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Agent Sonya |
Operation Mincemeat |
Agent Zigzag |
Rogue Heroes |
Double Cross |
A Spy Among Friends |
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| Customer Reviews |
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| Price | $16.99 | — | $13.30 | $5.00 | $11.91 | $13.08 |
| Uncovers the true story behind the Cold War’s most intrepid female spy | Chronicles the extraordinary story of what happened after British officials planted a dead body behind enemy lines during WWII | Fall into this gripping tale of loyalty, love, and the thin and shifting line between fidelity and betrayal, based on recently declassified World War II files | The incredible untold story of World War II’s greatest secret fighting force—Britain’s Special Air Force | The untold story of one of the greatest deceptions of World War II, and of the extraordinary spies who achieved it | The unbelievable true story of Kim Philby, the Cold War’s most infamous spy |
Benguet Bill –
gifted it for Xmas. well received
thomas butler –
An excellent read on several levels: a dramatic spy story, a real thriller; very informative about the history and methods of cold-war spying; an intensely personal study in the psychology of a competitive, perhaps adrenaline-addicted, patriotic Russian spy who becomes disillusioned with the socio-political system in which he grew up.Two things I want to note in particular. First, MacIntyre does an excellent job of helping us to understand what the psychological toll can be on the psyche of a double agent: long, mundane weeks of waiting between “information drops” and other spy business while carrying on in a seemingly “normal” day job with family, and then days of sustained tension and real (or often imagined!) danger: you never know in this clandestine business whose side your associates and supposed allies are really on. You trust no one and you spend a lot of time thinking about your level of exposure: who is watching or listening and tailing you, and why and when; and what will likely happen to you if you get caught (and it is never good, especially for the Soviet double-crosser). Even though you are a good guy, you have to be ready to lie to everybody, including family, and be really good at it. The spy business and marriage with children don’t really go together, but they are often an unofficial prerequisite to rising in the ranks of spydom: there was no fairy-tale ending to this dramatic story.The second point is the stark difference I saw between the methods, motivations and imagination of the British vs. the Soviet spy services. The Soviets had, by far, the largest espionage network in the world, but the British had the best. The Soviets tortured their own spies if they suspected them of duplicity. The Brits, predictably, were much more civil, even with their own traitors. The British were indeed alert for and would relentlessly pursue the identity of a suspected mole in their midst, but they did not engender the widespread, ongoing paranoia that infected Stalin’s secret police and the later KGB, who routinely tortured and murdered their own traitors. Cooperation and trust we’re hard to come by among the “comrades” in the Soviet service. There was more genuine subsidiarity among the British spy units: inventive solutions to problem could be worked out at a more local level and thus there were more creative and effective responses, with more “team playing.” Finally, the British were more subtle and “invisible” when tailing suspects than were the Soviet “thugs,” who were easy to spot by the trained eye. I think most of the differences I’ve mentioned are attributable to the philosophical and moral differences between the free, Western, socio-political ideology and the totalitarian, communistic, amoral system of economic determinism. What we believe about human freedom and dignity determines how we behave.The author doesn’t necessarily lay out, or even intend, all these observations as explicitly as I have, but he clearly “roots for the right side” in his narrative. At the finish, I was proud to be “on the right side of history.”
David Shulman –
It is not for nothing that John Le Carre noted in a front cover blurb “the best true spy story I have ever read.” Ben Macintyre’s biography of KGB Colonel and MI6 spy Oleg Gordievsky reads like a novel. His description of Gordievsky’s exfiltration from Moscow by MI6 under the watchful eyes of the KGB has all the hallmarks of a tension-packed Hollywood spy drama and that alone is worth the price of the book.The story begins with Gordievsky growing up as the son of a KGB general who becomes disillusioned with life under Soviet communism. He follows in his father’s footsteps and is recruited by the KGB. He is initially stationed in Denmark and there he is willingly recruited by MI6. As he rises in the KGB bureaucracy he become ever more important to the British. Along the way he marries, divorces remarries and has two daughters.Where Gordievsky enters history is when he becomes a senior political officer in the KGB’s London rezindentura in the early 1980s. While there he reports to his MI6 handlers that the Soviets actually believed that the United States was going to launch a first strike on the Soviet Union. So paranoid is KGB head and future general secretary Yuri Andropov that he sets up Operation RYaN to find evidence of plans for a first strike. As in most bureaucracies the KGB spies produce such evidence thereby exacerbating his paranoia. The same thing happened with the CIA when it was ordered to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq twenty years later.Compounding the problem was that at about the same time in 1983 NATO ordered up its massive Able Archer exercise which was a practice drill to deter a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. To the Russians it looked like a precursor to war. It was Gordievsky who tells the British of the Russian fears who then relay that information to the CIA. Several authors have noted that had not both sides deescalated, nuclear war was on the table. Gordievsky’s information to bothThatcher and Reagan was influential in bringing about from the de-escalation.As the Soviet heir apparent, Gorbachev met with Margaret Thatcher in London in 1984. Here Gordievsky’s role is crucial because be briefed both Thatcher and Gorbachev as MI6 spy and KGB political officer on negotiating strategy. The meeting was a big success and Thatcher noted that Gorbachev was a man she could do business with. The end of the Cold War was now more than a pipe dream. Later, after his exfiltration, Gordievsky meets with Reagan to advise him on negotiating strategy for an upcoming meeting with Gorbachev.But wait, what caused Gordievsky to be exfiltrated from Moscow, especially after he was made the Rezident of the KGB’s London office? In very short form the CIA is jealous of MI6 and wants to know who their source is. They soon find out and his name ends up on the desk of Aldrich Ames who was selling secrets to KGB officers in Washington. His betrayal leads to the death of scores of CIA operatives and sources in Russia and ultimately to the KGB investigation of Gordievsky. In Macintyre’s view Ames is a traitor who sold out his country for big bucks and Gordievsky is an honorable spy seeking to better his country.This is a great book that I couldn’t put down and I highly recommend it. As an added plus you learn quite a bit of tradecraft.
tb –
so much detail, all known now 40 years later. i wonder what this era is hiding, we will only knowwhat devious deeds went on while we slept
Supercharged Soldier –
Just some of the finest writing I’ve been privileged to read.
Bob Sly –
Cold War espionage at its finest. It’s hard to believe what we as humans go through to keep our territories safe from each other. The more destructive the weapons, the ,ore we need to get into the minds of those who will them.This was an amazing story, and the writing was spectacular!!!
L. X. Boutis –
A fascinating tale, and a real one. A historic page turner. A compelling argument as to why we should double our efforts to support Ukraine. Hopefully, there will be another “spy” or two that will take Putin down.
Lena Conway –
I was unable to put down this book. It’s more interesting than some fictional spy stories written by le Carre. The author was able to turn a true spy story into an amazing story in a fictionalized way with many historical references that made it a history book about the cold war at the same time. The CIA totally lied about Adrich Ames who provided the Soviets with a list of KGB agents working for the west which included Gordievsky’s name, for money. CIA dropped the ball when Ames had been behaving in a way that the CIA should have fired him or demoted him, but instead, promoted hin that allowed him access to information that killed many, and almost destroyed Gordievsky. As for the MI6 handler of Oleg, he should have told Oleg not to go back to Moscow when he was suddenly summoned. He was greedy for more intelligence than doing the right thing to allow him to defect and protect him and his family. He left it to Gordievsky to decide, which Gordievsky felt obligated to keep spying for MI6, for he discerned the MI6 handler was reluctant to give up on continuing to get high level intelligence from him on the Soviets. It almost got him killed. Then admitted his mistake after the fact. Not professional! Oleg was right not to reveal what he was doing to Leila whom he knew he couldn’t trust her. Though she enjoyed the privilege and freedom in England, at the core, she was a patriotic Soviet citizen, with her father and grandfather having worked for the KGB. This allowed her special privileges as a Russian, making her unable to relate to the repression of all other ordinary Russians. Oleg had amazing instincts about people but made a wrong decision about his handler’s lack of responsibility to protect him. The two British couples who worked at the US embassy in Moscow were the heroes, including the baby. I totally enjoyed this book and wished I had come across it long ago. It’s brilliant!
Laurence R. Bachmann –
The Spy and The Traitor is touted in its subhead as “the greatest espionage story ever told.” That isn’t just publisher hype. The real events and the story of Oleg Gordievsky, KGB officer and diplomat reads like something from a John LeCarre or Robert Ludlum story…except it’s true and marvelously documented. Raised by a father and older brother who both served devotedly and unquestioningly in the KGB (dad worked through Stalin’s purges and survived in the KGB’s precursor agency). Loyalty to the service then would seem to be a given–betraying the agency and its million members (you read that right) would be like sabotaging the family’s business. Yet events and history continue to flummox human expectations.First the invasion of Hungary, then the erection of the Berlin Wall (which Gordievsky was present to see) and finally the brutal crushing of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia all drove this KGB officer further and further away from the party. Exposure to the West in Copenhagen and later in London provided a first hand taste of liberty and freedom. It served as the final push into the eager and eternally grateful arms of his M16 handlers. The double agent provided them with not merely a trove of concrete information but invaluable insight into the workings of the KGB and planning of the Soviet Leadership. It is no exaggeration to say Gordievsky was our Kim Philby. The details of these meetings, contacts, “drops”, etc. and how spies operated from the end WWII until the dissolution of the Soviet empire is fascinating and novelistic in the telling. Gordievsky’s escape or “exfiltration” from the USSR by M16 is nothing short of breathtaking–a Bourne Identity moment.Best of all though is the historical and moral context that gives readers a perspective of events’ meanings. Ben McIntyre is a masterful storyteller and detailed chronicler. He thoroughly but concisely points out the import and value of Grodievsky’s insights–particularly warning the Brits and thereby the Americans that the Soviet leader Yuri Andropov genuinely believed the West was intent upon a first nuclear strike. Appreciating that paranoia can be as perilous as animus, first Thatcher and then Reagan worked to assuage Soviet fears. It was Gordievsky who prepped both sides for successful summits in the 80s and it was he who counseled wisely to neither disband nor include the USSR in the SDI or Star Wars initiative. Rather, ratchet up the pressure and they would go bankrupt trying to keep up, which is precisely what happened.Gordievsky certainly didn’t single handedly end the cold war–there were dozens of events and officials who played a significant role. But Oleg Gordievsky was surely in the first rank of those who made a valuable contribution earning the appreciation of Reagan, Thatcher, the CIA, M16 and yes, QEII (the monarch, not the ocean liner). Best of all, McIntryre doesn’t put a patriotic gloss on his subject’s behavior. What Gordievsky did was of enormous benefit to democracy and the West but it destroyed his marriage, implicated his wife and children as well as family and friends who all paid some price for his defection. In short, his actions both saved and ruined lives and the choices he made can be rightfully regarded as both morally defensible and appalling or enraging to those who knew him. Unsurprisingly, his marriage failed and most Russian friends regard him with disdain and disgust. In the western intelligence community he is a hero.This is terrific, important history and a wonderfully well-told tale. Enjoy!
Charles Scott –
The Spy and the Traitor, by Ben Macintyre, published in 2018, is the definitive, highly informative, non-fictional account of the defection of a senior-level Soviet spy. He decided to go to the West in the summer of 1985 amidst a flurry of political instability and an uncertain future in the Kremlin. The book is jam-packed with significant historical events taking place on a massive global scale, many of which most of us have all but forgotten, if we knew about them at all. For example, Stalin’s purge of 1936-38, the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Soviet suppression of the Spring uprising in Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Britain’s expulsion of 105 key Soviet intelligence officers in 1971. Are we beginning to see a pattern here? Is history repeating itself? It’s like looking at your reflection in a two-way mirror. You see life from “Both Sides, Now,” as in the Joni Mitchell song from many moons ago. Be that as it may, the book depicts interesting, biographical information about some of the most famous (or infamous) spies of the twentieth century from the U.K., the U.S., and the U.S.S.R. An excellent selection of photographs is included, which represents a virtual “Who’s Who” gallery in high-resolution from the shadowy world of cloak and dagger. The book takes you on a virtual tour of the most conservative hot-beds of intrigue you can imagine from around the globe. Make no mistake about it. It’s a no-holds-barred, kiss-and-tell book. You can hardly miss, skimming the pages of this book, if you’re on a fact-finding mission concerning the secretive intelligence community operating with impunity in the 1960’s to the 1990’s. What formerly had been considered classified, closely guarded secrets has suddenly “come alive” and become common knowledge. Shocking! I shiver at the mere thought of another “cold war.” To think that all of these events actually transpired before the advent of super-fast, high-volume storage, internet-accessible personal computers, thumb-drives, and the foggy cloud of securely triple-encrypted data is mind-boggling. “Where is Ed Snowden, when you need him to reset a password?” Most of all, the book provides keen insight into what it takes to make it to the top of the bureaucratic hierarchy in the corporate boardrooms of spy-craft. You are constantly reminded that longevity is never guaranteed in the spy trade. You find out the hard way that building a successful business career in “Her Majesty’s” secret service is definitely no accident. A good spy (and author) can fully describe, characterize, criticize, evaluate, and assess his subject within the space of two or three paragraphs, pointing out all of his flaws, failures, faults, weaknesses, shortcomings, and inadequacies in the process. He knows what he’s up against. He reads his adversaries like a book. He knows their limits. Good luck with that, James! There are ramifications for your actions. You’re either on your way up or on your way out the door, when you mix and mingle with that sort of crowd. R. Royce rode the beach cruiser in a northerly direction to the park proceeding at a pleasant, leisurely pace. He stopped and leaned the bike against the trunk of an old walnut tree, to walk alongside a clear running creek. Oftentimes, he enjoyed reveling in and communing with nature. The weather was warm and sunny, for a winter day. The winds were calm. He noticed the brown paper grocery bag through the branches of a tremendously large, towering maple tree, all camouflaged and concealed by an abundance of leaves. One principal branch had fallen into a great depression in the muddy embankment, due to a lightning strike. It too was covered over with leaves, and partially hidden from the view of prying eyes behind some dense undergrowth and the trunk of a fallen oak. He quickly retrieved the item, then walked back to the bike. He placed the lunch-sack size bag inside the water-proof, rip-stop fabric bike pack which had been velcro-ed on top of the bronze anodized-aluminum rack, affixed to the back of the bike. The metal rack had been firmly attached to the titanium frame with small stainless steel bolts, nuts, and washers, and fit stylishly over the rear wheel. The flat, broad surface of the rack thus placed in this manner had the added advantage of preventing water from spraying up his backside when he rode through water puddles on the sidewalks and in the roadway, much in the same way as a curved metal fender skirting would, but without the narrow space between the tire and the fender becoming clogged up with mud and debris, causing the bike to drag, and not roll as freely, almost effortlessly, as it should. He truly loved the technology, innovation, and ingenuity behind fine craftsmanship. He climbed aboard the cruiser bike, thought about poor “Pee Wee Herman,” and rolled away swiftly downhill. He was elated, and accelerated. It went faster than usual. “Not bad for a day’s work,” said Royce, having returned to the apartment, well-exercised and exhilarated. He verified the contents of the bag, which might have contained sandwiches and cans of soda for an impromptu picnic. Except it didn’t. “Don’t quit your day job,” said Meghan, his constant traveling companion and business associate, seated on a flowery sofa in the living room. “Some people would kill for a ‘Pay-Day’ like this,” he said, taking a bite out of a warm portion of fruitcake, the shape of a candy bar. He began stacking bundles of $100 bills in two neat piles. The total added up precisely to a total of $65,000. “One for me, one for you. One for you, two for me,” she recited. “Fair is fair,” he said. “Who said money doesn’t grow on trees?” “As long as the assignment doesn’t involve extortion, blackmail, or serious bodily injury, we can’t lose,” said Meghan. “Simple arithmetic, security and surveillance are all important,” said Royce. “Today’s task reminds me of the country and western music we heard broadcasted over the public television station airwaves the other night. Two musicians were playing guitars, one acoustic, one electric.” “Their instrumentalist performance was flawless. They sounded absolutely fabulous. One of them sang a song, called ‘The Walk of Life.’ I don’t think I’d exactly call it a recent hit. It sounded more like a popular Cajun tune of the 60’s or 70’s,” said Meghan. “Sticks right in your brain.” Royce pulled out an old guitar case that was “stashed behind the couch,” reminiscent of Glen Campbell, on his way to Arizona. He extracted an old wooden dulcimer and began to strum. She began to hum. She scraped a bottle cap over a corrugated, dull gray, galvanized metal wash-board. Ecstatic, they played their roles to the hilt. “You don’t think, they’ll miss the money, do you?” he asked. “Not really. There’s plenty more where that came from.” she replied, confidently. “Cornelius said he would help the ‘Small-Fry’ out with a safer, more lucrative part-time job. It’s honest work, with incentive pay. The job satisfaction he gains will make it even more rewarding in the long run.” “You’re suggesting that ‘the Rascal’ keeps his job and isn’t incarcerated?” asked Royce. “What are friends for if they can’t bail you out, when you make a drastic error in judgement that has the serious consequences and far-reaching implications of an international incident?” asked Meghan. “Selling public information for the greater common good may not seem to be that big of a deal, in all fairness, when your loyalist customer has an obvious need to know and the means to pay big bucks for it. Yet, as we have learned from past experience, there are more important issues at work in the marketplace than the latest fashion trends.” “However convoluted your logic is, I have to admit that making a fashion statement should be a matter of personal taste and preference,” said Royce, reflecting for a moment on the gravity of the situation. “The affected individual must ultimately, rationally, and creatively decide for himself which role he is to play. Others will judge him accordingly, however wisely, collectively and humanely.” “Finders, keepers,” said Alexis Sue, having been briefed about the operation on the following day. “Losers, weepers!” “Right,” said Cornelius Korn, the most far-sighted and trustworthy member of the group of long-time business associates. “Except, we should have something to trade of equal value, for a win-win situation all the way around.” “They lost their investment capital in a volatile trading day on Wall Street. Our contact in Washington will square the deal. Shall we move on to new business?” asked Royce. He was growing impatient. “Okay, done deal, said Korn. “By the way, do you know anything about the latest fighter jets?” he inquired, casually changing the subject. “Not much,” said Royce. “You’d need a squadron of military pilots to brief you.” “I can’t help you in that department, either,” said Meghan. “I’ve retired and lost my FAA certification.” “In that case, we should stick to strictly civilian pursuits,” said Korn. “Keep a low profile and our feet firmly planted on solid ground.” “Agreed,” said Royce. “I think we’re running low on ammunition, anyway.” “We can always fall back and resume work on our mining interests,” suggested Alexis Sue. “Let’s do it,” said Meghan. “We’re all out of hyper-sonic projectiles.” “We pull the plug on this operation, as of now,” said Korn. “I’ll notify Washington.” “See you back at the ranch,” said Royce.