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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > Espionage & secret services
Any serious study of the Vietnam War would be less than complete without accounting for the CIA's role in that conflict-a role that increased dramatically after the Tet offensive in 1968. We know most of the details of military engagement in Vietnam, given its greater visibility, but until recently clandestine operations have remained shrouded in secrecy. John Sullivan was one of the CIA's top polygraph examiners during the final four years of the war in Vietnam, where he served longer and conducted more lie detector tests than any other examiner and worked with more agents than most of his colleagues. His job was to evaluate the reliability of the agency's information sources, an assignment that gave him a more intimate view of the war than was afforded most other participants. In the first book to be written by such an operative, he tells what it was like to be an agency officer working in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos during those chaotic years, putting a human face on covert operations that helps us better understand why we lost the war. "Of Spies and Lies" traces Sullivan's journey from dedication to disillusionment while serving in Southeast Asia. Although many CIA personnel lived better in Vietnam and made more money than ever before, their actual working conditions hindered effective intelligence gathering. A much larger and far more distressing obstacle, however, was the agency's failure to send its "best and brightest" agents to Southeast Asia. On the contrary, as Sullivan notes, Vietnam became a kind of dumping ground for poor performers, alcoholics, refugees from bad marriages, and other "problem agents." Through anecdotes and inside stories Sullivan provides new insights into CIA culture that debunk the "James Bond" image of clandestine operations and show how in Vietnam the seamier aspects of that culture were allowed to grow even worse. He discusses the roles of the CIA's three most significant players--Ted Shackley, General Charles Timmes, and Tom Polgar--from a more personal perspective than previously available and candidly portrays a rogues' gallery of cheats, scoundrels, and libertines, while also giving due credit to those who fought hard to maintain professional standards. One of the most frank and intimate looks at CIA operations in Vietnam ever published, Of Spies and Lies reveals why the CIA's efforts there were such a failure and allows a more complete assessment of its poor performance in a losing cause.
Spanning decades and continents, from the battlefields of the Balkans to secret nuclear research labs in Iran and embassy grounds in North Korea, this saga begins in 1990. As the United States cobbles together a coalition to undo Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, six US officers are trapped in Iraq with intelligence that could ruin Operation Desert Storm if it is obtained by the brutal Iraqi dictator. Desperate, the CIA asks Poland, a longtime Cold War foe famed for its excellent spies, for help. Just months after the Polish people voted in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Solidarity government in Warsaw sends a veteran ex-Communist spy who'd battled the West for decades to rescue the six Americans. John Pomfret's gripping account of the 1990 cliffhanger in Iraq is just the beginning of the tale about intelligence cooperation between Poland and the United States, cooperation that one CIA director would later describe as "one of the two foremost intelligence relationships that the United States has ever had." Pomfret uncovers new details about the CIA's black site program that held suspected terrorists in Poland after 9/11 as well as the role of Polish spies in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. In the tradition of the most memorable works on espionage, Pomfret's book tells a distressing and disquieting tale of moral ambiguity in which right and wrong, black and white, are not conveniently distinguishable. As the United States teeters on the edge of a new cold war with Russia and China, Pomfret explores how these little-known events serve as a reminder of the importance of alliances in a dangerous world.
This book shows how specific historical events and societal forces within Nigeria transcend the choices its political leaders have made to influence the course of the state's political development. Kalu N. Kalu describes a variety of factors that have contributed to the challenges facing state-building and political institutions in Nigeria. Chief among them are the nature of interest aggregation, the dynamics of conflict, and the patterns of state intervention in matters dealing with secularism, distributive politics, economy, security, and autonomy. Kalu succeeds in constructing a more organic concept of political development in Nigeria by creating a model based on rentier politics that captures the critical relationship between state power and economy. By doing so, he goes beyond current scholarship about Nigeria and demonstrates the need for a restructuring of its institutions, offering insight into an enduring narrative that continues to shape Nigerian politics.
The Intelligence Science Board was chartered in August 2002 and advises the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and senior Intelligence Community leaders on emerging scientific and technical issues of special importance to the Intelligence Community. The mission of the Board is to provide the Intelligence Community with outside expert advice and unconventional thinking, early notice of advances in science and technology, insight into new applications of existing technology, and special studies that require skills or organizational approaches not resident within the Intelligence Community. "Educing information" refers to information elicitation and strategic debriefing as well as to interrogation. Educing Information is a profoundly important book because it offers both professionals and ordinary citizens a primer on the "science and art" of both interrogation and intelligence gathering. It concludes with an annotated bibliography.
This edited volume argues that producers of analysis need to shift from producing static, narrative products to much more dynamic, digitally-based platforms in order to remain competitive and relevant.
When Julia Child arrived in Paris in 1948, 'a six-foot-two-inch, thirty-six-year-old, rather loud and unserious Californian', she barely spoke a word of French and didn't know the first thing about cooking. As she fell in love with French culture - buying food at local markets, sampling the local bistros, and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu - her life began to change forever. We follow her extraordinary transformation from kitchen ingenue to internationally renowned (and internationally loved) expert in French cuisine. Bursting with Child's adventurous and humorous spirit, My Life in France captures post-war Paris with wonderful vividness and charm.
After more than 50 years, some of the secrets behind the post-war kidnappings in Berlin remain classified. Following Second World War, West Berlin residents found themselves as prime targets for kidnapping by communist agents. Lurid press accounts of these abductions left Berliners frightened and intimidated. The central connection of American intelligence agencies (CIC, CIA) to most of these cases, however, was not well known at the time. Delving into these various kidnapping cases, Smith discovers a distinct profile for the abductees. Almost all were former residents of East Germany and, as such, had an intelligence value for the Americans. This connection in turn made them prime targets for Soviet and East German intelligence units. Examination of the climate of fear in West Berlin reveals the complexity of politics in the early Cold War. Many targeted individuals had Nazi pasts-a factor that the Americans took great pains to conceal. At one point, the United States even risked a diplomatic rupture with West Germany when American authorities went so far as to block prosecutions of a German citizen in German courts for aiding in the kidnapping of a number of West Berliners. Exactly why Washington was so willing to go to extreme lengths in this case remains unknown, but Smith's research sheds new light on the clash between East and West in one troubled city.
The book relates to understanding the growing importance of aerospace power in modern warfare, including integration of air and space which has truly become the new theatre of war. The unifying space dimension will remain the single most important source for information and communication which can be used in multiple forms. It is an attempt to focus on China's evolving military strategy with emphasis on the aerospace dimension and its implications in the region, specifically in the Indian context. Initially, the book attempts to analyse the strategic importance of the rising economic, political and military stature of China with a view to understand its regional and global implications in the military domain. China, in recent times, has time and again demonstrated its resolve to defend its security interests at all costs. For over three decades, China has been modernising its strategic and nuclear capabilities besides developing new and complex military platforms that would be of great value to joint operations warfare. The current decade through 2020 will prove critical to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as it attempts to integrate many new and complex platforms, and to adopt modern operational concepts, including network-centric warfare. Besides undertaking a comprehensive modernisation of its armed forces, China is developing a series of offensive space capabilities while advocating the peaceful use of outer space. In the later part, the book highlights the transformation of China's aerospace power. The PLA Air Force (PLAAF) appears to be well on its way to becoming a modern, highly capable air force for the 21st century. China's latest combat aircraft, the J-20, highlights China's ambition to produce a fighter aircraft that incorporates stealth attributes, advanced avionics, and super-cruise capable engines over the next several years. China's aviation industry is developing several types of Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. PLAAF exercises have demonstrated that its role has changed from support to ground forces to being able to conduct operations independently. It is actively trying to imbibe better training programmes and has increased joint training with other air forces in the recent years. Induction of the aircraft carrier Liaoning in September 2012 highlights China's growing maritime interests and power projection capabilities. The book will be of immense value both for the readers of the countries in the immediate neighbourhood of China and the strategic community in general since the rise of China and other major Asian players, including India, will shape the strategic international environment in the coming decades of this century.
Turkish Intelligence and the Cold War examines the hitherto unexplored history of secret intelligence cooperation between three asymmetric partners - specifically the UK, US and Turkey - from the end of the Second World War until the Turkey's first military coup d'etat on 27 May 1960. The book shows that our understanding of the Cold War as a binary rivalry between the two blocs is too simple an approach and obscures important characteristics of intelligence cooperation among allies. Egemen Bezci shows that a pragmatic approach offers states new opportunities to protect national interests, by conducting ''intelligence diplomacy' to influence crucial areas such as nuclear weapons and to exploit cooperation in support of their own strategic imperatives. This study not only reveals previously-unexplored origins of secret intelligence cooperation between Turkey and West, but also contributes to wider academic debates on the nature of the Cold War by highlighting the potential agency of weaker states in the Western Alliance.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year 2020 A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year 2020 'The Putin book that we've been waiting for' Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland 'Books about modern Russia abound ... Belton has surpassed them all. Her much-awaited book is the best and most important on modern Russia' The Times A chilling and revelatory expose of the KGB's renaissance, Putin's rise to power, and how Russian black cash is subverting the world. In Putin's People, former Moscow correspondent and investigative journalist Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and his entourage of KGB men seized power in Russia and built a new league of oligarchs. Through exclusive interviews with key inside players, Belton tells how Putin's people conducted their relentless seizure of private companies, took over the economy, siphoned billions, blurred the lines between organised crime and political powers, shut down opponents, and then used their riches and power to extend influence in the West. In a story that ranges from Moscow to London, Switzerland and Trump's America, Putin's People is a gripping and terrifying account of how hopes for the new Russia went astray, with stark consequences for its inhabitants and, increasingly, the world. 'A fearless, fascinating account ... Reads at times like a John le Carre novel ... A groundbreaking and meticulously researched anatomy of the Putin regime, Belton's book shines a light on the pernicious threats Russian money and influence now pose to the west' Guardian
Everybody spied on everybody else during the Cold War. France had agents in the U.S., China had agents in East Germany, Poland had agents in Great Britain, and the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had agents everywhere—in governments, in industry, in the military, and within each other's, and their own, intelligence agencies. A-Z entries provide a fascinating glimpse into the subterranean world, events, people and operations of the Cold War. Cold War espionage was a nightmare of errors, seen darkly in a wilderness of mirrors, raining desperate deceptions in a climate of treason, with assassins trading in treachery using hidden hands running invisible governments. As fascinating as it was lethal, this labyrinthian world is still masked in mystery. A good amount is known and knowable, however, and this encyclopedia offers up the latest and most up to date information available, drawn from scholarship, memoirs, and journalism. Everybody spied on everybody else during the Cold War. France had agents in the U.S., China had agents in East Germany, Poland had agents in Great Britain, and the United States and the U.S.S.R. had agents everywhere: in governments, in industry, in the military, and within each other's, and their own, intelligence agencies. A-Z entries provide a fascinating glimpse into the subterranean world, events, people and operations of the Cold War. Close to 300 hundred entries provide vivid summaries of hazardous careers, both long and tragically brief, of betrayal and double-cross, and of diplomatic maneuvering so freighted with deception and cunning it sometimes seems unreal. Every entry concludes with suggested readings, and is thoroughly cross-referenced. A thematic guide quickly directs users to Affairs, Crises, Disasters, Hoaxes and Scandals; Agents of Influence, Spies, Spymasters, and Informants by nationality; Assassins and Assassinations; Covert Operations; Defectors to the East and West; Double Agents, Fictional Agents and Operations; Honeytraps; Spy Exchanges; Victims of Covert Operations; and Women Spies and Agents. It contains an extensive annotated chronology, and is thoroughly indexed. This encyclopedia will be immensely helpful to students and researchers of the seamier side of 20th century world history, Cold War history, and world politics.
Facing the threats posed by dedicated suicide bombers who have access to modern technology for mass destruction and who intend to cause maximum human suffering and casualties, democratic governments have hard choices to make. On the one hand, they must uphold the basic values of democratic societies based on due process and human rights. On the other, they need to pre-empt the kind of destruction inflicted upon New York, Madrid, London, and Bali. The premise of this book is that for intelligence organizations to be able to face up to the challenges of global terrorism, they must think outside the box and utilize all of their resources effectively and creatively. To overcome the enemy, we must also secure the peace. Winning the hearts and minds of the terrorists' pool of potential recruits will be essential to cutting off the supply of suicide bombers. The support and cooperation of the people in countries where the terrorists strike must be sustained by ensuring they have confidence in the government and intelligence services. If a government and its intelligence services become so focused on pre-empting terrorist attacks that they infringe on the rights of their citizens and encroach on democratic norms, they unwittingly fall into a trap set by Al Qaeda and its kind. These organizations aim to destroy the democratic way of life so cherished in the West, and to incite the Muslim populations in democratic countries and their non-Muslim fellow citizens into a vicious circle of mutual hatred and violence. This book therefore addresses not only the question of how intelligence organizations can improve their efficacy in pre-empting terrorist outrages, but also the wider issue of removing the forces that sustain global terrorism as a scourge of the 21st century. The general public in the target countries and recruiting grounds must also be persuaded that—despite their rhetoric—the terrorists are not engaged in a holy war. Ultimately, the brand of global terrorism promoted by Osama bin Laden and his associates is meant to satisfy their own vanity and aspirations toward semi-divine status; the organization they have formed for this purpose is merely a global syndicate that commits serious crimes of a particularly heinous nature. Intelligence services of various countries need to find convincing evidence to prove this point. But it is up to governments, civil society, and the media in different parts of the world to work together if the evidence unearthed by national intelligence services is to be accepted by the general public. Unless the emotional or quasi-religious appeal of the global terrorists can be removed, the simple arrest of bin Laden and his close associates—or even the destruction of Al Qaeda as an organization—will not be sufficient to prevent others from rising to replace them.
Growing up in Germany, Freddy Mayer witnessed the Nazis' rise to power. When he was sixteen, his family made the decision to flee to the United States - they were among the last German Jews to escape, in 1938. In America, Freddy tried enlisting the day after Pearl Harbor, only to be rejected as an "enemy alien" because he was German. He was soon recruited to the OSS, the country's first spy outfit before the CIA. Freddy, joined by Dutch Jewish refugee Hans Wynberg and Nazi defector Franz Weber, parachuted into Austria as the leader of Operation Greenup, meant to deter Hitler's last stand. He posed as a Nazi officer and a French POW for months, dispatching reports to the OSS via Hans, holed up with a radio in a nearby attic. The reports contained a gold mine of information, provided key intelligence about the Battle of the Bulge, and allowed the Allies to bomb twenty Nazi trains. On the verge of the Allied victory, Freddy was captured by the Gestapo and tortured and waterboarded for days. Remarkably, he persuaded the region's Nazi commander to surrender, completing one of the most successful OSS missions of the war. Based on years of research and interviews with Mayer himself, whom the author was able to meet only months before his death at the age of ninety-four, Return to the Reich is an eye-opening, unforgettable narrative of World War II heroism.
How can the United States guard against a clever unknown enemy while still preserving the freedoms it holds dear? Hulnick explains the need to revamp U.S. intelligence operations from a system focused on a single Cold War enemy to one offering more flexibility in combating non-state actors (including terrorists, spies, and criminals) like those responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001. Offering possible solutions not to be found in the federal commission's official report, Hulnick's groundbreaking work examines what is really necessary to make intelligence and homeland security more efficient and competent, both at within the United States and abroad. The U.S. government's progress in establishing a system for homeland security is considerable, yet, besides shifts in alert status, most U.S. residents are unaware of the work being done to keep them safe. Describing the system already in place, Hulnick adds further ideas about what more is needed to protect Americans in the ever-changing world of intelligence. To create a truly valuable program, it is suggested the the United States consider not only new strategies and tactics, but also the need to break down the barriers between intelligence agencies and law enforcement.
The episode of the opportunistic valet of Britain's ambassador to neutral Turkey during World War II--dubbed Cicero for the eloquence of the top-secret material he appropriated from his employer Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen and sold to the Nazis--is a staple of intelligence lore. Yet this remarkable and sometimes comical story has often been recounted with little regard for the facts, most prominently in the popular film "Five Fingers." Now, historian and former intelligence officer Richard Wires presents the first full and objective account of the Cicero spy episode, offering closure to past discrepancies and credible solutions to remaining mysteries. Copiously documented, "The Cicero Spy Affair" provides readers with the true chronology of events and places them in an international context. It is a story set in the hotbed of intrigue that was wartime Turkey, replete with a dramatic car chase, a series of colorful mistresses ever loyal to their lover the spy, and an old-school British ambassador whose documents are photographed at night as he plays the piano in the drawing room and/or slips into a sleeping pill-induced slumber. Despite the affair's amusing aspects, it is also a sobering tale in which there are no winners and from which there are serious lessons to be learned. Germany never made use of the highly sensitive British documents it obtained during this crucial four-month period of the war because the handling of the information was caught up in a bitter and wasteful personal rivalry between Ribbentrop and Schellenberg. It was sheer luck for the British that their war effort did not sustain any significant damage. For, while the book states definitively that security regarding the Allied invasion of Normandy was not breached in the Cicero affair, Germany did gain a potential advantage concerning campaigns in the Aegean and the Balkans. This embarrassed the British greatly, especially since Cicero walked away a free man. However, the greedy valet--the most highly paid spy in history at that time--did not achieve his goals, either; he discovered some years later that the British banknotes he insisted on as payment were counterfeited by the Germans as part of a larger counterfeiting project. Cicero died a desperate man, deeply in debt--a fitting anticlimax for an espionage episode resulting in neither bodily injury nor strategic impact, but in humiliation on all sides.
A unique exploration into the fascinating world of human and technological espionage, its contributions to national security, and its vital role in global politics. Espionage: A Reference Handbook illuminates the murky underworld of espionage and counterespionage efforts in the United States and around the world. Combining an academic treatment of the causes and forces that shape espionage with narrative accounts of how spying and spy catching are conducted, this is the only work of its kind to cover Benedict Arnold, J. Edgar Hoover, the CIA, the KGB, and Jay Pollard, all in one volume. Though special attention is focused on the American experience, British, Soviet, and Israeli cases are presented, along with recent world events of terrorism and ethnic conflict, providing a unique comparative perspective on the international forces behind spying.
Although China s intelligence activities may not have been well documented, they can be traced back to the ancient writings of Sun Tzu, and espionage has been a characteristic of Chinese domestic politics and international relations ever since. The People s Republic of China has long engaged in espionage, but relatively little is known about Chinese techniques, methodology, personnel, and organizations in comparison with what the West has learned about other more conventional intelligence agencies that conduct operations across the world. Whereas most intelligence services have suffered damaging defections, the number of Ministry of State Security professionals who have switched sides is relatively small, further limiting outside knowledge. The Historical Dictionary of Chinese Intelligence covers the history of Chinese Intelligence from 400 B.C. to modern times. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and an index. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on the agencies and agents, the operations and equipment, the tradecraft and jargon, and many of the countries involved. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Chinese Intelligence."
In 1987, former naval intelligence officer Jonathan Jay Pollard was
sentenced to life in prison for passing classified information to
the Israelis-the only person ever to be so severely punished for
spying on behalf of an American ally. Why was his sentence so
harsh? This fascinating, intensively researched book, by
investigative journalist Elliot Goldenberg, finally reveals the
whole story. After numerous interviews with top intelligence
operatives and government insiders, Goldenberg is able to make a
strong case that Pollard's sentence was not due to the severity of
the damage he inflicted on the security of the United States,
contrary to assertions by the Justice Department and the Pentagon.
His greatest crime, Goldenberg insists, was that Pollard
inadvertently stumbled upon and threatened to expose secret
dealings between President Reagan's most-trusted advisors and
Saddam Hussein. Pollard, realizing how much of a threat this might
mean to Israeli security, took it upon himself to pass on vital
information regarding these U.S.-Iraqi dealings to Israeli
security. Pollard's information eventually helped Israel target
Iraqi military establishments for strikes during the Gulf War.
'Cyber-War' provides a critical assessment of current debates around the likelihood and impact of cyber warfare. Approaching the subject from a socio-political angle, it argues that destructive cyber war has not yet been seen, but could be a feature of future conflict. |
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