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Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda | 
 enlarge | Authors: Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, Henry R. Schlesinger
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $19.77
You Save: $10.18 (34%)
New (1) Used (11) from $18.40
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 3223
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 2.1
ISBN: 0525949801
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.1273
EAN: 9780525949800
ASIN: 0525949801
Publication Date: May 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
From two men who know better than anyone how espionage really works, an unprecedented historyheavily illustrated with neverbefore- seen imagesof the CIAs most secretive operations and the gadgets that made them possible.
It is a world where the intrigue of reality exceeds that of fiction. What is an invisible photo used for? What does it take to build a quiet helicopter? How does one embed a listening device in a cat? If these sound like challenges for Q, James Bonds fictional gadget-master, think again. Theyre all real-life devices created by the CIAs Office of Technical Servicean ultrasecretive department that combines the marvels of state-of-the-art technology with the time-proven traditions of classic espionage. And now, in the first book ever written about this office, the former director of OTS teams up with an internationally renowned intelligence historian to take readers into the laboratory of espionage.
Spycraft tells amazing life and death stories about this littleknown group, much of it never before revealed. Against the backdrop of some of Americas most critical periods in recent historyincluding the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the war on terrorthe authors show the real technical and human story of how the CIA carries out its missions.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
Spycraft August 7, 2008
Fantastic! Told from the unique perspective of the technical and operations officers of the day, this is a must read for anyone interested in the period of history between the Cold War and today.
Battle of the Techs August 6, 2008
Spycraft is a well documented and entertaining read about the OTS engineers who work mostly behind the scenes to develop innovative and clever solutions to meet collection requirements. It chronicles the same problems faced the world over where the "fine arts graduates" see themselves as the master race, relegating the "techs", often dedicated engineers or scientists with multiple degrees, to subservience in the mistaken belief that techs could not analyze requirements and target using technical means in their own right.
Spycraft July 28, 2008
A fascinating collection of stories and events relative to our government and other countries effort to gather information.
The other side of the Trade July 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For most people when they think of Spying they think of the guy on ground
doing his Thing.But little thought is given to the people who make and place
the gadgets the spy uses. The book goes through the history of the departments and devices involved from the beginning till the present day with eye opening stories packed full of interesting facts.
If you are interested in Tradecraft then this is the flip side of the coin.
An excellent book that belongs in every spy buffs library !
The Whole Story July 18, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the Whole Story
Robert Wallace is a good friend and a former colleague.
Cold War intelligence operations and those who managed and ran them were always highly compartmentalized so that only a handful knew the whole story.
Now, with access to former Soviet intelligence files, many things have become more clear. Still, it is for writer/practitioners like Wallace to give us a fascinating and until-now-unknown view of the long U.S. - Soviet standoff.
This book is a great read, hard to set aide. It should be must reading for anyone who wants facts about how technology supported (and sometimes failed) American (and Soviet) intelligence operations during those long and expensive years. Interested college students and their teachers can rely on this text. It is painstakingly researched and noted.
The Agency understandably has a tough pre-publication review process and I am pleasantly surprised to see how much of Wallace's material has been allowed to see print. Although I often knew only a little of the many specifics he writes about, there is no doubt that this is the whole story, satisfying and often surprising even to the Old Timers who were involved.
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