Showing titles in Intelligence & Espionage

Major Richard J. "Dick" Meadows is renowned in military circles as a key figure in the development of the U.S. Army Special Operations. A highly decorated war veteran of the engagements in Korea and Vietnam, Meadows was instrumental in the founding of the U.S. Delta Force and hostage rescue force. Although he officially retired in 1977, Meadows could never leave the army behind, and he went undercover in the clandestine operations to free American hostages from Iran in 1980.

From the authors who created Eyewitness to World War II and numerous other best-selling reference books, this is the shocking story behind the covert activity that shaped the outcome of one of the world's greatest conflicts - and the destiny of millions of people. National Geographic's landmark book illuminates World War II as never before. Seven narrative chapters reveal the truth behind the lies and deception that shaped the "secret war".

A national bestseller, this extraordinary work of investigative reporting uncovers the identities, and the remarkable stories, of the CIA secret agents who died anonymously in the service of their country. In the entrance of the CIA headquarters looms a huge marble wall into which seventy-one...

In No Mission Is Impossible, Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal return with the intensely absorbing, fast-paced story of 30 of the boldest missions of the Israeli special forces. Bar-Zohar and Mishal depict in electrifying detail major battles, raids in enemy territory, and death-defying commando missions while also sharing the personal stories of both soldiers and top commanders, revealing their hopes and fears. The stories are often of victories, but sometimes they're of immense failures.

A highly entertaining account of a young woman who went straight from her college sorority to the CIA, where she hunted terrorists and WMDs "A thrilling tale...Walder’s fast-paced and intense narrative opens a window into life in two of America’s major intelligence agencies" —Publishers...

In chronicling the adventurous life of legendary CIA operative Edward Lansdale, The Road Not Taken definitively reframes our understanding of the Vietnam War. In this epic biography of Edward Lansdale (1908-1987) best-selling historian Max Boot demonstrates how Lansdale pioneered a "hearts and mind" diplomacy, first in the Philippines, then in Vietnam. It was a visionary policy that, as Boot reveals, was ultimately crushed by America's giant military bureaucracy.

Stalking the Red Bear, for the first time ever, describes the action principally from the perspective of a commanding officer of a nuclear submarine during the Cold War - the one man aboard a sub who makes the critical decisions - taking us closer to the Soviet target than any work on submarine espionage has ever done before. This is the untold story of a covert submarine espionage operation against the Soviet Union during the Cold War as experienced by the commanding officer of an active submarine.

Now, in the first book ever written about this ultrasecretive department, the former director of OTS teams up with an internationally renowned intelligence historian to give listeners an unprecedented look at the devices and operations deemed "inappropriate for public disclosure" by the CIA just two years ago.

From the #1 Amazon bestselling author of Shadows in the Jungle: MACV-SOG's Secret War in Vietnam, a new entry in the Those Who Served series. "The knock usually came after midnight, when villages were at their quietest and the boundary between public life and private fear was thinnest. In a settlement outside Da Nang in 1969, a schoolteacher named Tran Van Loc was taken from his home by men who did not wear standard uniforms. Some were South Vietnamese officials. One was American. They carried a list, and his name appeared on it. Whether that name had been placed there on the basis of ...

Operation Mongoose is the untold story of America’s most relentless covert campaign against Fidel Castro’s Cuba, launched in the bitter aftermath of the Bay of Pigs disaster. What began as a demand for payback became a secret war of sabotage, infiltration, propaganda, and plots—an invisible struggle conducted in the shadows, yet powerful enough to shake the entire Cold War. With vivid narrative clarity, this book takes you behind closed doors where intelligence officers and political leaders convinced themselves that pressure could break a revolution.

This essential, pause-resister narrative on the history of drone warfare by the acclaimed author of Rumsfeld explores how this practice emerged, who made it happen, and the real consequences of targeted killing.

MOSSAD’S NAZI COMMANDO The Shocking True Story of Otto Skorzeny and Israel’s Secret War Against Egypt’s Rocket Program By Gary Covella, Ph.D. A Scar-Faced Nazi. A Nation on the Brink of Annihilation. A Deal with the Devil. What if Israel’s most dangerous Cold War operation did not involve hunting a Nazi—but recruiting one? This is the astonishing, deeply unsettling true story of Otto Skorzeny, Adolf Hitler’s most notorious commando, and the secret alliance that forced Israel to confront the unthinkable in order to survive. A New Existential Threat In the early 1960s, barely ...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Washington’s Spies, the thrilling story of the Confederate spy who came to Britain to turn the tide of the Civil War—and the Union agent resolved to stop him. In 1861, soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, two secret agents—one a...

Kim Philby, the so-called Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring, was the Cold War's most infamous traitor, a Soviet spy at the heart of British intelligence. Philby joined Britain's secret service MI6 during the war and went on to head the section tasked with rooting out Russian spies before becoming the service's chief liaison officer with the CIA. He betrayed hundreds of British and US agents to the Russians and compromised numerous operations inside the Soviet Union.

This is the riveting and extraordinary story of Kapitan Herbert Cleff, presented here for the first time by Brian Brinkworth. Cleff, an officer on the staff of General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma, attached to the 21st Panzer division operating in the Western desert, was captured near El Dab'a in Libya on the sixth of November, 1942. He was interrogated both in the Western Desert and in the United Kingdom, following assessments that led his British captors to believe that he might prove useful to the Allied war effort. During this interrogation period, Cleff kept releasing tantalizing snippets.

How did professional espionage begin? Who built the intelligence services that shaped the modern world? In September 1870, the French army marched confidently toward war with Prussia. Six weeks later, an emperor had surrendered, an empire had fallen, and every military observer in Europe had learned a devastating lesson: the nation that knew more had destroyed the nation that knew less. The Espionage Revolution tells the dramatic story of what happened next—how the great powers transformed intelligence from an amateur gentleman's pursuit into a professional, permanent institution. Driven ...

The National Security Agency is the world's most powerful, most far-reaching espionage organization. Now with a new afterword describing the security lapses that preceded the attacks of September 11, 2001, Body of Secrets takes us to the inner sanctum of America's spy world. In the follow-up to his best-selling Puzzle Palace, James Bamford reveals the NSA's hidden role in the most volatile world events of the past, and its desperate scramble to meet the frightening challenges of today and tomorrow.

A “riveting” (The Economist), “gripping” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) true story of the longest-held prisoner of war in American history, John Downey, Jr., a CIA officer captured in China during the Korean War and imprisoned for twenty-one years. John (Jack) Downey, Jr., was a new...

In Jawbreaker Gary Berntsen, until recently one of the CIA’s most decorated officers, comes out from under cover for the first time to describe his no-holds-barred pursuit of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. With his unique mix of clandestine knowledge and paramilitary training, Berntsen...

Ever since 9/11 America has fought an endless war on terror, seeking enemies everywhere and never promising peace. In Pay Any Price, James Risen reveals an extraordinary litany of the hidden costs of that war: from squandered and stolen dollars, to outrageous abuses of power, to wars on normalcy, decency, and truth. In the name of fighting terrorism, our government has done things every bit as shameful as its historic wartime abuses - and until this audiobook, it has worked very hard to cover them up.