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Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself--While the Rest of Us Die
By Garrett M. Graff. 2017
The eye-opening true story of the government’s secret plans to survive and rebuild after a catastrophic attack on US soil—a…
narrative that span from the dawn of the nuclear age to today. Every day in Washington, DC, the blue-and-gold 1st Helicopter Squadron, code-named “MUSSEL,” flies over the Potomac River. As obvious as the presidential motorcade, the squadron is assumed by most people to be a travel perk for VIPs. They’re only half right: while the helicopters do provide transport, the unit exists to evacuate high-ranking officials in the event of a terrorist or nuclear attack on the capital. In the event of an attack, select officials would be whisked by helicopters to a ring of secret bunkers around Washington, even as ordinary citizens are left to fend for themselves. For sixty years, the US government has been developing secret Doomsday plans to protect itself, and the multibillion-dollar Continuity of Government (COG) program takes numerous forms—from its plans to evacuate the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia and our most precious documents from the National Archives to the plans to launch nuclear missiles from a Boeing 747 jet flying high over Nebraska. In Raven Rock, Garrett Graff sheds light on the inner workings of the 650-acre compound (called Raven Rock) just miles from Camp David, as well as dozens of other bunkers the government built its top leaders during the Cold War, from the White House lawn to Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado to Palm Beach, Florida, and the secret plans that would have kicked in after a Cold War nuclear attack to round up foreigners and dissidents, and nationalize industries. Equal parts a presidential, military, and political history, Raven Rock tracks the evolution of the government’s plans and the threats of global war from the dawn of the nuclear era through the present day. Relying upon thousands of pages of once-classified documents, as well as original interviews and visits to former and current COG facilities, Graff brings readers through the back channels of government to understand exactly what is at stake if our nation is attacked, and how we’re prepared to respond if it is.A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma Of Donald Maclean
By Roland Philipps. 2018
The first full biography of one of the twentieth century’s most notorious spies. Donald Maclean was one of the most…
treacherous spies of the Cold War era and a key member of the infamous "Cambridge Five" spy ring, yet the full extent of this shrewd, secretive man’s betrayal has never been explored—until now. Drawing on a wealth of previously classified files and unseen family papers, A Spy Named Orphan meticulously documents his extraordinary story. Roland Philipps unravels Maclean’s character and contradictions, informed by a domineering father in a childhood at once liberal and austere. Maclean became infatuated with Communism during his school days, even before his time at Cambridge. A model diplomat, he rose through the ranks of the British Foreign Office rapidly, never arousing suspicion of his chilling double life. He married an American woman despite his sexual ambivalence and increasing antipathy to the United States. He was prone to alcoholic binges that should have blown his cover, yet they never found their way onto his record. A sworn enemy of capitalism, he had access to some of the greatest secrets of the time, transmitting invaulable intelligence to his Soviet handlers on the atom bomb and the shape of the postwar world. Maclean was a spy who loved and loathed the role. In a brazen escapade, he successfully eluded the incredulous authorities to defect to the Soviet Union, where he worked and lived unrepentantly for the next thirty years. Philipps offers memorable portraits of Maclean’s coconspirators—Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, and Anthony Blunt—as well as the gifted Russian spymasters of the period; a vibrant evocation of Cambridge and London between the wars; colorful descriptions of Maclean’s postings in Paris, Cairo, and Washington, D.C.; and a riveting re-creation of the tense international code-breaking operation that ultimately exposed him. A gripping tale of blind faith and fierce loyalty alongside dangerous duplicity and human vulnerability, Philipps’s narrative will stand as the definitive account of the mysterious and elusive man first codenamed "Orphan."The Five Disciplines of Intelligence Collection
By Mark M. Lowenthal, Robert M. Clark. 2016
Leading intelligence experts Mark M. Lowenthal and Robert M. Clark bring you an all new, groundbreaking title. The Five Disciplines…
of Intelligence Collection describes, in non-technical terms, the definition, history, process, management, and future trends of each intelligence collection source (INT). Authoritative and non-polemical, this book is the perfect teaching tool for classes addressing various types of collection. Chapter authors are past or current senior practitioners of the INT they discuss, providing expert assessment of ways particular types of collection fit within the larger context of the U.S. Intelligence Community.The Five Disciplines of Intelligence Collection
By Mark M. Lowenthal, Robert M. Clark. 2016
Leading intelligence experts Mark M. Lowenthal and Robert M. Clark bring you an all new, groundbreaking title. The Five Disciplines…
of Intelligence Collection describes, in non-technical terms, the definition, history, process, management, and future trends of each intelligence collection source (INT). Authoritative and non-polemical, this book is the perfect teaching tool for classes addressing various types of collection. Chapter authors are past or current senior practitioners of the INT they discuss, providing expert assessment of ways particular types of collection fit within the larger context of the U.S. Intelligence Community.True Believer: Stalin's Last American Spy
By Kati Marton. 2016
This astonishing real-life spy thriller, filled with danger, misplaced loyalties, betrayal, treachery, and pure evil, with a plot twist worthy…
of John le Carré, is relevant today as a tale of fanaticism and the lengths it takes us to.True Believer reveals the life of Noel Field, an American who betrayed his country and crushed his family. Field, once a well-meaning and privileged American, spied for Stalin during the 1930s and '40s. Then, a pawn in Stalin's sinister master strategy, Field was kidnapped and tortured by the KGB and forced to testify against his own Communist comrades. How does an Ivy League-educated, US State Department employee, deeply rooted in American culture and history, become a hardcore Stalinist? The 1930s, when Noel Field joined the secret underground of the International Communist Movement, were a time of national collapse: ten million Americans unemployed, rampant racism, retreat from the world just as fascism was gaining ground, and Washington--pre FDR--parched of fresh ideas. Communism promised the righting of social and political wrongs and many in Field's generation were seduced by its siren song. Few, however, went as far as Noel Field in betraying their own country. With a reporter's eye for detail, and a historian's grasp of the cataclysmic events of the twentieth century, Kati Marton captures Field's riveting quest for a life of meaning that went horribly wrong. True Believer is supported by unprecedented access to Field family correspondence, Soviet Secret Police records, and reporting on key players from Alger Hiss, CIA Director Allen Dulles, and World War II spy master, "Wild Bill" Donovan--to the most sinister of all: Josef Stalin. A story of another time, this is a tale relevant for all times.War in the Shadows: Resistance, Deception and Betrayal in Occupied France
By Patrick Marnham. 2020
In 1962 the young Patrick Marnham set off by car for a small village in central France. There he was…
taught French by an imperious countess, who he later discovered had fought in the Resistance until, betrayed, she was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. On the very same day that his hostess&’s network was broken, Jean Moulin, de Gaulle&’s delegate as head of the combined Resistance forces, was arrested in Lyons, where he was tortured by Klaus Barbie before dying in Gestapo custody. Was this coincidence, or were these events connected? The anonymous letter writer suggested a key to the mystery. Using a knowledge of France gained from 12 years as the Independent&’s Paris correspondent, and subsequent research in archives in England and France, Marnham set out to discover the truth about the betrayal of the old lady who had become his tutor and friend. Following a trail leading from London through Occupied Europe to the rank and file Resistance in lost corners of France, he has unravelled the story of a complex wartime deception, involving British, American and French intelligence services. The War in the Shadows shines a light on the brutality and cynicism of the Secret War and reveals how it was actually fought. The result is a story of ruthless double-dealing worthy of John le Carré, but with this difference: it is not a fiction.Intelligence Analysis in the Digital Age (Studies in Intelligence)
By Stig Stenslie; Lars Haugom; Brigt Harr Vaage. 2022
This book examines intelligence analysis in the digital age and demonstrates how intelligence has entered a new era. While intelligence…
is an ancient activity, the digital age is a relatively new phenomenon. This volume uses the concept of the "digital age" to highlight the increased change, complexity, and pace of information that is now circulated, as new technology has reduced the time it takes to spread news to almost nothing. These factors mean that decision-makers face an increasingly challenging threat environment, which in turn increases the demand for timely, relevant, and reliable intelligence to support policymaking. In this context, the book demonstrates that intelligence places greater demands on analysis work, as the traditional intelligence cycle is no longer adequate as a process description. In the digital age, it is not enough to accumulate as much information as possible to gain a better understanding of the world. To meet customers’ needs, the intelligence process must be centred around the analysis work – which in turn has increased the demand for analysts. Assessments, not least predictions, are now just as important as revealing someone else’s secrets. This volume will be of much interest to students of intelligence studies, security studies, and international relations.Agent Jack: The True Story of MI5's Secret Nazi Hunter
By Robert Hutton. 2018
'Highly readable' Ben Macintyre'Pacy, original and frequently chilling' Henry HemmingJune 1940. Britain is Europe's final bastion of freedom - and…
Hitler's next target. But not everyone fears a Nazi invasion. In factories, offices and suburban homes are men and women determined to do all they can to hasten it.Throughout the Second World War, Britain's defence against the enemy within was Eric Roberts, a former bank clerk from Epsom. Equipped with an extraordinary ability to make people trust him, he was recruited into the shadowy world of espionage by the great spymaster Maxwell Knight. Roberts penetrated first the Communist Party and then the British Union of Fascists, before playing his greatest role for MI5 - as Hitler's man in London. Codenamed Jack King, he single-handedly built a network of hundreds of British Nazi sympathisers, with many passing secrets to him in the mistaken belief that he was a Gestapo officer. Operation Fifth Column, run by a brilliant woman scientist and a Jewish aristocrat with a sideline in bomb disposal, was kept so secret it was omitted from the reports MI5 sent to Winston Churchill. In a narrative that grips like a thriller, Robert Hutton tells the fascinating story of an operation whose existence has only recently come to light. Drawing on newly declassified documents and private family archives, Agent Jack shatters the comfortable notion that Britain could never have succumbed to fascism, and celebrates - at last - the courage of individuals who protected the country they loved at great personal risk.The Bridge in the Parks: The Five Eyes and Cold War Counter-Intelligence
By Dennis G. Molinaro. 2021
Established in the 1940s, the Five Eyes intelligence network consists of Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.…
The alliance was integral to shaping domestic and international security decisions during the Cold War, yet much of the intelligence history of these countries remains unknown. In The Bridge in the Parks, intelligence scholars from across the Five Eyes come together to present case studies detailing the varied successes and struggles their countries experienced in the world of Cold War counter-intelligence. The case studies draw on newly declassified documents on a variety of topics, including civil liberties, agent handling, wiretapping, and international relations. Collectively, these studies highlight how Cold War intelligence history is more nuanced than it has often been portrayed – and much like in the world of intelligence, nothing is ever entirely as it seems.The Divine Miss Marble: A Life of Tennis, Fame, and Mystery
By Robert Weintraub. 2020
The story of 1930s tennis icon Alice Marble, and her life of sports, celebrity, and incredible mystery. Who was…
Alice Marble? In her public life, she was the biggest tennis star of the pre-war era, a household name like Joe DiMaggio and Joe Louis. She was famous for overcoming serious illness to win the biggest tournaments, including Wimbledon. She was also a fashion designer and trendsetter, a contributor to a pioneering new comic called Wonder Woman—and friend to the biggest names in Hollywood and society, like Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, and members of families named Bloomingdale, Loew, and du Pont. She helped integrate tennis with her support of Althea Gibson, and even coached two young women who became stars in their own right: Billie Jean King and Sally Ride. Yet her private life provoked constant speculation while she was alive, and her own memoirs added layers of legend upon stories. According to Alice, she married a man who was killed in the skies over Europe during World War II. But who was the man she loved, and had he even existed? She was widely known for her patriotism during World War II. Had she really nearly given her life for her country as a spy, shot during a wild car chase fleeing foreign espionage agents? In The Divine Miss Marble, bestselling author Robert Weintraub traveled the country to uncover her fascinating story. And the more he learned about her, the more her mysteries and contradictions deepened. Alice was a powerful woman who knew her worth, demanding equal pay to men decades earlier than other female athletes; yet she was held in sway by a domineering, highly successful coach with whom she had a volatile relationship. She was renowned for her California style, and had a brilliant mind and the guts to overcome a lifetime of physical trauma. For the first time here, we come closer than ever before to the truths of this unforgettable life, and somehow it&’s a story even more extraordinary than everything we already know about the divine Alice Marble.This book contends that modern concerns surrounding the UK State’s investigation of communications (and, more recently, data), whether at rest…
or in transit, are in fact nothing new. It evidences how, whether using common law, the Royal Prerogative, or statutes to provide a lawful basis for a state practice traceable to at least 1324, the underlying policy rationale has always been that first publicly articulated in Cromwell’s initial Postage Act 1657, namely the protection of British ‘national security’, broadly construed. It further illustrates how developments in communications technology led to Executive assumptions of relevant investigatory powers, administered in conditions of relative secrecy. In demonstrating the key role played throughout history by communications service providers, the book also charts how the evolution of the UK Intelligence Community, entry into the ‘UKUSA’ communications intelligence-sharing agreement 1946, and intelligence community advocacy all significantly influenced the era of arguably disingenuous statutory governance of communications investigation between 1984 and 2016. The book illustrates how the 2013 ‘Intelligence Shock’ triggered by publication of Edward Snowden’s unauthorized disclosures impelled a transition from Executive secrecy and statutory disingenuousness to a more consultative, candid Executive and a policy of ‘transparent secrecy’, now reflected in the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. What the book ultimately demonstrates is that this latest comprehensive statute, whilst welcome for its candour, represents only the latest manifestation of the British state’s policy of ensuring protection of national security by granting powers enabling investigative access to communications and data, in transit or at rest, irrespective of location.Putin's Playbook: Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America
By Rebekah Koffler. 2021
"A page-turner dripping with facts and conclusions that gives us clarity few have attained; a must-read for those who want…
to understand [Russia and President Putin]….&” —GENERAL PHIL BREEDLOVE, USAF (Ret.), seventeenth Supreme Allied Commander Europe "Putin&’s Playbook will make readers see the urgency of developing a counterstrategy to the brilliance of Putin&’s playbook.&” —NEWT GINGRICH Russia&’s Secret Plan to Defeat America The &“Russian collusion&” hoax not only poisoned American politics but also sowed confusion about the real Russian threat to the United States. President Vladimir Putin wasn&’t colluding with the Trump campaign, but as a former U.S. intelligence specialist makes clear in this eye-opening book, the judo-loving ex–KGB agent most certainly has a plan to defeat the United States Born and raised in the Soviet Union, Rebekah Koffler came to America as a young woman. After 9/11, she joined the Defense Intelligence Agency, devoting her career to protecting her new country. Now she reveals in chilling detail Putin&’s long-range plan— his &“playbook&”—to weaken and subdue the United States, preparing for the war that he believes is inevitable. With the insight of a native, Koffler explains how Russians, formed by centuries of wartorn history, understand the world and their national destiny. The collapse of the Soviet empire, which Putin experienced as a vulnerable KGB agent in East Germany, was a catastrophic humiliation. Seeing himself as the modern &“Czar Vladimir&” of a unique Slavic nation at war with the West, he is determined to restore Russia to its place as a great power. Koffler&’s analysis is enriched by her deeply personal account of her life in the Soviet Union. Devoted to her adopted homeland but concerned about the complacency of her fellow citizens, she appreciates American freedoms as only a survivor of totalitarianism can. An opportunity to view ourselves and the world through the eyes of our adversary, Putin&’s Playbook is a rare and compelling testimony that we ignore at our peril.Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy
By Ben Macintyre. 2020
The international bestselling author of A Spy and the Traitor and A Spy Among Friends reveals one of the last…
great untold spy stories of the twentieth century--the woman hidden in plain sight who set the stage for the Cold War.If you happened to be in the quiet English village of Great Rollright in 1942, you might have seen a thin, elegant woman emerging from a cottage and climbing onto her bicycle. Ursula Burton had three children and a husband named Len, who worked as a machinist nearby. She was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a very slight foreign accent. Her neighbours in the Cotswolds knew little about her. They did not know that Burton was a dedicated communist, a Soviet Colonel, and a veteran spy who had already conducted espionage operations in China, Poland, and Switzerland. They did not know that Len was also a Soviet spy, or that Burton kept a powerful radio transmitter connected to Moscow in their outhouse. They did not know that in her last espionage mission, Burton had infiltrated communist spies into a top-secret American intelligence operation parachting anti-Nazi agents into the Third Reich. But perhaps the most remarkable thing they did not know was that when Burton hopped onto her bike and pedaled away, she was heading to a countryside rendezvous with Klaus Fuchs, the nuclear physicist working on Britain's top secret atomic weapons program. Klaus was Burton's best agent, and together they were gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb. Ben Macintyre's latest true-life spy story is a masterpiece about the woman code-named "Sonya," one of the most important female spies in history. Hunted by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Nazis, MI5, MI6, and the FBI, she evaded all of them, and survived as well the brutal Soviet purges that left many of her friends and colleagues dead. Her story reflects the great ideological clash of the twentieth century, between communism, fascism, and Western democracy, and casts new light on the spy battles and shifting allegiances of our own times. With access to Sonya's papers and her intelligence files from multiple countries, Macintyre has conjured a thrilling secret history of a landmark agent, a true original who altered the course of the Cold War and helped plunge the world into a nuclear standoff that would last for decades.This book argues that guilt, shame, and remorse, associated with a history of substance abuse, explain why a minority of…
Islamist extremists carried out suicide terrorism in Europe between 2001 and 2018. Since 9/11, Islamist terrorism has dominated the European security landscape, but there has been little systematic analysis of either the attacks or the men responsible. This book addresses that gap, drawing on terrorist discourse, court transcripts, elite interviews, government reports, and three years of ethnography to provide an exhaustive account of how and why Islamist terrorism has occurred in Europe. Making a detailed analysis of 48 terrorist attacks carried out by 80 suicide terrorists, the book introduces two new theories. The first argues that most of these men first engaged in Islamist extremism as an alternative to substance abuse. The second contends that, following a five-stage process of radicalisation, cognitive dissonance triggered guilt, shame, and remorse over previous misconduct. From this emotional distress, suicide terrorism emerged as a rational choice ahead of either suicide or a return to active addiction. This book argues that the root cause of suicide terrorism in Europe is not so much politics or religion but is more about personal crisis and a search for redemption. This book will be of great interest to students of terrorism/counterterrorism, de-radicalisation, political Islam, and security studies in general.Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act
By Nicholson Baker. 2020
A major new work, a hybrid of history, journalism, and memoir, about the modern Freedom of Information Act – FOIA…
– and the horrifying, decades-old government misdeeds that it is unable to demystify, from one of America's most celebrated writers Eight years ago, while investigating the possibility that the United States had used biological weapons in the Korean War, Nicholson Baker requested a series of Air Force documents from the early 1950s under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Years went by, and he got no response. Rather than wait forever, Baker set out to keep a personal journal of what it feels like to try to write about major historical events in a world of pervasive redactions, witheld records, and glacially slow governmental responses. The result is one of the most original and daring works of nonfiction in recent memory, a singular and mesmerizing narrative that tunnels into the history of some of the darkest and most shameful plans and projects of the CIA, the Air Force, and the presidencies of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. In his lucid and unassuming style, Baker assembles what he learns, piece by piece, about Project Baseless, a crash Pentagon program begun in the early fifties that aimed to achieve "an Air Force-wide combat capability in biological and chemical warfare at the earliest possible date." Along the way, he unearths stories of balloons carrying crop disease, leaflet bombs filled with feathers, suicidal scientists, leaky centrifuges, paranoid political-warfare tacticians, insane experiments on animals and humans, weaponized ticks, ferocious propaganda battles with China, and cover and deception plans meant to trick the Kremlin into ramping up its germ-warfare program. At the same time, Baker tells the stories of the heroic journalists and lawyers who have devoted their energies to wresting documentary evidence from goverment repositories, and he shares anecdotes from his daily life in Maine feeding his dogs and watching the morning light gather on the horizon. The result is an astonishing and utterly disarming story about waiting, bureaucracy, the horrors of war, and, above all, the cruel secrets that the United States government seems determined to keep forever from its citizens.From the end of the Second World War to the present day, the world has changed immeasurably. The art of…
spying has changed too, as spies have reacted to changing threats. Here you will find the fascinating stories of real-life spies, both famous and obscure, from either side of the Iron Curtain, along with previously secret details of War on Terror operations.Detailed stories of individual spies are set in the context of the development of the major espionage agencies, interspersed with anecdotes of gadgets, trickery, honeytraps and assassinations worthy of any fictional spy.A closing section examines the developing New Cold War, as Russia and the West confront each other once again.The Director: My Years Assisting J. Edgar Hoover
By Paul Letersky. 2021
The first book ever written about FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover by a member of his personal staff—his former assistant,…
Paul Letersky—The Director offers unprecedented insight into an American legend.The 1960s and 1970s were arguably among America&’s most turbulent post-Civil War decades. While the Vietnam War continued seemingly without end, protests and riots ravaged most cities, the Kennedys and MLK were assassinated, and corruption found its way to the highest levels of politics, culminating in Watergate. In 1965, at the beginning of the chaos, twenty-two-year old Paul Letersky was assigned to assist the legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover who&’d just turned seventy and had, by then, led the Bureau for an incredible forty-one years. Hoover was a rare and complex man who walked confidently among the most powerful. His personal privacy was more tightly guarded than the secret &“files&” he carefully collected—and that were so feared by politicians and celebrities. Through Letersky&’s close working relationship with Hoover, and the trust and confidence he gained from Hoover&’s most loyal senior assistant, Helen Gandy, Paul became one of the few able to enter the Director&’s secretive—and sometimes perilous—world. Since Hoover&’s death half a century ago, millions of words have been written about the man and hundreds of hours of TV dramas and A-list Hollywood films produced. But until now, there has been virtually no account from someone who, for a period of years, spent hours with the Director on a daily basis. Balanced, honest, and keenly observed, The Director offers a unique inside look at one of the most powerful law enforcement figures in American history.Urban Warfare in the Twenty-First Century
By Anthony King. 2021
Warfare has migrated into cities. From Mosul to Mumbai, Aleppo to Marawi, the major military battles of the twenty-first century…
have taken place in densely populated urban areas. Why has this happened? What are the defining characteristics of urban warfare today? What are its military and political implications? Leading sociologist Anthony King answers these critical questions through close analysis of recent urban battles and their historical antecedents. Exploring the changing typography and evolving tactics of the urban battlescape, he shows that although not all methods used in urban warfare are new, operations in cities today have become highly distinctive. Urban warfare has coalesced into gruelling micro-sieges, which extend from street level – and below – to the airspace high above the city, as combatants fight for individual buildings, streets and districts. At the same time, digitalized social media and information networks communicate these battles to global audiences across an urban archipelago, with these spectators often becoming active participants in the fight. A timely reminder of the costs and the horror of war and violence in cities, this book offers an invaluable interdisciplinary introduction to urban warfare in the new millennium for students of international security, urban studies and military science, as well as military professionals.The Girl in the Spider's Web: A Dragon Tattoo story (Millennium #4)
By David Lagercrantz. 2015
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO IS BACK WITH A UK NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERLisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist have not…
been in touch for some time.Then Blomkvist is contacted by renowned Swedish scientist Professor Balder. Warned that his life is in danger, but more concerned for his son's well-being, Balder wants Millennium to publish his story - and it is a terrifying one.More interesting to Blomkvist than Balder's world-leading advances in Artificial Intelligence, is his connection with a certain female superhacker.It seems that Salander, like Balder, is a target of ruthless cyber gangsters - and a violent criminal conspiracy that will very soon bring terror to the snowbound streets of Stockholm, to the Millennium team, and to Blomkvist and Salander themselves.The Girl in the Spider's Web is book four in the Millennium series. Book five, The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, was published in September 2017.The Girl Who Lived Twice - the final novel in the series by David Lagercrantz - is available to preorder now.Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors: Religion and the History of the CIA
By Michael Graziano. 2021
Michael Graziano’s intriguing book fuses two landmark titles in American history: Perry Miller’s Errand into the Wilderness (1956), about the…
religious worldview of the early Massachusetts colonists, and David Martin’s Wilderness of Mirrors (1980), about the dangers and delusions inherent to the Central Intelligence Agency. Fittingly, Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors investigates the dangers and delusions that ensued from the religious worldview of the early molders of the Central Intelligence Agency. Graziano argues that the religious approach to intelligence by key OSS and CIA figures like “Wild” Bill Donovan and Edward Lansdale was an essential, and overlooked, factor in establishing the agency’s concerns, methods, and understandings of the world. In a practical sense, this was because the Roman Catholic Church already had global networks of people and safe places that American agents could use to their advantage. But more tellingly, Graziano shows, American intelligence officers were overly inclined to view powerful religions and religious figures through the frameworks of Catholicism. As Graziano makes clear, these misconceptions often led to tragedy and disaster on an international scale. By braiding the development of the modern intelligence agency with the story of postwar American religion, Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors delivers a provocative new look at a secret driver of one of the major engines of American power.