Download or read book Spymaster written by Tennent H. Bagley and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Tennent Bagley’s Spymaster is the single most revealing book about espionage to emerge from the Cold War.” —Edward Jay Epstein, author of Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA From the dark days of World War II through the Cold War, Sergey A. Kondrashev was a major player in Russia’s notorious KGB espionage apparatus. Rising through its ranks through hard work and keen understanding of how the spy and political games are played, he “handled” American and British defectors, recruited Western operatives as double agents, served as a ranking officer at the East Berlin and Vienna KGB bureaus, and tackled special assignments from the Kremlin. During a 1994 television program about former spymasters, Kondrashev met and began a close friendship with a former foe, ex-CIA officer Tennent H. “Pete” Bagley, whom the Russian asked to help write his memoirs. Because Bagley knew so much about Kondrashev’s career (they had been on opposite sides in several operations), his penetrating questions and insights reveal slices of espionage history that rival anything found in the pages of Ian Fleming, Len Deighton, or John le Carré: chilling tales of surviving Stalin’s purges while superiors and colleagues did not, of plotting to reveal the Berlin tunnel, of quelling the Hungarian Revolution and “Prague Spring” independence movements, and of assisting in arranging the final disposition of the corpses of Adolf Hitler and Evan Braun. Kondrashev also details equally fascinating KGB propaganda and disinformation efforts that shaped Western attitudes throughout the Cold War. Because publication of these memoirs was banned by Putin’s regime, Bagley promised Kondrashev to have them published in the West. They are now available to all who are fascinated by vivid tales of international intrigue. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Download or read book Queen of Spies written by Paddy Hayes and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “fascinating and long overdue” biography reveals the remarkable life of a Baroness who was one of Britain’s most celebrated spies (Washington Post). From living in a shack in Tanzania to becoming Baroness Park of Monmouth, Daphne Park led a most unusual life—one that consisted of a lifelong love affair with the world of Britain’s secret services. In the 1970s, she was appointed to Secret Intelligence Service’s most senior operational rank as one of its seven Area Controllers. In Queen of Spies, Paddy Hayes recounts the evolution of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) from World War II to the Cold War through the eyes of Daphne Park, one of its outstanding and most unusual operatives. It is a fascinating and intimate narrative of how the modern SIS went about its business whether in Moscow, Hanoi, or the Congo, and shows how Park was able to rise through the ranks of a field that had been comprised almost entirely of men. Queen of Spies captures all the paranoia, isolation, and deception of Cold War intelligence work, and combines it with the personal story of one extraordinary woman trying to navigate this secretive world. It is “as exciting as any good spy thriller—but it’s all true” (Kirkus, starred review).
Download or read book The New Spymasters written by Stephen Grey and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The old world of spying that emphasized the human factor--dead letter boxes, microfilm cameras, and an enemy reporting to the Moscow Center--is history. Or is it? In recent times, the spymaster's technique has changed with the enemy. He or she now frequently comes from a culture far removed from Western understanding and is part of a less well-organized group. The new enemy is constantly evolving and prepared to kill the innocent. In the face of this new threat, the spymasters of the world replaced human intelligence with an obsession that focuses on the technical methods of spying, ranging from the use of high-definition satellite photography to the global interception of communications. However, this obsession with technology has failed, most spectacularly, with the devastation of the 9/11 attacks. In this modern history of espionage, Stephen Grey takes us from the CIA's Cold War legends, to the agents who betrayed the IRA, through to the spooks inside Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Techniques and technologies have evolved, but the old motivations for betrayal--patriotism, greed, revenge, compromise--endure. Based on years of research and interviews with hundreds of secret sources, this is an up-to-date exposé that shows how spycraft's human factor is once again being used to combat the world's deadliest enemies.--Adapted from book jacket.
Download or read book Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe written by Valentina Glajar and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2019-08 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Cold War, stories of espionage became popular on both sides of the Iron Curtain, capturing the imagination of readers and filmgoers alike as secret police quietly engaged in surveillance under the shroud of impenetrable secrecy. And curiously, in the post-Cold War period there are no signs of this enthusiasm diminishing. The opening of secret police archives in many Eastern European countries has provided the opportunity to excavate and narrate for the first time forgotten spy stories. Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe brings together a wide range of accounts compiled from the East German Stasi, the Romanian Securitate, and the Ukrainian KGB files. The stories are a complex amalgam of fact and fiction, history and imagination, past and present. These stories of collusion and complicity, betrayal and treason, right and wrong, and good and evil cast surprising new light on the question of Cold War certainties and divides.
Download or read book Spies in the Family written by Eva Dillon and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting true-life thriller and revealing memoir from the daughter of an American intelligence officer—the astonishing true story of two spies and their families on opposite sides of the Cold War. In the summer of 1975, seventeen-year-old Eva Dillon was living in New Delhi with her family when her father was exposed as a CIA spy. Eva had long believed that her father was a U.S. State Department employee. She had no idea that he was handling the CIA’s highest-ranking double agent—Dmitri Fedorovich Polyakov—a Soviet general whose code name was TOPHAT. Dillon’s father and Polyakov had a close friendship that went back years, to their first meeting in Burma in the mid-1960s. At the height of the Cold War, the Russian offered the CIA an unfiltered view into the vault of Soviet intelligence. His collaboration helped ensure that tensions between the two nuclear superpowers did not escalate into a shooting war. Spanning fifty years and three continents, Spies in the Family is a deeply researched account of two families on opposite sides of the lethal espionage campaigns of the Cold War, and two men whose devoted friendship lasted a lifetime, until the devastating final days of their lives. With impeccable insider access to both families as well as knowledgeable CIA and FBI officers, Dillon goes beyond the fog of secrecy to craft an unforgettable story of friendship and betrayal, double agents and clandestine lives, that challenges our notions of patriotism, exposing the commonality between peoples of opposing political economic systems. Both a gripping tale of spy craft and a moving personal story, Spies in the Family is an invaluable and heart-rending work. Spies in the Family includes 25 black-and-white photos.
Download or read book Spymaster written by Oleg Kalugin and published by Basic Books (AZ). This book was released on 2009-03-03 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oleg Kalugin oversaw the work of American spies, matched wits with the CIA, and became one of the youngest generals in KGB history. Even so, he grew increasingly disillusioned with the Soviet system. In 1990, he went public, exposing the intelligence agencyÕs shadowy methods. Revised and updated in the light of the KGBÕs enduring presence in Russian politics, Spymaster is KaluginÕs impressively illuminating memoir of the final years of the Soviet Union.
Download or read book The Unknown Subject written by Gerard Shirar and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2008-06-04 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's been three years since Germany's unconditional surrender, and United States Army Sergeant Rich Hammond remains on duty after originally being drafted in 1942. Exploiting the divisions between East and West Germany, Hammond runs a profitable black market business for drugs, cigarettes, porn-even Spam-as goods remain sparse. But Hammond's dealings make him a perfect target for the Russians in their search for spies. With tensions between the United States and Russia escalating, Hammond is blackmailed into supplying seemingly mundane information. It's a role that suits him, at least while he's still stationed in Germany. When Hammond is shipped back to the States, the stakes begin to rise. The Russians want Hammond as a stateside operative, but Hammond wants that part of his life left in Europe. Unfortunately, he can't shake it off. Only slightly behind Hammond on his trail of treason is Carl Foreman, an officer serving in Army Counterintelligence. As Foreman begins to rise through the ranks, he puzzles together pieces of Hammond's deceptions, even as the trail just seems to become more and more confusing. With the twists and turns of this spy game ever more entangling, discover if Hammond is able to keep Foreman at arm's length-or if the spy will ultimately meet his demise.
Download or read book Spymaster written by Martin Pearce and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I cannot think of a better biography of a spy chief' Richard Davenport-Hines, The Spectator Sir Maurice Oldfield was one of the most important British spies of the Cold War era. _________ A farmer’s son from a provincial grammar school who found himself accidentally plunged into the world of espionage, Sir Maurice was the first Chief of MI6 who didn’t come to the role via the traditional public school and Oxbridge route. Oldfield was the voice of British Intelligence in Washington at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of JFK, and was largely responsible for keeping the UK out of the Vietnam War. Working his way to the top of the secret service, he took on the job of rebuilding confidence in the British Secret Service in the wake of the Philby, Burgess and Maclean spy scandals. This is the fascinating life story, told in detail for the first time, of a complex, likeable character as well as a formidable intelligence chief.
Download or read book Spymaster written by Ted Shackley and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-05-27 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lively and informative . . . It is also a good story of how an operative actually works in the field. -- Military Ted Shackley's comments on CIA operations in Europe, Cuba, Chile, and Southeast Asia and on the life of a high-stakes spymaster will be the subject of intense scrutiny by all concerned with the fields of intelligence, foreign policy, and postwar U.S. history. The death of CIA operative Theodore G. "Ted" Shackley in December 2002 triggered an avalanche of obituaries from all over the world, some of them condemnatory. Pundits used such expressions as "heroin trafficking," "training terrorists," "attempts to assassinate Castro," and "Mob connections." More specifically, they charged him with having played a major role in the Chilean military coup of 1973. But who was the real Ted Shackley? In Spymaster, he has told the story of his entire remarkable career for the first time. With the assistance of fellow former CIA officer Richard A. Finney, he discusses the consequential posts he held in Berlin, Miami, Laos, Vietnam, and Washington, where he was intimately involved in some of the key intelligence operations of the Cold War. During his long career, Shackley ran part of the inter-agency program to overthrow Castro, was chief of station in Vientiane during the CIA's "secret war" against North Vietnam and the Pathet Lao, and was chief of station in Saigon. After his retirement, he remained a controversial figure. In the early eighties, he was falsely charged with complicity in the Iran-Contra scandal.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage Spies and Secret Operations written by R. C. S. Trahair and published by Enigma Books. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 603 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only updated Cold War spy encyclopedia in print.
Download or read book Cold War Spymaster written by Nigel West and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2018-06-30 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The postwar era as seen by a master of counterespionage—with an insight into his professional downfall. Guy Liddell was the director of MI5’s counterespionage B Division throughout the Second World War, during which he wrote a confidential personal diary, detailing virtually every important event with intelligence significance. Those recently declassified diaries, which were edited by Nigel West, have now been followed by a postwar series which covers the period from the German surrender until Liddell’s sudden resignation in May 1953. These eight years contain many disturbing secrets, such as the cache of incriminating Nazi documents which was supposed to be destroyed by the SS. When these were recovered intact, the British government went to considerable lengths to keep them from being disclosed, for they provided proof of the Duke of Windsor’s contact, through a Portuguese intermediary, with the enemy during the crucial period in 1940 when the ex-king declared himself ready to fly back from the Bahamas and be restored to the throne. One of Liddell’s first tasks, at the request of Buckingham Palace, was to retrieve and suppress the damaging material. Liddell’s diaries were never intended for publication—and are filled with indiscretions that shed new light on MI5 investigations he supervised after his promotion to deputy director general. In addition to such behind-the-scenes stories, this book includes details about the end of Liddell’s career and the mistakes that led to it. Despite Liddell’s manifest failings, and his reluctance to believe in the disloyalty of men he regarded as friends, he was probably the single most influential British intelligence officer of his era. “[Nigel West’s] information is often so precise that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret services.” —The Sunday Times
Download or read book Good Hunting written by Jack Devine and published by Sarah Crichton Books. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A sophisticated, deeply informed account of real life in the real CIA that adds immeasurably to the public understanding of the espionage culture—the good and the bad." —Bob Woodward Jack Devine ran Charlie Wilson's War in Afghanistan. It was the largest covert action of the Cold War, and it was Devine who put the brand-new Stinger missile into the hands of the mujahideen during their war with the Soviets, paving the way to a decisive victory against the Russians. He also pushed the CIA's effort to run down the narcotics trafficker Pablo Escobar in Colombia. He tried to warn the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, that there was a bullet coming from Iraq with his name on it. He was in Chile when Allende fell, and he had too much to do with Iran-Contra for his own taste, though he tried to stop it. And he tangled with Rick Ames, the KGB spy inside the CIA, and hunted Robert Hanssen, the mole in the FBI. Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story is the spellbinding memoir of Devine's time in the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served for more than thirty years, rising to become the acting deputy director of operations, responsible for all of the CIA's spying operations. This is a story of intrigue and high-stakes maneuvering, all the more gripping when the fate of our geopolitical order hangs in the balance. But this book also sounds a warning to our nation's decision makers: covert operations, not costly and devastating full-scale interventions, are the best safeguard of America's interests worldwide. Part memoir, part historical redress, Good Hunting debunks outright some of the myths surrounding the Agency and cautions against its misuses. Beneath the exotic allure—living abroad with his wife and six children, running operations in seven countries, and serving successive presidents from Nixon to Clinton—this is a realist, gimlet-eyed account of the Agency. Now, as Devine sees it, the CIA is trapped within a larger bureaucracy, losing swaths of turf to the military, and, most ominous of all, is becoming overly weighted toward paramilitary operations after a decade of war. Its capacity to do what it does best—spying and covert action—has been seriously degraded. Good Hunting sheds light on some of the CIA's deepest secrets and spans an illustrious tenure—and never before has an acting deputy director of operations come forth with such an account. With the historical acumen of Steve Coll's Ghost Wars and gripping scenarios that evoke the novels of John le Carré even as they hew closely to the facts on the ground, Devine offers a master class in spycraft.
Download or read book Spymaster s Prism written by Jack Devine and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Spymaster’s Prism the legendary former spymaster Jack Devine details the unending struggle with Russia and its intelligence agencies as it works against our national security. Devine tells this story through the unique perspective of a seasoned CIA professional who served more than three decades, some at the highest levels of the agency. He uses his gimlet-eyed view to walk us through the fascinating spy cases and covert action activities of Russia, not only through the Cold War past but up to and including its interference in the Trump era. Devine also looks over the horizon to see what lies ahead in this struggle and provides prescriptions for the future. Based on personal experience and exhaustive research, Devine builds a vivid and complex mosaic that illustrates how Russia’s intelligence activities have continued uninterrupted throughout modern history, using fundamentally identical policies and techniques to undermine our democracy. He shows in stark terms how intelligence has been modernized and weaponized through the power of the cyber world. Devine presents his analysis using clear-eyed vision and a repertoire of better-than-fiction spy stories, giving us an objective, riveting, and candid take on U.S.-Russia relations. He offers key lessons from our intelligence successes and failures over the past seventy-five years that will help us determine how to address our current strategic shortfall, emerge ahead of the Russians, and be prepared for what’s to come from any adversary.
Download or read book The Spy in Moscow Station written by Eric Haseltine and published by Thomas Dunne Books. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thrilling, true story of the race to find a leak in the United States Embassy in Moscow—before more American assets are rounded up and killed. Foreword by Gen. Michael V. Hayden (Retd.), Former Director of NSA & CIA In the late 1970s, the National Security Agency still did not officially exist—those in the know referred to it dryly as the No Such Agency. So why, when NSA engineer Charles Gandy filed for a visa to visit Moscow, did the Russian Foreign Ministry assert with confidence that he was a spy? Outsmarting honey traps and encroaching deep enough into enemy territory to perform complicated technical investigations, Gandy accomplished his mission in Russia, but discovered more than State and CIA wanted him to know. Eric Haseltine's The Spy in Moscow Station tells of a time when—much like today—Russian spycraft had proven itself far beyond the best technology the U.S. had to offer. The perils of American arrogance mixed with bureaucratic infighting left the country unspeakably vulnerable to ultra-sophisticated Russian electronic surveillance and espionage. This is the true story of unorthodox, underdog intelligence officers who fought an uphill battle against their own government to prove that the KGB had pulled off the most devastating penetration of U.S. national security in history. If you think "The Americans" isn't riveting enough, you'll love this toe-curling nonfiction thriller.
Download or read book The New Spymasters written by Stephen Grey and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The old world of spying-dead-letter boxes, microfilm cameras, an enemy reporting to the Moscow Center, and a hint of sexual blackmail-is history. The spymaster's technique has changed and the enemy has, too. He or she now frequently comes from a culture far removed from Western understanding and is part of a less well-organized group. The new enemy is constantly evolving and prepared to kill the innocent. In the face of this new threat, the spymasters of the world shunned human intelligence as the primary way to glean clandestine information and replaced it with an obsession that focuses on the technical methods of spying ranging from the use of high-definition satellite photography to the global interception of communications. However, this obsession with technology has failed, most spectacularly, with the devastation of the 9/11 attacks. In this searing modern history of espionage, Stephen Grey takes us from the CIA's Cold War legends, to the agents who betrayed the IRA, through to the spooks inside Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Techniques and technologies have evolved, but the old motivations for betrayal-patriotism, greed, revenge, compromise-endure. Based on years of research and interviews with hundreds of secret sources, Stephen Grey's The New Spymasters is an up-to-date exposé that shows how spycraft's human factor is once again being used to combat the world's deadliest enemies.
Download or read book CIA Spymaster written by Ashley, III, Clarence A. and published by Pelican Publishing. This book was released on 2004-08-31 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE HISTORY BOOK CLUB AND THE MILITARY BOOK CLUB "One of the best behind-the-scenes perspectives on Cold War espionage that I have read." -Francis Gary Powers, founder, The Cold War Museum "When I think of George Kisevalter, I think about one of the finest public servants I have ever known. I think about honor, decency, and integrity. He served in some very important and difficult posts, always with distinction, always making his country and the Agency proud." -George Herbert Walker Bush, president and former CIA director George Kisevalter ran the first key Soviet agent in CIA history, Pyotr Popov, gained the U.S. its first view behind the Iron Curtain, and helped gain information from Soviet colonel Oleg Penkovsky, regarded as the most successful spy in CIA history. This top-secret information proved decisive for Kennedy during the showdown of the Cuban missile crisis. More than a biography, CIA SpyMaster is a glimpse into the mind of an espionage genius, a rare view of what it takes to "live in the black" for years at a time under a fictitious identity, torn from friends and family. It's a behind-the-scenes look at spycraft in action, from dead drops and cutoffs to multilayered ciphers, the KGB's secret "spydust," and everything in between. It is a book of ever-increasing tension and suspense, as the rising stakes of the Cold War endow every act of espionage with utmost importance. During his lifetime, George Kisevalter was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the highest award attainable in the CIA without giving one's life. For his work with Penkovsky, he received a Certificate of Merit with Distinction. Less than two months before his death in 1997, he was selected as one of fifty "unique contributors" in the fifty-year history of the CIA and was presented with the newly established Trailblazers Award, the only case officer ever to be so honored.
Download or read book The Billion Dollar Spy written by David E. Hoffman and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year • Drawing on previously classified CIA documents and on interviews with firsthand participants, The Billion Dollar Spy is a brilliant feat of reporting and a riveting true story of intrigue in the final years of the Cold War. It was the height of the Cold War, and a dangerous time to be stationed in the Soviet Union. One evening, while the chief of the CIA’s Moscow station was filling his gas tank, a stranger approached and dropped a note into the car. The chief, suspicious of a KGB trap, ignored the overture. But the man had made up his mind. His attempts to establish contact with the CIA would be rebuffed four times before he thrust upon them an envelope whose contents would stun U.S. intelligence. In the years that followed, that man, Adolf Tolkachev, became one of the most valuable spies ever for the U.S. But these activities posed an enormous personal threat to Tolkachev and his American handlers. They had clandestine meetings in parks and on street corners, and used spy cameras, props, and private codes, eluding the ever-present KGB in its own backyard—until a shocking betrayal put them all at risk.
