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A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century
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.
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.
544 pages, Hardcover
First published June 27, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 7, 2025
A Century of Spies is solid and consistent. Jeffrey T. Richelson's approach to such a controversial subject is erudite and thoughtful. The historical contextualisation of intelligence operations helps the reader to understand how espionage influences the results of international conflicts. I recommend the book to anyone interested in modern world politics.
The rise of technology and institutions is A Century of Spies' leitmotif. Jeffrey T. Richelson tells the story of intelligence during the two World Wars, and then most of the volume treats the Cold War. The chapters are well-realized, with useful details and explanations. The evaluation is favorable to this craft and the author shows, for example, that espionage 6 to keep the nuclear peace between the United States and the Soviet Union.
As is common in this type of writing, the examples coming from pluralistic democracies are more frequent. To understand the way intelligence worked, it is good to look at cases of failure and success, from A Century of Spies. The Pearl Harbor attack of 7 December 1941, took America by surprise because it was neither anticipated nor detected, even if most of Japan's codes had been broken. Several factors concurred, according to Jeffrey T. Richelson: the US lacked a good source, the Japanese forces used compartmentalization, diversion, and radio silence effectively, they changed the military codes at the last moment, and the American analysts misread the political intentions of the other side.
The American victory at Midway (June 1942) is an example of success, as shown in A Century of Spies. The Japanese strategist Isoruku Yamamoto planned to bait the US fleet and destroy its carriers and the location was essential for its success. The US radio intercept furnished a partial decoding, suggesting several positions, then the Americans sent an internal message, knowing that it would be read by the enemy. In Jeffrey T. Richelson's telling, the following Japanese radio communications provided the answer and its fleet lost many of its irreplaceable carriers.
There is a lot of middle ground between failure and success, in A Century of Spies. During World War II, the German spy networks were turned by the British intelligence agencies, but the same happened to most the the Special Operations Executive's agents sent into occupied Europe. Similar interactions happened during the Cold War and the Middle Eastern conflicts. Jeffrey T. Richelson's work can be criticized for its limited and technical focus, while it remains a good example of description and explanation.
The rise of technology and institutions is A Century of Spies' leitmotif. Jeffrey T. Richelson tells the story of intelligence during the two World Wars, and then most of the volume treats the Cold War. The chapters are well-realized, with useful details and explanations. The evaluation is favorable to this craft and the author shows, for example, that espionage 6 to keep the nuclear peace between the United States and the Soviet Union.
As is common in this type of writing, the examples coming from pluralistic democracies are more frequent. To understand the way intelligence worked, it is good to look at cases of failure and success, from A Century of Spies. The Pearl Harbor attack of 7 December 1941, took America by surprise because it was neither anticipated nor detected, even if most of Japan's codes had been broken. Several factors concurred, according to Jeffrey T. Richelson: the US lacked a good source, the Japanese forces used compartmentalization, diversion, and radio silence effectively, they changed the military codes at the last moment, and the American analysts misread the political intentions of the other side.
The American victory at Midway (June 1942) is an example of success, as shown in A Century of Spies. The Japanese strategist Isoruku Yamamoto planned to bait the US fleet and destroy its carriers and the location was essential for its success. The US radio intercept furnished a partial decoding, suggesting several positions, then the Americans sent an internal message, knowing that it would be read by the enemy. In Jeffrey T. Richelson's telling, the following Japanese radio communications provided the answer and its fleet lost many of its irreplaceable carriers.
There is a lot of middle ground between failure and success, in A Century of Spies. During World War II, the German spy networks were turned by the British intelligence agencies, but the same happened to most the the Special Operations Executive's agents sent into occupied Europe. Similar interactions happened during the Cold War and the Middle Eastern conflicts. Jeffrey T. Richelson's work can be criticized for its limited and technical focus, while it remains a good example of description and explanation.
August 3, 2022
A very good history of intelligence in the 20th century; however, this book is probably only for those with a keen interest in the topic.
April 28, 2016
This one was a long, hard slog for me. Very dry and technical. Not a whole lot of narrative flow. I'm not enough of a spy nerd to have found it compelling. I'm glad I read it (just as I'm glad I get my teeth cleaned or my prostate checked), but I didn't enjoy it much.
June 22, 2025
A Century of Spies – Intelligence in The Twentieth Century by Jeffrey Richelson
9 out of 10
This note is written in the wake of the assassination of Alexei Navalny, as The Economist writes, a martyr already, and hence the following lines will actually be about this tragedy, not the book…on the latter, the conclusion is that such a read is always captivating, and the relevance of spies is evident in the present, when one threatens the world
Putin wants to be the new czar, remembered in history as the one who took Ukraine ‘back’, as he puts it, he is obsessed with obscure pages from the past, he lies about what happened, he said that World War II was caused by…Poland, in a recent interview with an ignoble fool, Tucker Carlson, Poland because Hitler had asked nicely
Revisionism is the thing, oh, before I forget, the infamous attack on Kyiv, when they had that long column of tanks and vehicles, many of them taken by the Ukrainians, their retreat was a goodwill gesture, not the disaster we could all see, alas, the propaganda machine works, and I can see its effects at the…sauna Downtown
A spoiler alert, warning is needed here – maybe it was necessary above, but there it is – since this is not going the way of a sane note, looking at A Century of Spies, it will be all over the place (vraiste as one buddy at the club says) and hence, you should leave this page, or stay, depending on your propensity, the taste for the absurd
Coming back to the digression, Putin was a mediocre spy, and he is a lousy leader, albeit the sycophants at the Kremlin, and fools around the globe see ‘strength and intelligence’ where there is no such thing, he just took over the nuclear button, and he keeps threatening NATO and Europe with the atomic bombs he has…
When you have the means to kill those we disagree with you, you project strength, and I am sorry to say, but fools will take that for intelligence, what God damn superior sense is needed to just give orders and have this new KGB aka FSB or GRU put military grade nerve gas into the underpants of Navalny and use mini nuclear bombs on others…
Alexander Litvinenko was one of those Spies of the Century, and he had uncovered corruption and a network used by strong men in Russia to embezzle, get rich and thus steal from the ordinary citizens and he told this fucked up new czar about it, and what this Shorty said was get lost, and Litvinenko moved to Great Britain
However, the dictator was displeased, once a Russian spy you are always their property, I guess they think, and a couple of assassins was dispatched to London, to murder the ‘traitor’, and not with regular, usual means, a pistol, some other routine, nom they had a miniature atomic device along with them, flying on a normal airline
The killers did not know this, they thought they had some poison, but in the wake of the murder, the investigation would find radioactive traces all along the way, in the airport in Germany and elsewhere – true, not enough to have people die, but gruesome nevertheless – showing that A Century of Spies will continue to give us victims
The poor Russian man would die in excruciating pain, his organs would dissolve, the message was one of terror, if you cross the Big Spy, then you are not just eliminated, we torture you until kingdom come, with a disgusting display of psychotic behavior – the psychopath is the one who has no emotions, or feelings and takes advantage of others
The problem is that America may elect just another psycho, the one that in fact took the highest office in 2017, and would not leave power in 2021, well, at least he tried, he had his mob of cult members storm the Capitol, occupy Congress, try to hang the vice president, who had not accepted to steal the elections for Orange Jesus
The cretin keeps claiming he has won to this day, he celebrates those insurrectionists, calling them hostages, he praises that choir of idiots who have recorded from prison, it is God damn unbelievable, in the eighties we looked at America in awe, we have had a tyrant here, Ceausescu and hoped to have the US system
Furthermore, as I write below, in my standard closing argument, I took part in the Revolution of 1989 that toppled Ceausescu, hoping to see the American way adopted here – I even tried to move to the US, when working for AT&T, which also mentioned in that chapter at the end – only to see now that it is a shambles
They have a decent option, which is Biden, old and with flaws, but one million times better that the gorilla in the room that has done all the crazy, awful things we could envisage, grabbing pussy, embracing Putin, trying extortion, using fraud, as was proved in court – he has to pay over half a billion dollars, and the greatest liar does not have it
Confidence Man https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... by Maggie Haberman explains how this scoundrel has cheated his way through life, reaching the very top by fraud – for loans, he lied to banks, claiming he has what he had not – for instance, he wrote that his flat was three times bigger than the actual size – and vice versa, for tax reasons he would declare nothing, if possible
When Hilary Clinton challenged him in a debate, speaking about his tax avoidance, nay, not paying taxes, he immediately bragged that this is because he is ‘smart’, a crook, who has said that ‘Russia will be encouraged to do whatever the hell it wants’ to NATO countries that are ‘delinquent’, as if he is a Mafia boss and the allies have to pay him protection money!
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
9 out of 10
This note is written in the wake of the assassination of Alexei Navalny, as The Economist writes, a martyr already, and hence the following lines will actually be about this tragedy, not the book…on the latter, the conclusion is that such a read is always captivating, and the relevance of spies is evident in the present, when one threatens the world
Putin wants to be the new czar, remembered in history as the one who took Ukraine ‘back’, as he puts it, he is obsessed with obscure pages from the past, he lies about what happened, he said that World War II was caused by…Poland, in a recent interview with an ignoble fool, Tucker Carlson, Poland because Hitler had asked nicely
Revisionism is the thing, oh, before I forget, the infamous attack on Kyiv, when they had that long column of tanks and vehicles, many of them taken by the Ukrainians, their retreat was a goodwill gesture, not the disaster we could all see, alas, the propaganda machine works, and I can see its effects at the…sauna Downtown
A spoiler alert, warning is needed here – maybe it was necessary above, but there it is – since this is not going the way of a sane note, looking at A Century of Spies, it will be all over the place (vraiste as one buddy at the club says) and hence, you should leave this page, or stay, depending on your propensity, the taste for the absurd
Coming back to the digression, Putin was a mediocre spy, and he is a lousy leader, albeit the sycophants at the Kremlin, and fools around the globe see ‘strength and intelligence’ where there is no such thing, he just took over the nuclear button, and he keeps threatening NATO and Europe with the atomic bombs he has…
When you have the means to kill those we disagree with you, you project strength, and I am sorry to say, but fools will take that for intelligence, what God damn superior sense is needed to just give orders and have this new KGB aka FSB or GRU put military grade nerve gas into the underpants of Navalny and use mini nuclear bombs on others…
Alexander Litvinenko was one of those Spies of the Century, and he had uncovered corruption and a network used by strong men in Russia to embezzle, get rich and thus steal from the ordinary citizens and he told this fucked up new czar about it, and what this Shorty said was get lost, and Litvinenko moved to Great Britain
However, the dictator was displeased, once a Russian spy you are always their property, I guess they think, and a couple of assassins was dispatched to London, to murder the ‘traitor’, and not with regular, usual means, a pistol, some other routine, nom they had a miniature atomic device along with them, flying on a normal airline
The killers did not know this, they thought they had some poison, but in the wake of the murder, the investigation would find radioactive traces all along the way, in the airport in Germany and elsewhere – true, not enough to have people die, but gruesome nevertheless – showing that A Century of Spies will continue to give us victims
The poor Russian man would die in excruciating pain, his organs would dissolve, the message was one of terror, if you cross the Big Spy, then you are not just eliminated, we torture you until kingdom come, with a disgusting display of psychotic behavior – the psychopath is the one who has no emotions, or feelings and takes advantage of others
The problem is that America may elect just another psycho, the one that in fact took the highest office in 2017, and would not leave power in 2021, well, at least he tried, he had his mob of cult members storm the Capitol, occupy Congress, try to hang the vice president, who had not accepted to steal the elections for Orange Jesus
The cretin keeps claiming he has won to this day, he celebrates those insurrectionists, calling them hostages, he praises that choir of idiots who have recorded from prison, it is God damn unbelievable, in the eighties we looked at America in awe, we have had a tyrant here, Ceausescu and hoped to have the US system
Furthermore, as I write below, in my standard closing argument, I took part in the Revolution of 1989 that toppled Ceausescu, hoping to see the American way adopted here – I even tried to move to the US, when working for AT&T, which also mentioned in that chapter at the end – only to see now that it is a shambles
They have a decent option, which is Biden, old and with flaws, but one million times better that the gorilla in the room that has done all the crazy, awful things we could envisage, grabbing pussy, embracing Putin, trying extortion, using fraud, as was proved in court – he has to pay over half a billion dollars, and the greatest liar does not have it
Confidence Man https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... by Maggie Haberman explains how this scoundrel has cheated his way through life, reaching the very top by fraud – for loans, he lied to banks, claiming he has what he had not – for instance, he wrote that his flat was three times bigger than the actual size – and vice versa, for tax reasons he would declare nothing, if possible
When Hilary Clinton challenged him in a debate, speaking about his tax avoidance, nay, not paying taxes, he immediately bragged that this is because he is ‘smart’, a crook, who has said that ‘Russia will be encouraged to do whatever the hell it wants’ to NATO countries that are ‘delinquent’, as if he is a Mafia boss and the allies have to pay him protection money!
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
June 27, 2010
I had to read this book for a college class. While the information kept my interest up, the author seemed to have the same problem with this book as with his "The US Intelligence Community" in that he would write about one topic and then abruptly move on to the next topic. I never felt like I had enough information on any one topic and altogether it made for a very unpleasant reading experience.
October 29, 2023
Jeffrey T. Richelson, A Century of Spies
In Dec 1960 BEVISION defected to West Berlin.
104-10250-10061: SUBJECT: MCDONALD, HUGH C KIMSEY, HERMAN E
4/12/61: Herman Kimsey was chief of the Analysis and Research Section, Graphic Aids Reproduction Branch (GARB), Technical Services Division.
By 5/18/61, Kimsey received $380,000 from Colonel Edwards (note: Chief of Office of Security). Kimsey resigned 7/16/62. Died 1/26/71.
Also see 1993.08.13.17:03:02:090059 - 11/22/74 memo - Colonel Philip Corso was active in Goleniewski (BEVISION) case during 1963.
As late as 1969, Kimsey was alerting the CIA about the explosive mind of Goleniewski, who he believed had caused the deaths of Soviet and American military leaders.
4/27/61: Hugh C. McDonald alleged that on this date he met "Saul", the assassin-to-be, in the office of Herman Kimsey and that Kimsey later told McDonald of the complicity of 'Saul' in the JFK assassination...
From 1955 to circa 1961 Mr. McDonald, as an independent contractor, assisted Technical Services Division/Authentication Division/DDP in the development of the 'Identikit', a system for the graphic reproduction of the facial features of an individual.
During this period Mr. McDonald did have contacts with Herman Kimsey who was terminated in July 1962 and died in January 1971...all that can be said is that Mr. Kimsey is deceased but he is known to have exaggerated and fabricated considerably at times..." (Director of Security Robert Gambino, August 1976)
..........
Mary Ferrell Foundation
Discussion: Author John Newman believes that Goleniewski was the one who initially spurred Angleton to begin his molehunts.
John Newman, Oswald and the CIA, p. 89
1959: "(Events)...suggested a mole in the CIA: a series of letters to the CIA written by a Soviet informant, Michal Goleniewski, beginning in 1959, under the name 'Sniper'.
According to another of Angleton's molehunters, Clare Petty, this is why some people in the CIA began to suspect there was a mole...Angleton was said to be suspicious of Goleniewski from the beginning...It was the Goleniewski episode that gave credence within the Agency to the idea of a mole, an idea Angleton would shortly turn into a crusade.
David Martin's CIA chronicle, Wilderness of Mirrors, has this incisive comment: 'Goleniewski, with or without the knowledge of the KGB, had planted a germ within the body of the CIA that would become a debilitating disease, all but paralyzing the Agency's clandestine operations against the Soviet Union.
The germ was the suspicion that the CIA itself had been penetrated by the KGB, that a Soivet mole had burrowed to the Agency's core.
"Goleniewski was the first and primary source on a mole," a CIA officer said.' (Newman asks) Could that germ from 1959, along with the U-2 compromise of the previous year, have led to a counterintelligence 'dangle' of Oswald in the Soviet Union?"
In Dec 1960 BEVISION defected to West Berlin.
104-10250-10061: SUBJECT: MCDONALD, HUGH C KIMSEY, HERMAN E
4/12/61: Herman Kimsey was chief of the Analysis and Research Section, Graphic Aids Reproduction Branch (GARB), Technical Services Division.
By 5/18/61, Kimsey received $380,000 from Colonel Edwards (note: Chief of Office of Security). Kimsey resigned 7/16/62. Died 1/26/71.
Also see 1993.08.13.17:03:02:090059 - 11/22/74 memo - Colonel Philip Corso was active in Goleniewski (BEVISION) case during 1963.
As late as 1969, Kimsey was alerting the CIA about the explosive mind of Goleniewski, who he believed had caused the deaths of Soviet and American military leaders.
4/27/61: Hugh C. McDonald alleged that on this date he met "Saul", the assassin-to-be, in the office of Herman Kimsey and that Kimsey later told McDonald of the complicity of 'Saul' in the JFK assassination...
From 1955 to circa 1961 Mr. McDonald, as an independent contractor, assisted Technical Services Division/Authentication Division/DDP in the development of the 'Identikit', a system for the graphic reproduction of the facial features of an individual.
During this period Mr. McDonald did have contacts with Herman Kimsey who was terminated in July 1962 and died in January 1971...all that can be said is that Mr. Kimsey is deceased but he is known to have exaggerated and fabricated considerably at times..." (Director of Security Robert Gambino, August 1976)
..........
Mary Ferrell Foundation
Discussion: Author John Newman believes that Goleniewski was the one who initially spurred Angleton to begin his molehunts.
John Newman, Oswald and the CIA, p. 89
1959: "(Events)...suggested a mole in the CIA: a series of letters to the CIA written by a Soviet informant, Michal Goleniewski, beginning in 1959, under the name 'Sniper'.
According to another of Angleton's molehunters, Clare Petty, this is why some people in the CIA began to suspect there was a mole...Angleton was said to be suspicious of Goleniewski from the beginning...It was the Goleniewski episode that gave credence within the Agency to the idea of a mole, an idea Angleton would shortly turn into a crusade.
David Martin's CIA chronicle, Wilderness of Mirrors, has this incisive comment: 'Goleniewski, with or without the knowledge of the KGB, had planted a germ within the body of the CIA that would become a debilitating disease, all but paralyzing the Agency's clandestine operations against the Soviet Union.
The germ was the suspicion that the CIA itself had been penetrated by the KGB, that a Soivet mole had burrowed to the Agency's core.
"Goleniewski was the first and primary source on a mole," a CIA officer said.' (Newman asks) Could that germ from 1959, along with the U-2 compromise of the previous year, have led to a counterintelligence 'dangle' of Oswald in the Soviet Union?"
November 18, 2025
sometimes it was hard to read, but overall I enjoyed it and I enjoyed that. I did not linger on anything for too long. I like the summary nature of it and I learned so much that I had no idea about since this is not an area of expertise for me obviously. definitely a foundational book for anybody who's interested on the topic.
December 22, 2023
Plovdiv is not in Romania. Taking away one star because of that.
Read
November 19, 2012This book contained a lot of interesting information. It read more like a textbook or reference book than a narrative. So if you’ve always wondered who was spying on who and when various countries were successful at breaking each other’s codes, this is a good source. It was written in 1995, so it doesn’t cover the entire century, but comes close. I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the last half. That could be my lack of interest in detailed analysis of satellite capabilities, or it could be that more declassified information was available to the author for earlier events.
The book covers interesting events in a straightforward, academic way. Most of the events have entire books dedicated to more detailed accounts, but A Century of Spies does a nice job of giving you a lot of information about a lot of different things. Do I recommend it? Sure. Just be aware that the primary purpose of the book is education, not entertainment.
The book covers interesting events in a straightforward, academic way. Most of the events have entire books dedicated to more detailed accounts, but A Century of Spies does a nice job of giving you a lot of information about a lot of different things. Do I recommend it? Sure. Just be aware that the primary purpose of the book is education, not entertainment.
April 18, 2016
A good aerial view of operational imperatives, successes and failures; it is more or less indispensable as an introduction to the subject. I can definitely see this as a primary text in Espionage 101, and anyone considering writing period pieces or espionage-related work should first consult this work. Plenty of footnotes and references within it for secondary material which merit further in-depth analysis as well.
August 22, 2008
Amazing history and interesting information about intelligence, espionage, counterterrorism, etc. from 1900 to now!
February 27, 2012
Great overview of the intelligence episodes that shaped and were shaped by the Western (mainly US) intelligence agencies.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews