Licensed to Spy: With the Top Secret Military Liaison Mission in East Germany

by John A. Fahey

John Fahey's firsthand account of his activities as a U.S. naval officer in East Germany during the Cold War is a must read for everyone who enjoys true-life spy stories. An astonishing tale of overt reconnaissance, high-speed car chases, shootings, and detentions, the book chronicles Fahey's two years in the midst of twenty-two divisions of Soviet troops behind the Iron Curtain. As a member of a military liaison mission established in a little-known 1947 agreement between U.S. and Soviet forces, the author was legally permitted to perform surveillance in East Germany and took advantage of the opportunity to conduct dangerous intelligence missions. Fahey takes the reader into the Soviet military psyche during the height of Cold War relations with the United States. A Russian linguist as well as a spy, he served as an interpreter and delegate in high-level meetings between heads of the Soviet and American armies. This account provides an intimate view of the Russian military officer and details of a life of intrigue behind the borders of a Communist country. Published here for the first time, thirty-seven photographs illustrate this tale of insight and intrigue that is sure to appeal to the general public as well as to military personnel and Cold War historians.

209 pages, Hardcover

First published April 22, 2002