Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "cia"

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Sonia Purnell
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Viking (April 9, 2019)
ISBN-10: 073522529X
ISBN-13: 978-0735225299
https://www.amazon.com/Woman-No-Impor...

This summer turned out to be my unexpected exploration into female participants in the French resistance during World War II. It began when I read D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II by Sarah Rose as well as Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson. Now, I've read a long-overdue, in-depth biography of American spy Virginia Hall by Sonia Purnell. I must concur with all the other complimentary reviewers who gave this history five star reviews.

I first read a short but very complimentary biography of Virginia Hall in Emily Yellen'sOur Mother's War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II (2004). In fact, Hall was the premiere lady spy in Yellen's overview that only glancingly looked at behind-the-lines operatives in France. Of course, Purnell's tome reaches far beyond the sort of general information Yellen had access to.

Purnell's years of research is an impressive achievement considering the gaps in available files and the likelihood many of Hall's exploits were never recorded by anyone. Part of this oversight is likely based on the reality Hall's labors were so clandestine there was every reason not to keep files on her work. Equally important is the fact female agents were not the norm and there was a widespread prejudice against women being involved in the war at all except as support staff, code-breakers, ambulance-drivers, the like.

In the case of Hall, her persistence in breaking through the glass ceiling is even more impressive when you realize she was raised and groomed for a life as well-off--and married--woman in high society, not a rough-and-tumble agent living on the lam and in often dire circumstances. Add to that that the lower half of her left leg had been amputated leaving Hall a woman with a disability that could have dimmed her prospects--if not for that determined, iron will of hers.

Because of that leg and her age, Hall wasn't the most likely covert agent for the Gestapo to hunt. She was versatile in her use of disguises, using her disability as a way to throw the hounds off her trail. All she really couldn't do was run. But she could hike across a treacherous mountain trail in the snowy Pyrenees. And that was just one exploit to admire in Hall's many-faceted career.

Another woman to admire is biographer Sonia Purnell who not only keeps a fast-paced, detailed story going, but she keeps reader interest with her scattered indications of what is to come, especially the consequences of certain events. It becomes very clear Virginia Hall was a stand-out officer during World War II and could have become a valuable asset in the CIA had the agency not been populated by the Father Knows Best mentality of the Cold War years.

So readers learn much more than the day-to-day operations of Hall's covert actions and I often wondered where Purnell found so many minute details of conversations, movements, relationships, etc. As with the other books I've read this summer, I ended up feeling a sense of shame that there was a time when women, no matter how talented, creative, motivated or successful, just didn't get their due and rightful recognition. Until now.



My July 1, 2019 review of D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II by Sarah Rose first appeared at BookPleasures.com:
https://waa.ai/XA7U



My July 25th review of Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson first appeared at BookPleasures.com:
https://waa.ai/3uLD


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 26 at BookPleasures.com:

https://waa.ai/3RtY

Peter Ernest, the founding Executive Director for the International Spy Museum, passed away on Feb. 13 at the age of 88.

From the Museum’s website:

“Peter’s career as a public servant spanned 36 years with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including over 20 years in the Clandestine Service. In his final posting with the Agency, he served as principal spokesman, developing and implementing a strategy of greater openness with the media and the public to promote better understanding of the CIA’s vital role in protecting national security.
After his retirement from government, it was a natural transition to lead the Spy Museum where he continued to shed light on the shadow world of intelligence increasing public understanding of its crucial impact on world events.”

https://www.spymuseum.org/press/press...

Here’s a very detailed Obit for Peter from the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obitua...

I first met Peter when I conducted a program touting my Spy Television at the International Spy Museum on Feb. 2, 2004. I’ll always remember his warm and engaging introduction of me that night.

Over the next two years, we shared a number of phone conversations as he gave me pointers on my next book, Beyond Bond: Spies in Fiction and Film. I’ll never forget his generosity when he called one day and he graciously agreed to talk to my young grandson who got excited to talk to an actual spy. I’ve never seen Joey so ecstatic as following that conversation.

The next time I saw Peter was again at the ISM on Feb. 23, 2006. That evening was a milestone in my life as we screened The Impossible Spy for the audience, a film about Israeli spy Eli Cohen. Amanda Ohlkey, director of adult education at the ISM, even invited the film’s producer, Harvey Chertov to join me on stage, an evening that spun off in so many ways for me.

The next time we interacted was on Oct. 22, 2014 when I interviewed him for an online radio show I co-hosted at the time. He was plugging his book, Harry Potter and the Art of Spying, which he co-wrote with Lynn M. Boughey. This year, I plan to convert that audio conversation into text and make it available for all spy buffs to read-stay tuned.
Till then, here’s the review I wrote on the Harry Potter book:


Harry Potter and the Art of Spying
Reviewed By Dr. Wesley Britton of Bookpleasures.com, October 13, 2014

Authors: Lynn M. Boughey and Peter Earnest
Publisher: Wise Ink Creative Publishing (September 15, 2014)
ISBN-10: 194001414X
ISBN-13: 978-1940014142

When we read the Harry Potter books and enjoyed the films, most of us thought about wizards and wands and the powers of magical spells. But did you imagine you were also enjoying spy adventures with characters delving into the murky worlds of espionage? Did you think "Severus Snape was perhaps the best spy ever portrayed in literature"?

That's the thesis of spy novelist Lynn Boughey and 36-year CIA veteran and Executive Director of the International Spy Museum, Peter Earnest. They believe the Harry Potter series demonstrated many attributes of actual spycraft as they show in their Harry Potter and the Art of Spying. In particular, they use harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as a textbook study of the many aspects of espionage that J. K. Rowling wove into her books.

According to Earnest, it was Boughey who spotted parallels between Order of the Phoenix and covert actions like secret codes, secret organizations, and adversary surveillance. It was Boughey who mapped out the analysis of how these tropes can be seen in the fifth Potter novel, and brought in Earnest aboard to provide real-world examples of how such actions can be found in espionage history. As a result, publicity for The Art of Spying is spot on when it describes the book as a "primer" in spycraft as readers can see how scenes from every chapter of Order of the Phoenix have something to do with spying from recruiting double-agents, uncovering moles, to using politics and diplomacy to achieve objectives. In fact, the book serves very much as a textbook in the many arenas of espionage using Harry Potter as a touchstone to lead into discussions into actual cases and practices of spies.

Without question, readers must be familiar with the Potter books for the study to be enjoyable. The first half, the part focusing on Order of the Phoenix, requires a detailed understanding of that particular novel. Part two is a more general overview of the Potter series and is, in many ways, a more readable section. Throughout, the authors provide numerous definitions of spy terminology including a good glossary. They add sidebars which include stories from Ernest's own CIA experiences. Into the mix, the pair also point out literary parallels between Rowlings and Shakespeare.

Harry Potter and The Art of Spying is obviously an opportunity for Boughey and Earnest to interest younger readers in the world of espionage by using Potter's popularity to showcase what the real covert world involves. It's not light reading but is appropriate for a YA audience. If you want a good Spycraft 101 course in one volume, here you go.

This review first appeared at:

http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitep...