Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies: How Spies and Codebreakers Helped Shape the Twentieth Century

by James Gannon

How important is it to know your enemy's secrets? The German victory at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, the entrance of the United States into World War I, the defeat of Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union's faster-than-anticipated development of the atomic bomb were all facilitated by stealing enemy secrets. Espionage and codebreaking have, throughout history, been instrumental in the rise, fall, and preservation of world powers. In STEALING SECRETS, TELLING LIES James Gannon provides the full story behind the critical intelligence breakthroughs that helped alter the course of history in the twentieth century. The interception of the Zimmerman Telegram, the deciphering of the German Enigma machine, the Soviet's damaging penetration of the British Foreign Service through the "Cambridge Five" spy ring, and the U.S. counterintelligence coup known as Operation Venona (still secret until 1995) are just some of the episodes detailed here.

Genres: Espionage, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

About the author

James Gannon is a former producer and writer at NBC News. In the early 1980s he produced four one-hour documentaries that won numerous awards,including two for economic reporting. He has written four non-fiction books about politics and history. He is a graduate of Gonzaga University and earned a Masters degree in political science from American University in Washington, DC. He has two adult sons and five grandchildren.

Reviews

[John Ratliffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fine read for those who might have an interest in spying, especially the field of signal intelligence and code-breaking. One comes away with a newfound respect for the pioneers in the SIGINT field when that great industrialized war began, World War One, and when the Enigma Machines first appeared, leading all the way to today's supercomputers. I had personal cold-war experience as a linguist and as a communications intelligence operator, and the book fills out the history of those arts rather well too in a very satisfying way. The rest of the book is a lot of spy versus spy stories written in fine detail, as evidenced by extensive footnoting and a huge bibliography. I am always in awe of the scholarship and effort that goes into writing such a history involving arcane, hard to access subjects and it is that attention to detail that keeps one going in these complex stories.

[Rachel Brune · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting collection of stories about spies and spying. Most of the work concentrated on the golden age of codebreaking - namely WWII, and the author did a good job of supporting his de-mythification of some of the most famous and fascinating cases. He did a good job of setting the context for codebreaking within the wider world of espionage, and finished up with some more modern examples of codebreakers and espionage. The writing was clear and concise, the narrative was exciting without tipping over into gee-whiz-spies! territory. I could have stood to read a few more, I was enjoying it so much. Definitely an interesting read.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written account detailing how information gleaned from espionage and cyrptography has shaped the modern world. One of the most interesting questions what to do with the information -- concealment of knowledge is often nearly as important as having it. Then there is the political aspect of how to handle intelligence. Many of these spy and codebreaking stories are fairly well known -- Klaus Fuchs, the Cambridge Five, and so on -- but placing these accounts in a broader framework was interesting.

[Angel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I confess to mostly skimming this because i had a library due date looming. I was disappointed to see that while i got it for Spy stories, it seemed to be mostly on the Enigma machine and it's various variations while most of the spies were guys spying for the Soviets in WW2. Maybe I missed the others, but i was hoping for more selections country-wise. If you're curious about the Enigma though, this seems to be the book for you. What i read was easy to follow and well done.

[Steve Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I used to think that all the effort put into espionage has, in the long run, not been worth it. This book disproves that idea. Read the real background of the Enigma's solution (a Polish mathematician), the worst atomic spy, the Venona decrpyts and even a spy who aided us in the Solidarity movement and the end of communism.