Why spies don’t make good assassins, why American intelligence needs to borrow a page from the Great Game heroes of the...
A slender but rich—and quite entertaining—introduction to the shadowy world of spy vs. spy.
The characters who populate spy fiction, writes retired CIA inspector general Hitz (Project on International Intelligence/Princeton Univ.), have nothing on their real-life counterparts: “They are not nearly as complex in character or bizarre in behavior as the real thing.” Moreover, much of what made the likes of Bond a superspy to be reckoned with was mere gadgetry, meant “to amaze and overwhelm the viewing audience rather than get reports home more quickly and safely.” And who populates the real world of espionage? Some truly weird folk, by Hitz’s account, wedded to exaggerated notions of their importance to world affairs, prey to various perversities, ever ready to sell out their country, in some cases, for a nice sexual dalliance with a Soviet femme fatale or a bottle of whiskey (“the mother’s milk of spy recruitments”). Given this—and given well-publicized betrayals on the parts of Aldrich Ames, Kim Philby, and Robert P. Hanssen, among others—it’s amazing that any spying actually gets done. But it does, and Hitz has kind words for the many operatives who do their work without becoming turncoats, alcoholics, incompetents, or raving narcissists. Yet he also turns up some astonishing tales of woe, among them one that alone is worth the price of the book: a bureaucratic betrayal of Kurdish operatives who rose up against Saddam Hussein in 1994, under Clinton’s watch, and who were forgotten for their troubles. “This is not how a reputation is forged in the spy business for looking after your own,” Hitz wryly notes.
Why spies don’t make good assassins, why American intelligence needs to borrow a page from the Great Game heroes of the 19th-century British Empire, why things go wrong: it’s all here. A perfect companion for fans of John le Carré.Pub Date: April 27, 2004
ISBN: 0-375-41210-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
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