Overview

In the towering mountains of northern India, a chilling chapter was written in the history of international espionage. After the Chinese detonated their first nuclear test in 1964, America and India, which had just fought a border war with its northern neighbour, were both concerned. The CIA knew it needed more information on China's growing nuclear capability but had few ways of peeking behind the """"Bamboo Curtain"""". Because of the extreme remoteness of Chinese testing grounds, conventional surveillance in this pre-satellite era was next to impossible. The solution to this intelligence dilemma was a joint American-Indian effort to plant a nuclear-powered sensing device on a high Himalayan peak in order to listen into China and monitor its missile launches. It was not a job that could be carried out by career spies, requiring instead the special skills possessed only by accomplished mountaineers. For this mission, cloaks and daggers were to be replaced by crampons and ice axes. This text chronicles the details of these death-defying expeditions sanctioned by US and Indian intelligence, telling the story of clandestine climbs and hair-raising exploits. Led by Indian mountaineer Mohan S. Kohli, conqueror of Everest, the mission was beset by hazardous climbs, weather delays, aborted attempts and even missing radioactive materials that may or may not still pose a contamination threat to Indian rivers. Kept under wraps for over a decade, these operations came to light in 1978 and have been long rumoured among mountaineers. """"Spies in the Himalayas"""" provides an inside look at a CIA mission from participants who weren't agency employees, drawing on diaries from several of the climbers to offer impressions not usually recorded in covert operations. A host of photographs and maps puts readers on the slopes as the team attempts repeatedly to plant the sensor on a Himalayan summit.

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Reviews

A riveting first-hand account of one of the darker moments of Cold War espionage, with plenty of James Bondian flourishes: a CIA-backed spy mission to the roof of the world... snowstorms and deadly frostbite... and a missing nuclear-powered eavesdropping device that threatens to leak lethal contamination into the Ganges. What a ride! Frank Snepp, former CIA agent and author of Decent Interval and Irreparable Harm; A marvelously detailed account of one of the most exotic and hazardous intelligence operations of the Cold War....A rare treat for anyone interested in mountaineering, secret intelligence, or tales of high adventure. William M. Leary, author of Project Coldfeet: Secret Mission to a Soviet Ice Station; A lively and fascinating account that rivals Fleming and le Carre. David Rudgers, author of Creating the Secret State

A riveting first-hand account of one of the darker moments of Cold War espionage, with plenty of James Bondian flourishes: a CIA-backed spy mission to the roof of the world... snowstorms and deadly frostbite... and a missing nuclear-powered eavesdropping device that threatens to leak lethal contamination into the Ganges. What a ride! Frank Snepp, former CIA agent and author of Decent Interval and Irreparable Harm; """"A marvelously detailed account of one of the most exotic and hazardous intelligence operations of the Cold War....A rare treat for anyone interested in mountaineering, secret intelligence, or tales of high adventure."""" William M. Leary, author of Project Coldfeet: Secret Mission to a Soviet Ice Station; """"A lively and fascinating account that rivals Fleming and le Carre."""" David Rudgers, author of Creating the Secret State

A riveting first-hand account of one of the darker moments of Cold War espionage, with plenty of James Bondian flourishes: a CIA-backed spy mission to the roof of the world... snowstorms and deadly frostbite... and a missing nuclear-powered eavesdropping device that threatens to leak lethal contamination into the Ganges. What a ride! Frank Snepp, former CIA agent and author of Decent Interval and Irreparable Harm; A marvelously detailed account of one of the most exotic and hazardous intelligence operations of the Cold War....A rare treat for anyone interested in mountaineering, secret intelligence, or tales of high adventure. William M. Leary, author of Project Coldfeet: Secret Mission to a Soviet Ice Station; A lively and fascinating account that rivals Fleming and le Carre. David Rudgers, author of Creating the Secret State

Author Information

M. S. Kohli, India's most eminent mountaineer, led the successful Everest Expedition of 1965 that put nine men on the summit - a world record that stood for seventeen years. His books include Mountaineering in India and The Himalayas. Kenneth Conboy is a former policy analyst and deputy director at the Heritage Foundation whose other books include The CIA's Secret War in Tibet and Spies and Commandos (see page 28).

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