’s philosophy regarding different religions contributed to complicated foreign relation situations and often caused quite a lot of harm, while not positing that this religious approach was the only or even a major failing of US intelligence activities around the globe. Pretty fascinating read.