For the period between World War II and the full onset of the Cold
War, histories of American intelligence seem to go dark. Yet in
those years a little known clandestine organization, the Strategic
Services Unit (SSU), emerged from the remnants of wartime American
intelligence to lay the groundwork for what would become the CIA
and, in ways revealed here for the first time, conduct its own
secret warof espionage and political intrigue in postwar Europe.
Telling the full story of this early and surprisingly effective
espionage arm ofthe United States, Spying through a Glass Darkly
brings a critical chapter in the history of Cold War intelligence
out of the shadows. Constrained by inadequate staff and limited
resources, distracted by the conflicting demands of agencies of the
US government,and victimized by disinformation and double agents,
the Strategic Services Unit struggled to maintain an effective
Americanclandestine capability after the defeat of the Axis Powers.
Never viscerally anti-communist, the Strategic Services Unit was
slow torecognize the Soviet Union as a potential threat, but
gradually it began to mount operations, often in collaboration with
the intelligence services of Britain, France, Italy, Denmark, and
Sweden, to throw light into the darker corners of the Soviet
regime. Bringing to bear a wealth of archival documents,
operational records, interviews, and correspondence, David Alvarez
and Eduard Mark chronicle SSU's successes and failures in procuring
intelligence on the capabilities and intentions of the Soviet
Union, a chronicle that delves deeply into the details of secret
operations against Soviet targets throughout Europe: not only in
the backstreets of the divided cities of Berlin and Vienna, but
also the cafes, hotels, offices, and salons of such cosmopolitan
capitals as Paris, Rome, Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw.
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