10 Must-Read Nonfiction Books on Intelligence, Espionage, and Intrigue
I am an intelligence historian (yes, we exist, and while there aren’t many of us—my parents never believed I had a real job—we are out there). I am also an intelligence professional and work for the National Security Agency. There are thousands of books (both fiction and non) written on the “second oldest profession,” so how do we know which ones to read? The answer, of course, is “all of them.” Yet, sadly, most people don’t have the time to do that. Instead, I’m giving you the ten books that, taken together, do the best job of providing a broad sample of what’s available. If you are only going to read just a couple, or ten, or want to read a slew but need to know where to start, these are my recommendations.
This one was a bestseller, so it might be more familiar to some. David Hoffman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who works as a contributing editor for The Washington Post, tells the story of one of the most important spies in history. Though that’s exciting enough already, Hoffman also gives the reader an inside look into the politics, challenges, and genius of those who worked in the CIA station in Moscow during the Cold War. Everyone talked to him for this. It’s as insider as it gets—and his access astonished even those who do this for a living.
The rare story of a woman intelligence officer who served with distinction in two major US intelligence organizations. She started at CIA, where she hunted down terrorists (once while President George W. Bush looked over her shoulder), then later at the FBI, where she specialized in Chinese counterintelligence. But there’s more to Walder’s memoir than her intelligence exploits. This is also a story about how a woman faced off against the misogyny of a male-dominated discipline, and how she continues to fight sexism in the intelligence community.
Technically Melton and Wallace are the authors, but in reality, this is a 1950s-era handbook developed by John Mulholland, who at the time was America’s most famous magician. A sneak peek inside the Wild West that was the early years of the CIA.
Named NPR’s Book of the Year in 2018, this biography of Elizebeth Friedman is second to none. Her husband William is famously considered the “godfather” of the NSA, but it’s only recently that Elizebeth has begun to get the credit she deserves. This book heavily contributed to shifting the spotlight from William to Elizebeth, and today, many of us (intelligence historians and practitioners) argue that Elizebeth was even a better codebreaker than her exulted husband.
About the Book
Covert City tells the history of how the entire city of Miami was constructed in the image of the US-Cuba rivalry. From the Bay of Pigs invasion to the death of Fidel Castro, the book shows how Miami is a hub for money and cocaine but also secrets and ideologies. Cuban exiles built criminal and political organizations in the city, leading Washington to set up a CIA station there, codenamed JMWAVE. It monitored gang activities, plotted secret operations against Castro, and became a base for surveilling Latin American neighbors. The money and infrastructure built for the CIA was integral to the development of Miami.
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