ESPIONAGE ESTABLISHMENT

Again working their research skills in the pay dirt of the spy business, the authors apparently mean to turn out a work of greater significane and longer life than their U-2 Affair and The Invisible Government. The espionage establishments of the United Stags (CIA), the Soviet Union (KGB, GRU), Great Britain (M.I. 5, M.I. 6) and the people's Republic of China (Social Affairs Department) have their histories traced an some of their more notable operational achievements and failures investigated. The authors are severe critics of the debilitating influence that covert intelligence activities have upon a democratic society but, beyond a mere mention, no serious reforms are suggested. Above anything else, the book is a necklace of adventure stories in which American, British, Russian, and Chinese""legal"" and ""illegal"" agents to their work. The authors are best in profiling the CIA while their account of Chinese espionage is unsatisfactory. While condemning the spy genre in modern entertainment, this book does little more than expand the folly, but the success of The Invisible Government may be a more tangible factor.