 | Spying in America: Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War Subjects: Espionage -- United States -- Case studies; Espionage -- United States -- History; Spies -- United States -- Biography; Spies -- United States -- History; United States -- History -- Civil War 1861-1865 -- Secret service; Espionage German -- United Stat; As a former CIA chief of counterintelligence and director of the National Clandestine Service, Sulick offers glimpses into the motivations, operations, and mistakes of both individuals and nations in this examination of 30 acts of espionage. He analyzes each according to six fundamental elements: motivation, access, tradecraft, exposure, punishment, and resultant damage. In Sulick's view all instances of espionage are bound by "money, ego, revenge, romance, simple thrills, ideological sympathy, and dual loyalties." His simple style breezes the reader through one individual and era of American history after another, from the truth about Benedict Arnold's burden on the British crown, to how a German spook accidentally left a valuable briefcase on the New York subway. These annals read like fiction, which plays into Sulick's statement that, due to our unique geographical location and emphasis on individual liberties, Americans possess a disbelief that the threat of espionage exists within our borders as well as an unwillingness to sacrifice said liberties to undermine or counter these threats. Yet as Sulick proves with this broad work, foreign attempts at espionage have existed since the country's inception and will surely continue. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. Michael J. Sulick is a retired intelligence operations officer who worked for the CIA for twenty-eight years. He served as chief of CIA counterintelligence from 2002-4 and as director of the National Clandestine Service from 2007-10, where he was responsible for supervising the agency's covert collection operations and coordinating the espionage activities of the US intelligence community. |
