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Wilderness of Mirrors: Intrigue, Deception, and the Secrets that Destroyed Two of the Cold War's Most Important Agents
by
c
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Paperback, 256 pages
Published
July 1st 2003
by Lyons Press
(first published April 1980)
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Start your review of Wilderness of Mirrors: Intrigue, Deception, and the Secrets that Destroyed Two of the Cold War's Most Important Agents
Biography of James Jesus Angleton, a brilliant espionage agent who seemed to get lost in the intelligence maze. Interesting, but especially illuminating.
Sep 23, 2007
Nathan
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
Well, probably not James Angleton fans.
Wilderness of Mirrors was originally published in 1980, then reprinted in 2003. Even in the last two years, new information comes out relating to the Golitsyn and Nosenko cases, and it remains difficult to tell (from the perspective of a reader) what the truth really was. What is undeniable, however, is that James Jesus Angleton was a fascinating character who shaped the CIA in the way J. Edgar Hoover shaped the F.B.I. And whether he was right or wrong, he may have been just as crazy as Hoover.
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Counterintel is a confusing, intense business for strong-willed, secretive, weird people. Martin does an admirable job of juxtaposing and sorting out the mess and success of 2 major Cold Warrior spies, James Angleton and William Harvey.
James Angleton was drafted into X-2 (counterintel) branch of the OSS in London (where he was trained by and befriended Kim Philby) then sent Italy during WWII. Post-war, he went on to a decades long reign as chief of counterintel in DC where he relentlessly sough ...more
Counter-intelligence is the strangest, most paranoid of games. It is, in the words of James Angleton, a "wilderness of mirrors" where the line between source and target, fact and fiction, trust and betrayal shatter into a million shards. Martin's 1980 book discusses the two most important American counter-intelligence operators, William “King” Harvey and James Jesus Angleton, and their eventual self-destruction.
Angleton was the epitome of the spymaster, educated, aesthetic, austere, a man of inf ...more
Angleton was the epitome of the spymaster, educated, aesthetic, austere, a man of inf ...more
Wilderness of Mirrors is a fascinating read following the careers of two of the most famous or infamous Counterintelligence officers in the history of the CIA, Bill Harvey and James Angleton. While Mr Harvey was rather brash and outspoken Mr Angleton was the exact opposite, very quiet and secretive. I would highly recommend this book for any individual that is a professional in the career field or anyone that would like to know more about the successes and unfortunately the pitfalls of the CI wo
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Dr Michael S Goodman has chosen to discuss
Wilderness of Mirrors
by David C Martin on FiveBooks as one of the top five on his subject - Pioneers of Intelligence Gathering, saying that:
It tells the story of James Angleton, the man in charge of counter-intelligence at the CIA, stopping people from infiltrating the organisation. There was a Russian defector in the 1960s, Anatoly Golitsyn, who went to the States and started talking and Angleton basically believed him when he said there was a mol ...more
It tells the story of James Angleton, the man in charge of counter-intelligence at the CIA, stopping people from infiltrating the organisation. There was a Russian defector in the 1960s, Anatoly Golitsyn, who went to the States and started talking and Angleton basically believed him when he said there was a mol ...more
Wilderness of Mirrors is the definitive view of the successes and excesses of America's spy game during the Cold War. Was there a high-level mole in the CIA? The answer from Jim Angleton was yes, even though the proof was thin. Angleton comes out a little better than Bill Harvey, another CIA titan of the era. Angleton talked; Harvey did not.
There have been other books on the subject, but Wilderness draws the most attacks, so it may be closer to the truth than the others. ...more
There have been other books on the subject, but Wilderness draws the most attacks, so it may be closer to the truth than the others. ...more
Very, very interesting book. Contains quite a detailed description of some aspects of the spy war raging throughout the world after WWII. I thought that the writing style of the book was very lucid and I could mostly follow the very intricate plots of the spymasters detailed. The characters depicted, Harvey and Angleton, were both interesting and a clever pick of the author. I certainly feel more acquainted with plot twists and turns, after reading this book.
Lively exposé of US intelligence messes from WWII to the firing of James Angleton in '74. Much detail about Bill Harvey's astute delivery of the goods while appearing the clown. If you want to know who's wasting your tax dollars, look no further than the CIA, the military industrial complex and government bureaucrats. Anarchy would be more efficient than what we have as shown in this book.
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This is a book published in 1980 so it is dated but it still presents an amazing look into the history of the CIA during the critical years of the cold war from 1945-75 and the absolute victory of the KGB in this conflict. It centers on two prominent CIA officials, William Harvey and James Angleton who were involved in counterintelligence and were led into the dilemma which the author coins as the "wilderness of mirrors" where no agent was above suspicion of being a Soviet spy. In fact, Angleton
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David Martin's book is 50% a history of the early days of the CIA and 50% the story of James Jesus Angleton's long and apparently fruitless search for a high level mole within the CIA. Even nearly 50 years after the Church Committee hearings, the brazen illegality and incompetence of the CIA remains breathtaking. As self-appointed guardians of the United States, the CIA repeatedly failed. It's clandestine skirmishes in eastern Europe after World War ll were amateurish. Bay of Pigs was a similar
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Thoroughly enjoyed this tale. The subject matter is Jame J. Angleton and William K. Harvey, two CIA counterespionage warriors in the 50s and 60s, and in the case of Angleton, into the 1970s. It seems to me that counterspying is necessarily byzantine and because of that, I think I may read through this book a second time to pick up on things I missed the first time through.
Excellent
Very well written. New revelations. Good insights. Bravo . Highly recommended. Pick up a copy. Worth the time. I couldn’t put it down
Very well written. New revelations. Good insights. Bravo . Highly recommended. Pick up a copy. Worth the time. I couldn’t put it down
Not an easy read but fascinating nonetheless.
Definitely a great insight into espionage and the secrets of country. Could use a diagram of all characters and cases- often times confusing but worth the read
After reading the Macintyre book on Philby this seemed like a good follow up. It centers on two enigmas of the post WWII U.S. intelligence world, Bill Harvey and James Jesus Angleton. Harvey was one of the first to develop the case against Philby (ten years before he fled) and was responsible for the bugging of the Soviet's underground cable in Berlin. Like Philby Harvey eventually became incapacitated by alcoholism. Hard drinking spies are romanticized but the reality is that anyone who drinks
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I also read this book in college, but it's still a great one, and a classic.
I re-read it while in Moscow, to give me that Cold War espionage feel. It didn't disappoint the second time through.
It reads very easily, and was written in a very accessible and non-academic way. The book paces itself as a mystery and as a bit of a guarded lesson about the trade of spying.
The book suffers somewhat from overreach, not only in linking William Harvey and James Angleton so much, but also in using them as t ...more
I re-read it while in Moscow, to give me that Cold War espionage feel. It didn't disappoint the second time through.
It reads very easily, and was written in a very accessible and non-academic way. The book paces itself as a mystery and as a bit of a guarded lesson about the trade of spying.
The book suffers somewhat from overreach, not only in linking William Harvey and James Angleton so much, but also in using them as t ...more
This work of non-fiction is both great macro history of Cold War espionage, touching on such highlghts as double agents the Rosenbergs, the famous USSR moles in England's MI-6 of Philby and Blake as well as being a fascinating character study of the two top CIA "spy hunters" of the post WWII era. James Jesus Angleton and William King Harvey could not be two more different cold warriors. Angleton was an elitist, Pound poetry reading Princetonian, who would rather tend his orchid garden than hit t
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The two titular agents - Angleton and Harvey - are nominally the focus of this briskly-paced book, but the wider intent of the book seems to capture the world of those two agents - namely, that of the American and British intelligence community in the paranoid post-Philby era. It dips into the Nosenko case and Golitsin in a slighter way - necessarily - than does Tom Mangold's more deeply-researched Cold Warrior, but those two important figures still figure in the book and help the book hit its s
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This is one of several books that I read reading in preparation for my paper on ULYSSES in the film THE GOOD SHEPHERD. This book centers on James Angleton, CIA, and Bill Harvey, FBI/CIA. Lots of interesting information, some tedious information. We're not talking about great writing here. It is a wonder to me how (or whether) the CIA has gotten anything positive accomplished given the mistakes made, the proliferation of so many identities, assumed identities, defectors, possible defectors, code
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