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 enlarge | Authors: Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, Henry R. Schlesinger
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $17.93
You Save: $12.02 (40%)
New (33) Used (18) from $14.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 7725
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 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
BUY THIS BOOK!!!! September 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
SPYCRAFT is the book, every lay person should read. This book shows that good intelligence work rather than being glamorous, can be a tedious and perilous occupation that involves pain-staking preparation. Intelligence means gathering necessary information for policy makers to make realistic and level-headed decisions. With provided intelligence, policy makers can take steps to prevent disasters from occurring or global conflict from taking place.
While reconnaissance satellites can show what physical movements are taken by nations and NGOs, HUMINT or human intelligence is needed by policy makers to decide if a bluff is being made or deterrence will be required. SPYCRAFT shows how the CIA has used innovation and daring in the gathering and transmitting of HUMINT. The innovation of inventing tools is used for gathering and transmitting of intelligence. The personal risk involved usually doesn't involve gun-play or some melodramatic heroism. Personal risk is about not getting caught and taking personal risk to protect a source or helping an exposed source from deadly reprisal.
Too often, the public sees the Central Intelligence Agency as later day Keystone Kops or Americanized versions of James Bond. Neither stereotype is accurate. SPYCRAFT demonstrates that the people who work at the CIA are everyday Americans who have decided to take up the cause of maintaining the peace by sustaining a professional intelligence organization.
 A great look inside the world of covert operations, but oddly understated. September 16, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Having read and enjoyed Spycraft, I expected it to garner solid reviews. However, I am quite surprised to see that until now, it's received 100% five-star reviews. I've almost never seen a book reviewed this favorably and I've certainly read better books with more mixed reviews.
Don't get me wrong, Spycraft is a good book. It allows its reader behind a curtain into a world that is typically strictly off-limits. You get to experience the real-world existence of spies living and working secretly behind enemy lines. The book reveals a lot of the technology used by spies, focusing in on listening devices, cameras and communication devices. What stands out is the ingenuity and craftsmanship that goes into the creation of the devices upon which people stake their lives.
While the book is written about spy technology, what I found to be the most surprising from the book was the the amount of time and effort invested in some of the CIA's covert operations. Often times, years are spent establishing credible cover or doing piecemeal research about a target to avoid drawing attention. 100% of some peoples' living patterns are built around an operational necessity that takes up only the smallest percentage their time. It's truly amazing to read about the sacrifices made to achieve an intelligence payoff.
There is a problem, however, the book reads unexpectedly dull. I'm sure this is an outgrowth of the fact that real CIA operatives have to be consummate professionals and not suave, womanizing James Bond-types, but it takes away from the book. I am not implying in any way that anything should be fabricated or embellished to add to the excitement, but instead that the story is inherently exciting and that the writing should have reflected that more even if the author's demeanor is necessarily even-keeled.
A great book, but exciting stories get told in a seemingly Prozac-tamed manner. I recommend this one highly, but it could have been better still.
Local Boy Makes Good September 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have known Bob Wallace since we were 3rd graders in neighboring communities in Lincoln and Ottawa Counties, Kansas. We competed against one another in team sports throughout our grade school and high school days and were teammates for several years of summer baseball for Home Oil Company, Barnard, Kansas. I had not seen Bob since 1962 or perhaps a few years later, but I kept track of him through one of his cousins who happens to be my brother-in-law. Clearly, Bob is an outstanding individual whose accomplishments (those he can discuss, let alone those known only to a select few with the highest of security clearances) are incredible. It is almost unbelievable to me that this tough farm boy, who used to pigeon-toe out to the mound from behind home plate in dusty sweat-soaked catcher's regalia to counsel me about my side-arm deliveries, went on to become one of our nation's top CIA officials.
I ordered a copy of Spycraft months before its release and read it with great interest. I learned more about clandestine service and specific case histories than I had ever anticipated. I guess it had not occurred to me that the techies didn't just do a quick orientation for the end user and go on to the next new thing. Also surprising was the candor with which Bob described the agonizing process of getting this book approved by the CIA. My having known Bob since early childhood permitted me to ascribe the highest credibility to this account of key events and inventions involving spies and spytechs.
I had the privilege of being Bob's guest at a presentation he made to a local fraternal organization a few days after Spycraft was released. He signed my copy of the book and bemusedly asked me my favorite part (was this a test to see if I had read it?) Near the end of his presentation, I think he set the stage for the next few chapters of a yet unwritten update someone may write in a decade or two. Bob responded to the last question of his Q & A, inquiring whether even more refined and amazing gadgets were currently being developed and used in the field. He could not answer except to say that the gadgets described in the book were developed up into the 90's and with the passage of a number of years one need only use imagination to extrapolate from then until now. My parting comment to Bob in an email after the luncheon was that I hoped we lived long enough for him to write and me to read his memoir. In the meantime, I am content to use my imagination to insert him into the book here and there when he quotes one of the old hands or an unnamed station chief--who knows; could be???
Gripping Life & Death Stories September 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
From Castro to the Kremlin, and from poison pens to Pan Am 103, SPYCRAFT lifts the veil of the CIA's own skunkworks and puts the techno into a dozen real life techno-thrillers. Clear. Compelling. Comprehensive. And a helluva good read. Based on interviews with more than 100 officers of the CIA, this is the first and only definitive book on a fascinating and always relevant subject.
SPYMASTER August 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Although I am not quite finished with the book, I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in the real background and inside operations of the CIA written by past insiders. The content has been screened to assure that no classified information is contained, as well no endangerment of agents or other pesonnel is done. To add to the real meaning of the book, the forward was wiritten by George Tenet, Director of the CIA.
Some of the details of particular operations will have you on the edge of your seat. You will also be amazed at some of information on equipment developed and used by agents. You will be given an opportunity to decode a message using a real cipher code.
Don't miss this one!!
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