Overview

Here is the ultimate inside history of twentieth-century intelligence gathering and covert activity. Unrivalled in its scope and as readable as any spy novel, A Century of Spies travels from tsarist Russia and the earliest days of the British Secret Service to the crises and uncertainties of today's post-Cold War world, offering an unsurpassed overview of the role of modern intelligence in every part of the globe. From spies and secret agents to the latest high-tech wizardry in signals and imagery surveillance, it provides fascinating, in-depth coverage of important operations of United States, British, Russian, Israeli, Chinese, German, and French intelligence services, and much more. All the key elements of modern intelligence activity are here. An expert whose books have received high marks from the intelligence and military communities, Jeffrey Richelson covers the crucial role of spy technology from the days of Marconi and the Wright Brothers to today's dazzling array of Space Age satellites, aircraft, and ground stations. He provides vivid portraits of spymasters, spies, and defectors--including Sidney Reilly, Herbert Yardley, Kim Philby, James Angleton, Markus Wolf, Reinhard Gehlen, Vitaly Yurchenko, Jonathan Pollard, and many others. Richelson paints a colorful portrait of World War I's spies and sabateurs, and illuminates the secret maneuvering that helped determine the outcome of the war on land, at sea, and on the diplomatic front; he investigates the enormous importance of intelligence operations in both the European and Pacific theaters in World War II, from the work of Allied and Nazi agents to the ""black magic"" of U.S. and British code breakers; and he gives us a complete overview of intelligence during the length of the Cold War, from superpower espionage and spy scandals to covert action and secret wars. A final chapter probes the still-evolving role of intelligence work in the new world of disorder and ethnic conflict, from the high-tech wonders of the Gulf War to the surprising involvement of the French government in industrial espionage. Comprehensive, authoritative, and addictively readable, A Century of Spies is filled with new information on a variety of subjects--from the activities of the American Black Chamber in the 1920s to intelligence collection during the Cuban missile crisis to Soviet intelligence and covert action operations. It is an essential volume for anyone interested in military history, espionage and adventure, and world affairs.

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9780195113907

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Reviews

fascinating history of secret warfare Focus recommended to those seeking to understand contemporary intelligence and the controversies surrounding it. New Scientist

A dispassionate reference work on modern intelligence gathering. Rather than a romantic or riveting story about espionage, Richelson (American Espionage and the Soviet Target, 1987), a senior fellow at the National Security Archive, offers an extended encyclopedia entry detailing the progressively more complex methods countries have devised to steal and conceal their secrets from each other. He traces the development of the 20th century's major spy services, describes many of their important players, chronicles key events in the modern history of espionage, and evaluates governments' use and misuse of intelligence gathering. At times, the book is fascinating almost in spite of itself, as when Richelson describes Stalin's scorn for predictions of the 1941 Nazi attack on the Soviet Union. Mostly, however, his technique of presenting the facts with virtually no commentary or color is stupefying to the layperson. It also seems excessively myopic: For example, the author doesn't tell us whether there was any debate over the morality or legality of America's 1945 recruitment of Nazi spy Reinhard Gehlen, eventual head of West Germany's intelligence service, and he discusses only the narrowest part of the 1986 debate about giving Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan, describing the CIA's concern that the missiles could be traced to the US but ignoring the broader argument over whether Islamic fundamentalists should be trusted with such lethal weapons at all. Other serious omissions include the lack of a chapter on the CIA's secret wars in Central America during the 1980s and the absence of a discussion of the CIA's failure to anticipate the collapse of the Soviet Union. Of value to researchers but little interest to a general readership. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Jeffrey T. Richelson is a Senior Fellow of the National Security Archive and the author of many books on espionage and intelligence, including America's Secret Eyes in Space, The U.S. Intelligence Community, and Sword and Shield: The Soviet Intelligence and Security Apparatus.

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