Agencies

Having read many books on gangsters you come across some real turkeys but Stanley Hamilton's account of Machine Gun Kelly's crimes was very well written without the usual padding out that some writers tend to use.

It is a very informative account of the kidnapping and aftermath which kept me gripped until the end.

The book's ending was, for once, a surprise and I would recommend this title to readers who like True Crime to be based on facts and not the fiction.

Stan Hamilton has written a great narrative history in which there are surprises, odd twists and unexpected heroes. It is a fine well-written book in which neither Kelly nor his foil, J. Edgar Hoover, are the most fascinating charcters' but rather that role is reserved for the smartest of victims, Charles Urchel, and the powerful, conniving Kathryn Kelly. I will not give this one away, but will tell you that this book delivers one first rate couple of evenings of reading which not only tells a strong story but gives an insight into the world of 1933 --gangsters and bootleg gin. You will love this book!!!!

This is a great introduction to the case that made J. Edgar Hoover's "G-men" (even though, contrary to FBI lore, as Hamilton points out, that nickname wasn't coined by George "Machine Gun" Kelly). While not an actual biography of Kelly--it does provide more background info on him than previous accounts--it is the most detailed account of the Urschel kidnapping to date. Somewhat revisionist and updated to follow the fates of the principals, it is both a great read and an excellent followup to E.E. Kirkpatrick's 1933 inside account "Crimes' Paradise".

This book differs from many of the true crime novels by the author writing a story in which you almost feel sorrier for the killer and his family than that of the victim. Also the setting differs from many of the others in this genre. The setting is in the Appalachian Mountains in the county seat of Pike County - Pikesville, Kentucky. Though the story isn't fast-paced, it does not drag either. Although, I've read more interesting stories; the names Ann Rule and Aphrodite Jones come to mind; this is a novel that you want to continue reading to find out what happens. As another reviewer says, it would be nice to find out what has happened to Mark, Kathy, and Danielle Putnam. If you like a book where the killer is not a sleezebucket with many problems, has a conscience and could easily be someone you know and trust, this book should be one you should look into.

Mark Putman, sworn to protect and serve. He did so but he is not above the law, Man's or God's. He became a victim out of the heat of passion, or maybe rage. That depends on how one looks at it. I really liked the book, and I'm trying to get a copy for myself to have at my home. I think there are a lot of people who haven't heard of the book, but would read it and find it a fine book to read twice, maybe more.

I like to read true crime books, and this one was very good. This book made me feel very sorry for the criminal and his family. After reading this book, I wanted to know so much more about Mark Putnam and his family. I could not find anything on the internet relating to the crime. Oh well, I am interested in reading another book by Joe Sharkey now. If anyone finds a website that has info on this subject, please email me.

This is a biography we have been waiting for a long time. In fact, few even thought Richard Helms would even write his memoirs when one considers he spent his life working within the world of secrets, assassinations, political underdealings. Indeed, this can be a fascinating book for a realistic view of the world stuff like the Bond movies paint in more cartoonish terms. Helms takes us on a historical journey through World War 2 and his meeting with Hitler (where he describes the power of the Hitler aura upon the German people), he goes on into the years of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon during which he was director of the CIA. But...should we take Helms' version of history as official? Probably not. Consider he makes an attempt to bash any theory that tries to show uptight men like him as anything other than squeaky clean. He especially tries to brush off the idea that the CIA might have been involved in the JFK assassination. He goes out of his way to especially criticise New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison who first brought the assassination conspiracy theories to the public and the Oliver Stone film based on the investigation and evidence of conspiracy, "JFK." He calls the idea of a conspiracy hogwash and tries to support the idea of Oswald acting alone with evidence that has already been shredded apart by investigators. Helms even tries to defend the image of FBI head J.Edgar Hoover, he confirms that Hoover kept certain files on people, but he attempts to deny the idea brought about by overwhelming evidence and testimony that Hoover lived a homosexual lifestyle. Helms presents a good story but also tries too hard to clean-up the image of a government that runs wild in some areas, something that has been long ago proven. It is a good read, well-written and detailed, but like any open-minded reader, read but carefully tread the waters because are we to believe Helms would honestly reveal secrets that even today would awaken rage from the general populace? Helms tells a good story, how much of it is true we will never know.

This book is not afraid to look at fundamental problems in the area of intelligence, which America today is finding amazingly similar to the problems that Richard Helms observed in Germany immediately after World War Two. Helms was uniquely qualified to see the big picture, having been a newspaper reporter who had lunch with Adolf Hitler (Chapter 2 is called `Lunch with Adolf') the day of a big rally in Nuremberg in 1936, a privilege that Americans willing to spend a thousand dollars a plate to attend a fundraiser with American presidents more recently might be jealous of, if being a millionaire is not enough to make them happy. Henry Kissinger was happy to report in the Foreword that Helms was even invited to lunch with President Nixon after an early NSC meeting. (p. xi). There is even a picture of the famous Tuesday lunch group with LBJ, Rusk, Clark Clifford, General Wheeler, Walt Rostow, George Cushman and Walt Johnson. There is even a picture of a lunch with Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush with the caption, "At lunch in the Vice President's office. Aside from George Washington, the elder George Bush is the only President who had firsthand knowledge of the intelligence world."

The Preface reports that February 2, 1973, was the day James Schlesinger was sworn in as head of CIA and Richard Helms lost the position which was his main claim to fame. Richard Nixon had something to do with it, and Chapter 1, `A Smoking Gun' reports enough about the Watergate break-in to give the CIA perspective from the top, and ends with "Five months later, and a few days after his reelection, President Nixon called me to Camp David. It was the last time we spoke while he was in office." (p. 13). The Preface even claims "President Nixon had ended my intelligence career with a handshake at Camp David." (p. vi). If Helms is right about that, there was no personal contact between the Director of the CIA and the President of the United States in December 1972 and January 1973, when the Vietnam ceasefire was being hammered into place and a record number of B-52 bombers were being shot down by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns and SAMs. That figures.

The German spies are most fascinating in the beginning of the book. Helms calls Martha Dodd an American, as she was the daughter of the American ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1938, but she was also girlfriend of Boris Vinogradov, the press secretary at the Soviet embassy in Berlin. After being charged with spying in 1957, she fled to Czechoslovakia. "Martha was seventy when she died in Prague in 1990." (p. 20). Spies and Richard Nixon have an acute sense of which side someone is on, and Helms seems to be particularly sensitive to the issues that Nixon would be prone to notice. Other major personalities are easy to locate in the index: Allen Dulles, James Angleton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, and Frank Wisner.

Chapter 8, "The Gehlen Organization," deals with the group most responsible for allowing German intelligence after World War Two to maintain some continuity with the information that had been accumulating while Hitler was in power. As the only employer in West Germany that was not averse to employing the upper echelons of the previous regime, it had no trouble recruiting four thousand former Nazis, but Helms did not find them reliable. " . . . the American officers working with Gehlen in Washington neglected to insist upon being given the names of and biographical data on the RUSTY staff personnel. . . . Even in the confusion of the immediate post-war intelligence picture, this oversight violated one of the fundamental rules of secret intelligence, and helped to set the stage for the security disasters that in time all but destroyed the entire effort." (p. 86). A lot of people have been jumping to this conclusion without having the kind of in-depth knowledge of the situation which Helms observed.

On "fundamental rules of secret intelligence," (p. 86), Helms seems most upset that he received a felony conviction for denying something in testimony to Congress that he felt compelled to deny. Helms was bitter that in his confirmation hearings to be appointed ambassador to Iran, he was asked questions by people who knew that the answer was officially secret, so he was being forced to lie to maintain a cover story that was maintaining dubious deniability. This is the area of books on intelligence that I find most interesting. Nosenko was not allowed to participate in a free debate in America over the nature of KGB activities regarding Lee Harvey Oswald because the entire nature of the KGB was a matter of exclusive CIA jurisdiction within the American system, and holding Nosenko a prisoner for years was the perfect symbol of the amount of control that the CIA believed it was entitled to maintain over such information. Convicting Helms of a felony for lying to Congress was a matter of attempting to establish the principle that laws have a higher function than rules, and any individual within the American system is subject to the possibility of being hauled into court to be a patsy for whatever law the administration of justice intends to glorify in its present incarnation.

Helms doesn't exactly vilify Richard M. Nixon in this book, but just honestly stating "It has long been clear to me that President Nixon himself called the shots in the Watergate cover-up," (p. 13) is damn close. On our most recent impeachment, I think the movie "Candy" (1969, DVD 2001) with Enrico Maria Salerno as Jonathan J. John provides a better joke, when the police ask, "Did you see what happened to the girl in the blue dress?" Film buff J.J.J. responded, "I don't know. Who directed it?" That is the way most Presidents feel about the CIA.

Pages 300/301 of the Helms book:

One of the most disturbing incidents in the six days [war between Israel and
the surrounding Arab states] came on the morning of June 8[, 1967] when the
Pentagon flashed(urgent top-priority precedence) a message that the U.S.S.
Liberty, an unarmed U.S. Navy communications(spy) ship, was under attack in
the Mediterranean, and that American fighters had been scrambled to defend
the ship....

.... The following urgent reports showed that Israeli jet fighters and
torpedo boats had launched the attack. The seriously damaged Liberty
remained afloat, with thirty-four dead and more than a hundred wounded
members of the crew.

Israeli authorities subsequently apologized for the accident, but few in
Washington could believe that the ship had not been identified as an
American naval vessel. Later, an interim intelligence memorandum concluded
that the attack was a mistake and "not made in malice against the U.S."....

.... When additional evidence was available, more doubt was raised. This prompted my
[D]eputy [Director of Central Intelligence], Admiral Rufus Taylor, to write
me his view of the incident. "To me, the picture thus far presents the
distinct possibility that the Israelis knew that the Liberty might be their
target and attacked anyway, either through confusion in Command and Control
or through deliberate disregard of instructions on the part of
subordinates."

The day after the attack, President Johnson, bristling with irritation, said
to me, "The New York Times" put that attack on the Liberty on an inside
page. It should have been on the front page!"

I had no role in the board of inquiry that followed, or the board's finding
that there could be no doubt that the Israeli's knew exactly what they were
doing in attacking the Liberty. I have yet to understand why it was felt
necessary to attack this ship or who ordered the attack.

(299 words in a 452 page book)

Murder... they KNEW they were murdering defenseless American kids barely in their twenties so that they could complete WHAT two Israeli Prime Ministers(Menachim Begin and Moshe Dayan) have since admitted was a "land grab"....

...to get more land, ....more land than they had already grabbed by the fourth day of the Six-Day War-they left 34 American families without their sons, brothers, dads... and sent a good subset of the 171 injured home to THEIR families in the US maimed for life.

and the kids burned and maimed for life who are standing up for their 34 fallen comrades unable to rise from the dead to defend their own memories and blameless conduct... now the Israelis call them "liars" and "anti-Semites"...

...except a couple of the crew members of the USS Liberty were Jewish themselves... so they're not called "liars" and "anti-semites"... no, the Israeli attackers and Government of Israel call them "liars" and "self-hating jews"...

THE OFFICIAL POSITION OF THE CIA IS THAT THIS WAS A "TRAGIC MISTAKE".... BUT HERE IS WHAT THE OFFICIALS AT THE NSA HAD TO SAY TO UNITED STATES NAVAL INSTITUTE'S, DAVID C WALSH:Former NSA Officials Agree
David C. Walsh
The jamming of unique U.S. frequencies during the Liberty incident seems to establish deliberate intent. And in exclusive interviews with this author, several former high-level National Security Agency (NSA) officials agree.

On 14 February 2003, the "godfather" of the NSA's Auxiliary General Technical Research program, Oliver Kirby, noted that the Liberty was "my baby." Within weeks of the calamity, Kirby, deputy director for operations/production, read U.S. signals intelligence (SigInt)-generated transcripts and "staff reports" at NSA's Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters. They were of Israeli pilots' conversations, recorded during the attack. The intercepts made it "absolutely certain" they knew it was a U.S. ship, he said. Kirby's is the first public disclosure by a top-level NSA senior of deliberate intent based on personal analyses of SigInt material.

In an interview on 24 February 2003, retired Air Force Major General John Morrison, the agency's then-second-in-command (and Kirby's successor), said he had been informed at the time of Kirby's findings and endorsed them. Former NSA Director retired Army Lieutenant General William Odom said on 3 March 2003 said that, on the strength of such data, the attack's deliberateness "just wasn't a disputed issue" within the agency. On 5 March 2003, retired Navy Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, NSA director from 1977-1981, said he "flatly rejected" the Cristol/Israeli thesis. "It is just exceedingly difficult to believe that [the Liberty] was not correctly identified." He said this was based on his talks with NSA seniors at the time having direct knowledge. All four were unaware of any agency official at that time or later who dissented from the "deliberate" conclusion.

Entertaining, interesting and educational. The author provides fascinating behind the scenes information not to be found elsewhere. The "Operation Explore More" sections at the end of each chapter provide additional resources for those who wish to learn more. This book is not only a good read, it would be an excellent resource for teachers who want to liven up the classroom.

This book is a must-have! The author has found a previously untapped niche in the history of intelligence. Not only does she tell us about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from behind the scenes, but she also brings to life untold stories of intelligence from the back pages of America's history. If only I wish had read this book when I was a kid, I would have been totally engaged. Instead of the typical dry facts, the detailed descriptions of these characters seem to jump off the pages and get to know you. The author includes stories about intelligence maneuvers during the Civil War, heroism by black cavalrymen known as the Buffalo Solders, a courageous World War II spy named Virginia Hall, Navajo Indians as military code breakers, a baseball player's role in uncovering Nazi Germany's atomic bomb capabilities, and the reason that George Washington is considered America's first Director of Central Intelligence. The book is also richly illustrated with photographs and drawings of these characters and the artifacts described. I got this book after I heard the author being interviewed on National Public Radio, and am delighted with it. This is a fun, informative and a totally different way of understanding American history, especially the history of intelligence. It would be a great book to give to children who are reluctant history students to get them reading about our country's fascinating past.

"Spies, Pop Flies, and French Fries" is a deliciously serendipitous discovery. Whatever could spies have in common with pop flies . . . or, yet more outrageously, with french fries? And then to discover, of all things, that the CIA has a museum -- it does, but you and I are unlikely candidates for invitations to see it -- and that the author herself created and maintained it for several years before her retirement from the agency. Inasmuch as we will probably never see this elite inner sanctum (and, of course, don't even think of it for the entertainment of out-of-town guests), it's a fortunate thing that Ms. McCarthy has given us this eminently readable peek into the impenetrable world of spookdom.

With delightful wit and relish she recounts historical highlights of the arcane and mysterious world of intelligence and counterintelligence dating back to the very founding of the country. In a curious and almost perverse way, it's comforting to know that, throughout our history, as the majority of us openly struggled and fought for patriotic principles of the moral, the right and the good, we've always been well-served by a cadre of dedicated secret agents willing -- perhaps even preferring -- to express their patriotism through clandestine and furtive means.

And a highly unlikely cast of characters they frequently are. Two in particular caught this reader's fancy. One, a quiet well-bred Southern belle by the name of Virginia Hall, served as an undercover agent in Europe during World War II under the auspices of the Office of Strategic Services. With an outstanding command of languages, and even with a physical handicap (she was nicknamed "The Limping Lady of the O.S.S."), Miss Hall was able to surreptitiously move about behind German lines picking up sensitive information which was then, coded, sent back to Allied headquarters. So effective was she that she was known by the Gestapo as "one of the most dangerous Allied agents in France."

A second surprise was Moe Berg -- major league baseball catcher (for the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox), linguist, attorney, scholar, and O. S. S. agent -- who, charged with discovering whether Nazi Germany presented any threat of developing a nuclear weapon -- had it within his power to assassinate German's leading nuclear physicist if he found the threat to be real. P. S. He didn't.

So much for the connection between the spies and the pop flies in the title of the book. "French fries," however, is yet another story, which you will discover for yourself.

Ms. McCarthy has made an important contribution by presenting this material succinctly and with solid historical documentation behind it. Besides, it's a great read.

Written insightfully. You will find both humor and seriousness. He addresses social problems, bureau red-tape, the mob, specific investigations and more.

This is a solid account of FBI work as it really is, showing that agents are neither flawless supermen nor incompetent idiots--that they're human, in other words. Very readable, too.

I found this book to be insightful and well written. Phil Kerby seems to tell you the good and the bad about the FBI. I could feel his pride as I read the book. If you are interested in the FBI, crimefighting, and more, this book is for you. I truly enjoyed it.

After a lifetime of devoted service conducting illegal wiretaps, break-ins and burglaries, known as "black bag jobs" former FBI agent Wesley Swearingen decided to tell all about an FBI that few people really know.

To be fair, government employees, no matter what agency employs them, are awash in an ocean of fraud, waste, corruption and general mismanagement perpetuated by their so called "supervisors." These individuals are generally unemployable, mediocre and incompetent. Thank God for government service, the largest, most pernicious public employment and welfare system in existence next to the Pentagon and its arms suppliers, or they'd be on the streets.

"FBI Secrets" does more than expose specific secrets documenting COINTELPRo-type programs designed to deny and destroy the rights of American citizens to actively engage in political dissent, it exposes the moral dilemma faced by those who perpetuate them. Admittedly, this agent waited until after retirement to expose what he knows; but he reveals to the reader the torment of an agent who became disillusioned with the agency yet had a career to protect.

Swearingen could have simply walked away. it would not have stopped these invasive violations of American's civil liberties but, at least, he would nt have been involved. With hindsight, and through the work of many investigative journalists and authors, information concerning how the FBI violates the civil rights of American citizens is abundantly avaialble.

The history of the founding of the FBI, beginning in 1908 with the corrupt Bureau of Investigation, the Palmer raids, orchestrated by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer and executed by an unknown federal bureaucrat named J. Edgar Hoover, stands in stark contrast to the James Stewart inspired cinematic travesty, "The FBI Story." Certainly, the author's slim, yet powerful volume, stands as a beacon of truth next to this cinematic garbargio.

The peculiarities of the Director, his life-long homosexual relationship with Clyde Tolson, his liasons with other rich and pwerful gay men, such as Lewis Rosenthiel of Schenley, the red baiting Roy Cohn and New York's Cardinal Spellman made, in large measure, what the Bureau what it is today, the nation's political police.

"FBI Secrets: An Agent's Exposure" is a chronological narration written by whistleblower M. Wesley Swearingen about his career as Special Agent for the FBI during the period 1951-1977. The marketing forward by Ward Churchill (we are not privy to who he is) notes Wesley had the necessary courage, fortitude and character to reveal the intrinsic wrongness and illegal doings of the FBI over a span of several decades.

Wesley explains how he was able to muster the requisite conscience and personal integrity to expose, albeit belatedly, the bigotry, cheating, lying, burgularizing, wire taps, bugs and unauthorized surveillances he had participated in or witnessed during 25 years as Special Agent. Also emphasized is how the Black Panther Party, the Weatherman (militant college students of the SDS founded by Thomas Haden) and individual top political activists were subjected to harassment, censure and surveillance without due cause.

Swearingen is to be commended for writing about alleged eye-witnessed corruption in the FBI. He effectively indicts himself as a co-conspirator, something which ordinarily adds credence to a confession. As a writer, Wesley's naivete exposes himself as a haughty Special Agent who is troubled with financial and personal security, an over zealous need to make faultfinding remarks of his associates and a total inability to get along with others. Although it fails the rule of "It Takes a King to Unseat a King," the book's content is revealing, easy to digest, reasonably well arranged and does give one pause to ponder.

The author is a former agent and as such has written the most recent and most authoritative insider account which describes the day-to-day office level details of COINTELPRO (when it functioned illegally). The keeping of secret lists of people to be arrested and sent to detention camps is morally repulsive enough,but the bureau did far more than this. It broke into buildings to gather evidence, planted bugs and incriminating evidence. It used this illegally obtained material to blackmail others, including public figures. It directly interfered in the administration of justice by intimidating witnesses, in some cases having its informants perjure themselves by coming forth with false testimony. It even had people murdered.
Knowledge of such activites is of particular importance now because of the legalization and reestablishment of COINTELPRO which occurred with the enactment of the Patriot Act. This event totally changes the security landscape both for activists and for corporate America. Its implications are guaranteed to be a force chilling to democratic ideals, a new dark period in American history. This book should be a starting point for any corporate strategist charged with maintaining an even foothold as acts of repression unfold. As checks and balances disappear, abuses of power emerge. It is now legal for any federal investigator to demand any business document without court supervision whether it be the reading habits of library patrons, the member rosters of organizations,or the minutes of closed meetings. Any person which reveals the material has been compromised is guilty of a federal felony.
The author describes how he was taught to pick locks and sneak into look for evidence. He had to do it at risk of expulsion from the FBI if he was caught. Now it has been legalized and no legal record of the breakin is required. With these new powers agents may easily subvert third party security firms and alarm companies that are paid to protect their custormers. A careful read of the atrocities the bureau committed in the past vs what they can do now legally is very sobering.

...A MURDER IN WARTIME is one of the best books to have emerged from the Vietnam debacle. Jeff Stein deserves full credit for the extensive research he did, and for tying together such a complicated story in such a readable way. All sides are fairly represented, and that indeed is something rare in a book about the Vietnam War.

The only problem I have with the book is that it sometimes has a bigger-than-life quality that makes one wonder if the author was willing to stretch the truth here and there for the sake of a good read. For example, Stein paints the book's central figure, Col. Robert B. Rheault, as a warrior-philosopher, both a thinking man and a highly-decorated combat leader revered by his men. To make the point, Stein writes that Rheault had earned the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star, valor awards rated only one and two steps behind the Medal of Honor. However, according to Rheault's entry in the United States Military Academy Register of Graduates, he actually had very limited combat service and had never been decorated for valor. Additionally, Rheault's name does not show up on an exhaustive list of Vietnam DSC winners compiled by the late Lt. Col. Albert F. Gleim, USA-Ret.

This is no small matter and makes me wonder about other passages in a book which was great enough to stand on its own without any exaggerations. I'd be curious as to where Stein got his information about Rheault being a highly-decorated war hero....

Jeff Stein's "A Murder in Wartime" bravely tackles all of the moral issues of wartime in general and the moral ambiguities attached to the Vietnam War, in particular. In 1969 eight Green Berets were accused of murdering a Vietnamese who may or may not have been a spy for North Vietnam. The case called into question the morality of waging a guerilla war, the role of the regular U.S. Army in such a context, the control of the CIA, and the politics of waging an unpopular war. Stein manages to weave all of these issues and dozens of key participants in the alleged murder and its aftermath without losing focus. Stein's narrative style flows easily through the perspective of all the key personnel and pulls the reader into the moral and ethical wilderness these people faced. Stein is careful not to pass judgement on the Green Berets charged with the crime, or on the regular Army establishment who may have seized on this incident just to put the Green Berets in their place. Instead he allows the reader to face the same dilemma all of these people did and make their own choices. An outstanding piece of historical writing.

This is one of the best books I have read on the Vietnam war. Well written. If I could get the rights, I would turn it into a film. Well worth the read. Find it if you can.

I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. It has aspects of a spy thriller, but it also is a well-drawn character study of a man whose re-assessing what his choices in life have resulted in. And he seeks a chance for redemption of past sins.

While the thriller portions are pretty standard fare, I foun the main character's journey thought-provoking. worth a look for those seeking a more intelligent thriller, but those seeking merely slam-bang action will be disappointed.

This is a well crafted thriller, all the more disturbing by the fact that it is true. Beautifully written with astounding honesty. You will not be able to put this little gem down. Gilboy is the undisputed master at storytelling.

It is no less thrilling than the best of the spy genre: a real page turner. But Operation Fantasy Plan reminds me, too, of the best Russian literature -- Dostoevsky comes to mind.

Peter Gaines (the protaganist) is constantly driven to action. At the same time he is forced to question the very meaning of humanity and morality, exploring the questions of what is good and evil (if even there is such a thing) and of what differentiates love from lust (if anything). You'll have to decide for yourself whether Gaines chooses the best path in the end, and you will be thinking about it for a long time after.

This book was given to me by a friend when I started my business. It was a godsend! It showed me how to streamline and make my company more effective. It was this book, along with Guerrilla PR Wired, that made me a success.

Power Position Your Agency is loaded with fantastic tips and ideas! It's definitely helped me, and I'm constantly going back to it. My only caveat is that it's a bit weak on the whole public relations side, especially when the rest is so useful. For the pr stuff, I found Michael Levine's Guerilla PR: Wired to make up for it. I'm really confident that these two books will lead to my company's being in an excellent position!

I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar where Troy Korsgaden was one of the presenters. This book is a direct take on the presentation he made. He makes a very compelling case for how to grow your agency. I know it isn't what some of us want to hear. Who wants to bother with hiring other people? What the author says is that if you want to grow your agency, you must duplicate yourself by training others to perform most, if not all, duties that don't involve direct selling. And guess what? Sometimes even that function can be handled by your staff.

Troy Korsgaden's one-man agency managed 1,500 policies after all of nine years in business. With his current setup - including eleven employees - has a growth rate of 750 policies a year. I know, that isn't the goal of some of us in this business. However, his message is that if you really want to grow, there are no shortcuts. Hiring staff is not optional, it is absolutely necessary. Great book. Easy to read and to the point.

This book is informative and the author is obviously intelligent. The reading is hard to follow, however. The author makes a great use of run-on sentences. He is constantly interjecting side thoughts within a sentence that makes the use of many commas with some dashes the norm. Sentences greater than an inch in width down a page are quite common. One must reread continuously to try to connect his thoughts. Except toward the end, this is not a light reading book.

No need to repeat what is covered below. Christopher Felix is the pseudonym of James McCargar who was a field agent in the late 40s. He was still active in the community when this book was originally published way back when. Then it was one of the few reality based accounts by an American about the postwar era when the Red juggernaut was slowly rolling up eastern Europe.
I still find it of interest and it proves how little tradecraft has changed, just the tools that are used.

Christopher Felix's A Short Course in the Secret War provides the reader with an excellent introduction into the little known world of international espionage. As a reviwer noted earlier, the first part of the book outlines what spycraft is and is not, what the theory of intelligence work is, and how it is practiced. Pay close attention, as the vocabulary used and techniques discussed are put into practice later in the book.

The second half of the book details Felix's work as an operations officer (i.e. "spy") in Hungary at the end of the Second World War. Here the glamourous and mundane work of espionage is recounted in an almost casual manner, as are the daily challenges and frustrations the author experienced while working there.

There are litterally hundreds of books written on the subject - yet in my opinion, A Short History is among the best. The writing is clear and lucid, and captivates the reader's attention; the material related is all first hand, and while a little dated, the lessons taught are relevant and comprehensive. A must read for anyone interested in learning more about the real practice of intelligence gathering.