Conversation so far:
Who criticized Richard Pipes' approach?
The writings of Richard Pipes have provoked criticism in the scholarly community, for example in The Russian Review
Who was Richard Pipes?
Richard Pipes was an American academic who specialized in Russian history, particularly with respect to the Soviet Union, who espoused a strong anti-communist point of view throughout his career
What was notable out Richard Pipes' approach?
Critics have written that Pipes wrote at length about what Pipes described as Lenin's unspoken assumptions and conclusions while neglecting what Lenin actually said
How did Richard Pipes answer his critics?
Pipes, in his turn – following the demise of the USSR – charged the revisionists with skewing their research, by means of statistics, to support their preconceived ideological interpretation of events
What was Richard Pipes' advice regarding the USSR?
He argued that the National Intelligence Estimate on the Soviet Union, generated yearly by the CIA, underestimated both Soviet military strategy and ambition, and misinterpreted Soviet strategic intentions

Question: How did the CIA view Pipes?
Self-contained rewrite: How did the CIA view Richard Pipes?