Book Reviews

Spies! Real People Real Stories
By Laura Portalupi with Gene Poteat, technical advisor

Nurture interest at an early age. A new publication under AFIO President Gene Poteat's guidance.

Provides a History of Spying, Tools & Tricks, Famous Spies, Becoming a Spy, Spying Today, with bibliography, glossary, addresses, websites and index.

Many photos. Exciting stuff. For readers grades 4 - 7. An ideal gift for children and a timely donation to a school or public library. Order an extra copy for your personal library.

From the Shadows
By DCI Robert M. Gates (Ret.)

DCI Gates' book provides information on covert activities that in some cases is quite revealing and supported by subsequent developments or independent reporting. He stresses the CIA's use of the theme of "Human Rights Abuses" as a catchphrase used to speed the downfall of the Soviet Empire.

This is particularly relevant today, where all sorts of stories target countries' human rights abuses. Many of these stories are written by groups funded by, or presumably funded by, the U.S. government. Many such stories are picked up by the U.S. media and given wide-spread domestic (as well as worldwide) dissemination. 

My American Journey
By Gen. Colin A. Powell with Joseph E. Persico

We go on patrol with him into the jungles of Vietnam where he is wounded, and then in the first surprise turn of his career, into the every-bit-as-dangerous tickets of Washington bureaucracy as a Pentagon aide in the Carter administration.

Colin Powell, moving easily between the Army and high positions in both Republican and Democratic administrations, has a unique perspective. As an active soldier, he has experienced the sharp end of political decisions in Washington. As an advisor to three presidents, he has seen how policy is shaped and he has shaped it himself.

It was Powell whom President Reagan summoned to the White House to help National Security Advisor Franc Carlucci clean up the mess after the Iran-Contra debacle. 

Terrorism and Democracy
By DCI Stansfield Turner, Adm. USN

In his provocative book Terrorism and Democracy, former CIA Director Stansfield Turner points out that "much of the common wisdom about dealing with terrorism does not accord with what presidents have actually done." In fact, as Turner shows, American presidents from George Washington to Ronald Reagan have repeatedly bargained with terrorists, usually to secure the release of American hostages.

Turner is familiar with the appalling dilemmas U.S. presidents face whenever American citizens become victims of terrorism. As Director of Central Intelligence under President Jimmy Carter, Turner played a key role in the efforts to free the Americans seized when the U.S. embassy in Tehran was stormed on November 4, 1979. 

Alternative Careers in Secret Operations
By Mark W. Merritt

The first book to outline job and career alternatives both within and outside the community for the many thousands of people with backgrounds in military intelligence and special operations. It shows there is a rewarding career life after secret operations.

The book combines insights into the job search with an extensive listing of key employment contacts, from professional associations and publications to federal agencies, websites, intelligence community headhunters, and corporations involved in the defense and intelligence communities. The book is literally a road map to renewed career success for special people who have very special career needs.

Reader of Gentleman’s Mail: Herbert O. Yardley
By David Khan

Yardley came to Washington, D.C. in 1914, working as a telegrapher in the State Department. He was fascinated by the messages that came in and out, and determined that he would give his life to cryptography. His efforts within the Army Signal Corp were effective, but more important even than the wartime accomplishments was that Yardley convinced the Army and State Department to continue signal intelligence after Armistice Day.

He believed that the stream of international communications could indicate the attitudes and plans of nations who were our friends as well as our foes. He was right; his work ensured that America knew what the aims of the Japanese were at the arms limitation talks in 1921, saving the government millions of dollars and buying some years of peace. Those who thought that "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail" eventually closed his bureau down. 

The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA
By Antonio J. Mendez

The jazz is never more dangerous, the potential melodies never sweeter, than the operations and deceptions outlined in Tony Mendez's remarkable book, The Master of Disguise. The master of disguise is, in fact, a master of deception, and Mendez's true stories of his CIA operations are inspiring lessons in illusion.

It should not be a surprise that Mendez is something of an amateur magician. More to the point, he has taken examples from such trickery, and applied the principles like a masterful conjurer. In his later career, this would be called "plausible deniability," but it was based in standard magic. 

JASONS: Secret History of Science’s Postwar Elite
By Ann Finkbeiner

One of the lacunae in the history of defense policy and science advice to government concerns the role of the JASON advisory panel. A fascinating new book on the JASONs helps to fill in that mysterious gap.

Established in 1960, the JASONs first gained unwelcome public attention as the result of a reference in the leaked Pentagon Papers. They have only rarely since been heard from in public. Their membership is not publicized. Their meetings are closed. The publications are mostly classified. Their impact is hard to assess.

In her engaging and highly readable book, Finkbeiner traces the work of the JASONs over four decades and introduces many of the group's original, eccentric and hyper-intelligent members. 

Denial and Deception
By CIA Officer Melissa Boyle Mahle (Ret.)

As seen on The Daily Show! Melissa Boyle Mahle risked her life as a CIA field officer in the Middle East until her departure from the Agency in 2002. As a former clandestine operative, she has a unique vantage point from which to view the culture of the agency in the post-cold war climate, and to reveal how the CIA failed to anticipate the 9/11 attacks. From Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, Mahle provides a vivid personal and historical narrative of how the CIA became a rudderless organization, lost in the post-Cold War world: afraid to take risks, gutted of the clandestine operators who knew how to run secret wars, and unable and unwilling to get down and dirty to do the hard part to fight a real war on terrorism.

Hunting the Jackal
By Billy Waugh, SF Sgt. Mjr. (Ret.) with Jim Keown

"Tough, rambunctious, and smart, Sergeant Major Billy Waugh is a Special Forces cyclone whose career cut a powerful path in the world of covert operations. His memoirs are essential reading to understand the real history of American Special Ops over the past half-century."

- John L. Plaster, U.S. Army Special Forces, author of SOG and Secret Commandos

"The odds, death, and destruction Special Forces face are beyond what the typical human psyche can deal with. Billy and these warriors possessed a relentless determination to punish the enemy, and punish them they did."

- Lew Merletti, former director, United States Secret Service, and former 5th Special Forces Group (Vietnam, 1969-1970)