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S2 Actual's reading list

The books S2 Actual has read and rated on Goodreads, searchable by title, author and topic.

420 books · all shelves · sorted by S2 rating

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  1. Details for The Death of Hitler 1945: The Last Days in the Berlin Bunker

    Description (from Goodreads):

    The death of Adolf Hitler inside his Berlin bunker on 30 April 1945 was one of the most important events of World War II. Find out what happened in the bunker in the days leading up to his suicide, the important events, personalities, betrayals and military moves as well as how the bunker was organised, protected and defended. Written by Mark Felton, the author of over 20 books on WWII subjects and an expert on Nazi Germany and the Battle of Berlin.

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    S2 lists
    Military history, Logistics, Biographies
    Topics
    WWII, Logistics
  2. Details for The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War

    Description (from Goodreads):

    A chronological analysis of the use of systematic deception by allied forces during World War II covers the development of deception techniques, explores the groundbreaking work of double agents, and reveals specific tactics that were used at key moments during the war. 30,000 first printing.

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    S2 lists
    Military history, Intel history, Technical warfare, Advanced intel
    Topics
    WWII, Espionage
    Publisher
    Scribner · 2004
    ISBN
    0743250427
  3. Details for The Downfall of Money: Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class

    Description (from Goodreads):

    A hundred years ago, many theorists believed-just as they did at the beginning of our twenty-first century-that the world had reached a state of economic perfection, a never before seen human interdependence that would lead to universal growth and prosperity. Then, as now, the German mark was one of the most trusted currencies in the world. Yet the early years of the Weimar Republic in Germany witnessed the most calamitous meltdown of a developed economy in modern times. The Downfall of Money will tell anew the dramatic story of the hyperinflation that saw the mark-worth 4.2 to the dollar in 1914-plunge until it traded at over 4 trillion to 1 by the autumn of 1923. The story of the Weimar Republic's financial crisis clearly resonates today, when the world is again anxious about what money is, what it means, and how we can judge if its value is true. It is a trajectory of events uncomfortably relevant for our own uncertain world. Frederick Taylor-one of the leading historians of Germany writing today- explores the causes of the crisis and what the collapse meant to ordinary people and traces its connection to the dark decades that followed. Drawing on a wide range of sources and accessibly presenting vast amounts of research, The Downfall of Money is a timely and chilling exploration of a haunting episode in history.

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    S2 lists
    Economics, Logistics
    Topics
    Logistics, Economics
    Publisher
    2013
    ISBN
    9781620402368
  4. Details for The Eastern Front, 1941-45: German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare

    Description (from Goodreads):

    Based largely upon unpublished sources, Omer Bartov's study looks closely at the background of the German army on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. He describes the physical hardship, the discipline and morale at the front, and analyses the social, educational and political background of the junior officers who formed the backbone of the German army. Only with these factors in mind - together with the knowledge of the extent of National Socialist indoctrination - can we begin to explain the criminal activities of the German army in Russia and the extent of involvement of the army in the execution of Hitler's brutal policies.

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    S2 lists
    Military history, Logistics
    Topics
    WWII, Russia / USSR, Logistics
    Publisher
    Palgrave Macmillan · 2001
    ISBN
    9780333949443
  5. Details for The Fighting Bunch: The Battle of Athens and How World War II Veterans Won the Only Successful Armed Rebellion Since the Revolution

    Description (from Goodreads):

    The incredible, untold story of the WWII veterans who destroyed a corrupt political machine―the only successful armed rebellion on US soil since the War of Independence. They fought for freedom abroad and returned to find that they had lost it at home. A corrupt political machine was in charge, kept in power by violence and stolen elections - the worst allegations of vote fraud ever brought to the attention of the Department of Justice, according to the Attorney General. The GIs formed a nonpartisan, all-veteran ticket. On Election Day, the GIs and their supporters found themselves assaulted, intimidated, arrested, and even shot. A small band of veterans - the Fighting Bunch - armed themselves and marched on the jail to demand an honest count. The sheriff and his men refused. These men who thought they had seen the last of war returned to the battlefield, one last time. This episode in U.S. history has never been more relevant, but has never been fully told. At the time of the rebellion, national news outlets jammed the phone lines into town, asking questions before the shooting had stopped. Journalists beat a path to Athens from across the country. Hollywood came calling, but the people of McMinn County had moved on. After years of research, including exclusive interviews with the remaining witnesses, archival radio broadcast and interview tapes, scrapbooks, letters, and diaries, author Chris DeRose has reconstructed one of the seminal―yet untold―events in American election history.

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    S2 lists
    Basic intel, Military history, Technical warfare
    Topics
    WWII, Guerrilla / COIN, Intel history
    Publisher
    St. Martin's Press · 2020
    ISBN
    9781250266194
  6. Details for The First Food Empire: A History of J. Lyons and Co.

    Description (from Goodreads):

    The First Food A History of J. Lyons and Co.

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    S2 lists
    Military history, Logistics, Economics
    Topics
    Logistics, Economics
    Publisher
    Phillimore & Company · 2000
    ISBN
    9781860771323
  7. The Fourth Turning

    William Strauss, Neil Howe

    Not rated by S2

    Buy on Amazon: The Fourth Turning Affiliate link

    Details for The Fourth Turning

    Description (from Goodreads):

    S2 Book Club selection. Episode: S2 Book Club: The Fourth Turning

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    S2 lists
    S2 Book Club
    Topics
    Strategy / theory, Economics
    ISBN
    9780767900461
  8. The German Air War in Russia

    Richard R. Muller

    Not rated by S2

    Buy on Amazon: The German Air War in Russia Affiliate link

    Details for The German Air War in Russia

    Description (from Goodreads):

    Dr. Richard Muller has produced a new interpretation of the longest continous air offensive waged by the Luftwaffe. He delineates the shifts in German air strategy as well as the relationship between operational art, aviation technology, and the strategy of the German air force's general staff.

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    S2 lists
    Advanced intel, Military history, Logistics
    Topics
    WWII, Air power, Russia / USSR, Logistics, Strategy / theory
    Publisher
    Nautical & Aviation Pub. Co. of America · 1992
    ISBN
    1877853135
  9. Details for The Gulag at War: Stalin's Forced Labour System in the Light of the Archives

    Description (from Goodreads):

    Throughout the Stalin era and after, the Gulag system of forced labor blighted the Soviet Union. Millions were incarcerated in its camps, some to be eventually released, many to die imprisoned and faceless. For decades, histories of the camp system have relied on the experiences of those who suffered within them for their main source of information. Though these accounts have been supplemented with officially sanctioned Soviet publications, the details of the forced labor system have for decades remained hidden by state secrecy. But with the collapse of the Soviet empire, the archives of the Gulag are now opening. Drawing on the archival records kept by Gulag authorities themselves, The Gulag at War traces the development of this system in the Soviet Union from 1920 through 1960. The volume describes the state's perceptions of the camps and their tasks and addresses long-held questions concerning the motives behind the system. Specific attention is given to the World War II years; the information found in the archives shows the importance of forced labor to Soviet, and therefore Allied, victory. The Gulag at War offers a close investigation of different aspects of camp life during this time, supplying data concerning the numbers and backgrounds of the prisoners, the economic tasks and achievements, the camp conditions, and the effectiveness of camp security which have previously been unavailable.

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    S2 lists
    Military history, Logistics
    Topics
    WWII, Cold War, Russia / USSR, Logistics, Economics
    Publisher
    New York University Press · 1994
    ISBN
    0814712436
  10. Details for The Heretic: the Life and Times of Josip Broz-Tito
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    S2 lists
    Advanced intel, Military history
    Publisher
    Hasrper & Brothers · 1957
  11. Details for The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom

    Description (from Goodreads):

    Corrie ten Boom was a woman admired the world over for her courage, her forgiveness, and her memorable faith. In World War II, she and her family risked their lives to help Jews escape the Nazis, and their reward was a trip to Hitler's concentration camps. But she survived and was released—as a result of a clerical error—and now shares the story of how faith triumphs over evil. For thirty-five years Corrie's dramatic life story, full of timeless virtues, has prepared readers to face their own futures with faith, relying on God's love to overcome, heal, and restore. Now releasing in a thirty-fifth anniversary edition for a new generation of readers, The Hiding Place tells the riveting story of how a middle-aged Dutch watchmaker became a heroine of the Resistance, a survivor of Hitler's death camps, and one of the most remarkable evangelists of the twentieth century.

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    S2 lists
    Biographies
    Topics
    WWII, Biography
    Publisher
    Bantam Books · 1974
    ISBN
    9780553256697
  12. Details for The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

    Description (from Goodreads):

    For generations of Americans, our country has been the world's dominant military power. How the US military fights, and the systems and weapons that it fights with, have been uncontested. That old reality, however, is rapidly deteriorating. America's traditional sources of power are eroding amid the emergence of new technologies and the growing military threat posed by rivals such as China. America is at grave risk of losing a future war. As Christian Brose reveals in this urgent wake-up call, the future will be defined by artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and other emerging technologies that are revolutionizing global industries and are now poised to overturn the model of American defense. This fascinating, if disturbing, book confronts the existential risks on the horizon, charting a way for America's military to adapt and succeed with new thinking as well as new technology. America must build a battle network of systems that enables people to rapidly understand threats, make decisions, and take military actions, the process known as "the kill chain." Examining threats from China, Russia, and elsewhere, The Kill Chain offers hope and, ultimately, insights on how America can apply advanced technologies to prevent war, deter aggression, and maintain peace

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    S2 lists
    Advanced intel, Intel history
    Topics
    China, Russia / USSR
    Publisher
    Hachette Books · 2020
    ISBN
    9780316533539
  13. The Korean War

    Max Hastings

    Not rated by S2

    Buy on Amazon: The Korean War Affiliate link

    Details for The Korean War

    Description (from Goodreads):

    It was the first war we could not win. At no other time since World War II have two superpowers met in battle. Now Max Hastings, preeminent military historian, takes us back to the bloody, bitter, struggle to restore South Korean independence after the Communist invasion of June 1950. Using personal accounts from interviews with more than 200 vets - including the Chinese - Hasting follows real officers and soldiers through the battles. He brilliantly captures the Cold War crisis at home - the strategies and politics of Truman, Acheson, Marshall, MacArthur, Ridgeway, and Bradley - and shows what we should have learned in the war that was the prelude to Vietnam.

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    Topics
    WWII, Vietnam, Korea, Cold War, China
    Publisher
    Pan Books · 2000
    ISBN
    9780330392884
  14. Details for The Leaderless Economy: Why the World Economic System Fell Apart and How to Fix It

    Description (from Goodreads):

    A new way to understand financial crises--and a blueprint for tomorrow's recoveryThe Leaderless Economy reveals why international financial cooperation is the only solution to today's global economic crisis. In this timely and important book, Peter Temin and David Vines argue that our current predicament is a catastrophe rivaled only by the Great Depression. Taking an in-depth look at the history of both, they explain what went wrong and why, and demonstrate why international leadership is needed to restore prosperity and prevent future crises.Temin and Vines argue that the financial collapse of the 1930s was an "end-of-regime crisis" in which the economic leader of the nineteenth century, Great Britain, found itself unable to stem international panic as countries abandoned the gold standard. They trace how John Maynard Keynes struggled for years to identify the causes of the Great Depression, and draw valuable lessons from his intellectual journey. Today we are in the midst of a similar crisis, one in which the regime that led the world economy in the twentieth century--that of the United States--is ending. Temin and Vines show how America emerged from World War II as an economic and military powerhouse, but how deregulation and a lax attitude toward international monetary flows left the nation incapable of reining in an overleveraged financial sector and powerless to contain the 2008 financial panic. Fixed exchange rates in Europe and Asia have exacerbated the problem.The Leaderless Economy provides a blueprint for how renewed international leadership can bring today's industrial nations back into financial balance--domestically and between each other.

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    Economics, Logistics
    Topics
    WWII, Logistics, Economics
    Publisher
    Princeton University Press · 2013
    ISBN
    9781400846641
  15. Details for The Luftwaffe over Germany: Defense of the Reich

    Description (from Goodreads):

    The Luftwaffe over Germany tells the story of one of the longest and most intense air battles in history. The daylight air struggles over Germany during World War II involved thousands of aircraft, dozens of units, and hundreds of aerial engagements. Until now, there has been no single book that covers the complete story, from the highest levels of air strategy to the individual tales of Fw 190s, Bf 109s and Me 262s in air combat against the American bomber streams. This work explores the German air defense system until its collapse in 1945. It examines the detrimental effect of Luftwaffe theory and doctrine on the German air arms ability to defend the homeland once the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive began in earnest. The hard-pressed Luftwaffe leadership attempted to cobble together an air-defense network while at the same time tending to the combat fronts in Russia and the Mediterranean. Units developed specialized tactics and weapons for dealing with heavily defended bomber formations, while senior commanders sought to construct an elaborate command and control system integrating radar, observers, anti-aircraft guns, and fighters. By mid-1944, they had lost the battle - but had exacted a terrible price from the Americans in the process. The product of a ten-year collaboration between two noted Luftwaffe historians, this work fills a major gap in the literature of World War II. The authors have examined original war diaries, logbooks, doctrine manuals, after-action reports, and interviews with many combat veterans to produce a richly detailed account. Illustrated with nearly two hundred photographs, as well as new maps and diagrams, Luftwaffe Over Germany is certain to become the standard work on the subject.

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    Military history, Logistics
    Topics
    WWII, Air power, Russia / USSR, Logistics, Strategy / theory
    Publisher
    GREENHILL · 2007
    ISBN
    1853677124
  16. Details for The Most Valuable Asset of the Reich: A History of the German National Railway, Volume 2, 1933-1945

    Description (from Goodreads):

    The largest enterprise in the capitalist world between 1920 and 1945, the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railway) was at the center of events in a period of great turmoil in Germany. In this, the second volume of his comprehensive history of the Reichsbahn, Alfred Mierzejewski offers the first complete account of the national railway under Hitler's regime. Mierzejewski uses sources that include Nazi Party membership records and Reichsbahn internal memoranda to explore the railway's operations, finances, and political and social roles from 1933 to 1945. He examines the Reichsbahn's role in German rearmament, its own lack of preparations for war, and its participation in Germany's military operations. He shows that despite successfully resisting Nazi efforts to politicize its internal functions, the Reichsbahn cooperated with the government's anti-Semitic policies. Indeed, the railway played a crucial role in the Holocaust by supporting the construction and operation of the Nazi death camps and by transporting Jews and other victims to them.

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    S2 lists
    Military history, Logistics
    Topics
    WWII, Logistics, Economics
    Publisher
    The University of North Carolina Press · 2000
    ISBN
    9780807825747
  17. Details for The Nuremberg Interviews: An American Psychiatrist's Conversations with the Defendants and Witnesses

    Description (from Goodreads):

    During the Nuremberg trials, Leon Goldensohn—a U.S. Army psychiatrist—monitored the mental health of two dozen Germans leaders charged with carrying out genocide. These recorded conversations went largely unexamined for more than fifty years, until Robert Gellately—one of the premier historians of Nazi Germany—made them available to the public in this remarkable collection.  Here are interviews with the likes of Hans Frank, Hermann Goering, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and Joachim von Ribbentrop—the highest ranking Nazi officials in the Nuremberg jails. Here too are interviews with lesser-known officials essential to the inner workings of the Third Reich. Candid and often shockingly truthful,  The Nuremberg Interviews  is a profound addition to our understanding of the Nazi mind and mission.

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    Advanced intel, Military history
    Topics
    WWII
    Publisher
    Vintage Books · 2005
    ISBN
    1400030439
  18. Details for The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency

    Description (from Goodreads):

    The definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51 No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present. This is the book on DARPA--a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.

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    To read
    Topics
    Cold War, Espionage, Strategy / theory
    Publisher
    2015
    ISBN
    9780316371766
  19. Details for The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt, #1)

    Description (from Goodreads):

    Selected by The Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time This classic biography is the story of seven men—a naturalist, a writer, a lover, a hunter, a ranchman, a soldier, and a politician—who merged at age forty-two to become the youngest President in history. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt begins at the apex of his international prestige. That was on New Year’s Day, 1907, when TR, who had just won the Nobel Peace Prize, threw open the doors of the White House to the American people and shook 8,150 hands. One visitor remarked afterward, “You go to the White House, you shake hands with Roosevelt and hear him talk—and then you go home to wring the personality out of your clothes.” The rest of this book tells the story of TR’s irresistible rise to power. During the years 1858–1901, Theodore Roosevelt transformed himself from a frail, asthmatic boy into a full-blooded man. Fresh out of Harvard, he simultaneously published a distinguished work of naval history and became the fist-swinging leader of a Republican insurgency in the New York State Assembly. He chased thieves across the Badlands of North Dakota with a copy of Anna Karenina in one hand and a Winchester rifle in the other. Married to his childhood sweetheart in 1886, he became the country squire of Sagamore Hill on Long Island, a flamboyant civil service reformer in Washington, D.C., and a night-stalking police commissioner in New York City. As assistant secretary of the navy, he almost single-handedly brought about the Spanish-American War. After leading “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders” in the famous charge up San Juan Hill, Cuba, he returned home a military hero, and was rewarded with the governorship of New York. In what he called his “spare hours” he fathered six children and wrote fourteen books. By 1901, the man Senator Mark Hanna called “that damned cowboy” was vice president. Seven months later, an assassin’s bullet gave TR the national leadership he had always craved. His is a story so prodigal in its variety, so surprising in its turns of fate, that previous biographers have treated it as a series of haphazard episodes. This book, the only full study of TR’s pre-presidential years, shows that he was an inevitable chief executive. “It was as if he were subconsciously aware that he was a man of many selves,” the author writes, “and set about developing each one in turn, knowing that one day he would be President of all the people.”

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    Biographies
    Topics
    Cold War, GWOT, Naval, Guerrilla / COIN, Intel history, Biography
  20. Details for The Russian Revolution: A New History

    Description (from Goodreads):

    In The Russian Revolution, historian Sean McMeekin traces the origins and events of the Russian Revolution, which ended Romanov rule, ushered the Bolsheviks into power, and changed the course of world history. Between 1900 and 1920, Russia underwent a complete and irreversible transformation: by the end of these two decades, a new regime was in place, the economy had collapsed, and over 20 million Russians had died during the revolution and what followed. Still, Bolshevik power remained intact due to a remarkable combination of military prowess, violent terror tactics, and the failures of their opposition. And as McMeekin shows, Russia's revolutionaries were aided at nearly every step by countries like Germany and Sweden who sought to benefit—politically and economically—from the chaotic changes overtaking the country. The first comprehensive history of these momentous events in a decade, The Russian Revolution combines cutting-edge scholarship and a fast-paced narrative to shed new light on a great turning point of the twentieth century.

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    To read
    Topics
    Cold War, Russia / USSR, Economics, Revolution
    Publisher
    Basic Books · 2017
    ISBN
    9780465039906
  21. Details for The Secret War For The Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War – How Intelligence Shaped Victory, Defeat, and the Decisions of Commanders

    Description (from Goodreads):

    Most histories of the Civil War explain victory and defeat in terms of the skill of commanders and their troops. Intelligence records disappeared after the war, and thus a critically important element has largely been ignored. Fishel has unearthed substantial collections of such records, and his "intelligence explanation" radically alters history's understanding of the campaigns. The Secret War for the Union is one of the most important Civil War works ever published.

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    S2 lists
    Basic intel, Intel history
    Topics
    Espionage, Intel history, US Civil War
    Publisher
    Mariner Books · 1998
    ISBN
    9780395901366
  22. Details for The Soviet Home Front, 1941-1945: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II

    Description (from Goodreads):

    Nowhere else was World War II as bloody and destructive as it was in Eastern Europe, and of all nations it was the Soviet Union that paid the highest price for victory. The scale of death and destruction is hard to comprehend even today. Its consequences were to shape Soviet politics, and the shape of the postwar world, right through to our own time. How Soviet society responded to the threat, and survived the reality, of this most terrible of wars is the subject of this powerful and impressive survey.

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    S2 lists
    Logistics, Economics
    Topics
    WWII, Cold War, Russia / USSR, Logistics, Economics
    Publisher
    Longman · 1991
    ISBN
    0582009642
  23. Details for The Special Operations Executive in Burma: Jungle Warfare and Intelligence Gathering in World War II

    Description (from Goodreads):

    In the mountains of occupied Burma during World War II, British special forces launched a series of secret operations, assisted by the native 'Karen' people. The men of the SOE, trained in sabotage and 'guerrilla' techniques, worked in the jungle, deep behind enemy lines, to obstruct the puppet Burmese government run by Ba Maw at the behest of Emperor Hirohito's Japan. Here, Richard Duckett uses newly declassified documents from the National Archives to reveal for the first time the extent of British special forces' involvement - from the 1941 operation until well beyond Burma's independence from the British Empire in 1948. Duckett argues convincingly that 'Operation Harlington' - the guerrilla campaign to liberate Burma - ranks amongst the most important of the SOE's secret missions. Featuring a wealth of photographs and accompanying material never before published, including direct testimony recorded by veterans of the campaign, detailed maps of covert operations and photographs of the officers involved, The SOE in Burma tells a compelling story of courage and of struggle in the last years of the Second World War.

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    S2 lists
    Advanced intel, Intel history
    Topics
    WWII, Special ops, Guerrilla / COIN
    Publisher
    I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited · 2017
    ISBN
    9781784539122
  24. Details for The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat

    Description (from Goodreads):

    The thrilling, true story of the race to find a leak in the United States Embassy in Moscow--before more American assets are rounded up and killed. Foreword by Gen. Michael V. Hayden (Retd.), Former Director of NSA & CIA In the late 1970s, the National Security Agency still did not officially exist--those in the know referred to it dryly as the No Such Agency. So why, when NSA engineer Charles Gandy filed for a visa to visit Moscow, did the Russian Foreign Ministry assert with confidence that he was a spy? Outsmarting honey traps and encroaching deep enough into enemy territory to perform complicated technical investigations, Gandy accomplished his mission in Russia, but discovered more than State and CIA wanted him to know. Eric Haseltine's The Spy in Moscow Station tells of a time when--much like today--Russian spycraft had proven itself far beyond the best technology the U.S. had to offer. The perils of American arrogance mixed with bureaucratic infighting left the country unspeakably vulnerable to ultra-sophisticated Russian electronic surveillance and espionage. This is the true story of unorthodox, underdog intelligence officers who fought an uphill battle against their own government to prove that the KGB had pulled off the most devastating penetration of U.S. national security in history. If you think The Americans isn't riveting enough, you'll love this toe-curling nonfiction thriller.

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    S2 lists
    Advanced intel, Biographies, Cryptography, Intel history
    Topics
    Cold War, Espionage, Russia / USSR
    Publisher
    Thomas Dunne Books · 2019
    ISBN
    9781250301161