Great True Spy Stories

by Allen W. Dulles

The world of espionage and counter-intelligence is explored by authors including Joseph Conrad, Arthur Conan Doyle, Eric Ambler, Len Deighton, Ian Fleming, John le Carre, and Helen MacInnes

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Espionage, Short Stories, Politics, Military Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

American public official Allen Welsh Dulles served from 1953 as director of the Central Intelligence Agency and after the failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs resigned in 1961.

This diplomat and lawyer flourished.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_D...

Reviews

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Composed of magazine articles, chapters from books, a letter and a US Senate subcommittee report. (Sometimes the chapters from books are a little awkward as stand-alone stories.) *Indicates the best stories.

I. Penetration: The Spy Inside

The Rise and Fall of a Soviet Agent (Kim Philby)

*Stealing the Plans (Duchez) A chapter from the book Ten Thousand Eyes by Richard Collier. A great, stand-alone short story.

The Spy the Nazis Missed (code name George Wood) Good story from True Magazine.

The Colonel Turns West (Oleg Penkovskiy) Soviet Colonel who spied for the West.

*The Playboy Sergeant (Jack E. Dunlap) Made big money for a sergeant while working at a low level in the National Security Agency by selling secrets to the USSR.

*Cicero--The Case of the Ambassador's Valet (Albanian valet of British Ambassador sold secrets to Germany in 1943. Very clever of him, but he didn't notice he was being paid in counterfeit money. Made into a movie, "Five Fingers.")

Casanova's Journey to Dunkirk (From the Memoirs of Jacques Casanova. He visited the English Fleet in 1757 to assess their strength for the French during the Seven Years' War.)

II. Networks: The Organization of Espionage

Spymaster George Washington

The Spy on the Postage Stamp (Richard Sorge)

The Red Orchestra (Rote Kapelle)

They Gave the Bomb Away (Harry Gold and David Greenglass)

III. Counterespionage: Spy to Catch a Spy

In a free society counterespionage is based on the practice most useful for hunting rabbits. Rather than look for the rabbit one posts oneself in a spot where the rabbit is likely to pass by.

Behind the Line (Letter from Alexander Hamilton to John Laurens, former aide to Gen. Washington about John Andre and Benedict Arnold.)

The Capture of the Grand Chef (Trepper, code name Grand Chef, also known as Gilbert)

*The Atom Spy Who Had to Confess (Klaus Fuch) Fuch changed his mind about aiding the Soviets but when he confessed he could not be executed for treason because the Russians were our Allies when he did the deed, therefore he did not commit treason.

The Tell-Tale Air (Alexander Foote & Rudolf Roessler, code name Lucy)

IV. Double Agents: Working Both Sides of the Street

*Crossing the Delaware (John Honeyman) Honeyman pretended to be a Tory and a double agent in order to deliver misleading information to the British for Gen. Washington.

To Kill a Czar (Ievno Aseff)

The Neutral Attache (Col. Stig Wennerstrom, Swedish Air Force)

V. Defection: Changing Sides

The Clerk They Wouldn't Believe (Igor Gouzenko) Gouzenko was a code clerk for the Soviet Embassy in Canada. It took him and is wife several days to accomplish their defection because everyone they presented themselves to would not believe their story.

VI. Deception: Confusing the Adversary

Babylon Falls Again by Herodotus (Encouraged by a mule who bore a foal, surely a sign from heaven, Zopyrus carries out a plan to end the siege of Babylon allowing the Persians to win.)

*The Man Who Never Was (Operation Mincemeat) The story of the preparation of papers to be found on a corpse off the Spanish coast. This fictional person was named Major Martin.

Overlord Goes Underground (The invasion of Normandy)

News Made to Order (Testimony of Richard Helms, Assist. Director, CIA, to a Senate sub-committee hearing.)

VII. Codes and Ciphers: Secrets to Unravel

A German Blunder (The Zimmerman telegram which brought the U.S. into WWI.)

Keeping a Secret (We break the Japanese "ultra" code.)

VIII. Scientific Intelligence: The Technology of Espionage

Eyes from the Sky (Spying on the German experimental rocket establishments with air photo-reconnaissance.)

*The Case of the Wayward Missile (Dr. Wernher von Braun in Poland testing V-2 rockets.)

Spying on the Winds (Monitoring of radioactivity in the atmosphere.)

IX. Evaluation: Shifting the Evidence

Last-Minute MAGIC (MAGIC was code name for Japanese codes and ciphers which the US broke.) "All decisions are made in the face of uncertainty, even those that depend simply on an understanding of natural phenomena."

The Dark December (The failure to detect the German plans for The Battle of the Bulge.) Gen. Eisenhower wrote after the war of the stepchild position of G-2 in the General Staff system.

X. Action: The Dagger Beneath the Cloak

The Venlo Incident (German secret agent F479) Hitler and the Beer Cellar Affair

*Assassin Disarmed by Love (Bogdan Nikolayevich Stashinskiy) Accomplished assassin who turned to the West when his Soviet masters didn't approved of his marriage to a German.

XI. Classic Instances of Espionage

The Archtraitor (Alfred Redl)

London Calling North Pole ("Ebenezer") Captured Dutch radio operator who was force to cooperate with German counterespionage operations out of Holland.

*Prelude to Invasion (code name "Torch") The Anglo-American invasion of North Africa, Nov. 1942.

[Katelyn Barilski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing. Published in 1968, it's a collection of true spy stories from various authors, but it was arranged together by Allen Dulles, who was a master spy and the director of the CIA for eight years. I really liked how it was separated into different parts, as it introduced the reader to the different aspects of espionage. The various sections included penetration, networks, counterespionage, double agents, defection, deception, codes and ciphers, scientific intelligence, evaluation, action, and classic instances of espionage.

Since the book is nonfiction, I was surprised to find the story of Zopyrus in the excerpt "Babylon Falls Again", written by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. Though it does include the character King Darius (who is in the Bible), I realized that after doing some research, many believe the tale of Zopyrus to be just a made-up story. Since it's not included in the Bible, I think it's hard to know if it actually happened, but it sounds like it probably didn't. But it was still interesting, and unexpected.

This book allows you to see the spy life from so many different perspectives, as it includes stories about Swedish, German, Russian, American, North African, British, Polish spies and more. Other countries that are mentioned, no matter how detailed or brief, were Canada, France, Holland/the Netherlands, Ukraine, Egypt, Spain, Czechoslovakia, China, Mexico, Austria, Rumania, Japan, Italy, Cuba, Belgium, Panama, the Phillipines, Hungary, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Australia...
After reading this book, I feel as if I've travelled the world--and in less than 80 days!

However, because the stories were told from so many different perspectives and from opposing sides, I had to be careful who I hoped success for. In some cases, I actually hoped that the main character of the story failed in his or her mission. Not that my thoughts would change anything now, these events happened long ago, but I still didn't want to sympathize with a Nazi, for example. I realize that the Nazis were human, but they did very inhuman things.

I also feel as if I've travelled through time, as this book includes stories from the 1700's to the 1900's, with many stories from various battles and wars. Actually a lot of the spy stories were based in embassies as well, which I guess makes sense, since it's the one place where there's representatives of a whole bunch of countries all in one place. One of my favourite stories in this book was "Spymaster George Washington", as it included the famous and yet mysterious agent "355" (the code number for lady), who was a member of the Culper Ring.

All in all, this was an incredible and intriguing collection of events from espionage history.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative, but not gripping. Who knew being a spy was such drudgery? A better title would have been "Significant True Spy Stories." But of course that wouldn't have sold as well.

[Dewey Norton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is without a doubt the greatest spy book I have ever read. Dulles has collected all the best stories he could find and published them in an anthology. They date from ancient times to the 20th century.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Especially since they are true stories!

[Bill Tress · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Great True Spy Stories” is a compilation of many stories selected by Allen Dulles and it has provided an enjoyable summer diversion. Allen Welsh Dulles was an American diplomat and lawyer who became the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and its longest-serving director to date. He was a New England blue blood, his family members provide a, who’s who in American politics. Among his many accomplishments, he was a successful author, yet, “Great True Spy Stories” is rather unique in its format, Dulles did not write a spy story, he presented true spy stories from many sources. He does write a vignette to each story describing the relevancy of each piece. After his introduction, the reader is provided a portion of the entire story. This approach provides an abundance of interesting episode’s concerning spying and espionage from some of the genre’s best writers and if the reader desires, the entire work can be procured by reference to Dulles notes.
I have read many books in this genre, and to me, spying seems to be a game, and yes, a deadly game. The Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev once remarked to President Kennedy that it might be wise to combine their respective spy agencies to save the high cost, and because each organization supplies the same data. While the remark was meant to be funny and flippant, there was an element of truth in the remark. We spy on them, they spy on us; we turn their citizens, they turn ours. Then it can be added that the ineptitude of spying has caused our CIA and other espionage agencies to miss most of the great events of the Twentieth Century, for example the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor and the more recent 911 catastrophe.
While I believe this assessment to be true, our espionage organizations did break the Japanese and German codes in World War II thereby saving thousands of lives. Espionage has also saved countless other lives, so government agencies around the world practice this age-old art to varying degrees of success. The stories that Dulles presents are true and inordinately interesting, full of heroics, traitors, killers, and spying.
Some of the great writers of our times like Rebecca West and Barbara Tuchman are featured in Dulles' work, yet, we do not get the full impact of their talents becomes Dulles used snippets of their work to create his stories. The original work is always referenced so the reader and it seems you are encouraged to do so by our author.
Having read many of the books cited in this compilation I believe some of Dulles summaries embellish and skew’s the actual text , so yes, Dulles' work is an enjoyable experience, yet, I recommend to the reader to take Alexander Pope’s advice: “A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain and drinking largely sobers us again.”
This reader has read many of these stories before, yet, others were new. The last story in this narration was titled “Prelude to invasion” and it provided many interesting tidbits of information about the preparation for the invasion of Africa, and, the effort to ensure that the French military would not stand with the Germans against an allied invasion, many of the famous names of WWII were involved in this exercise George Patton, Montgomery to Eisenhower (who went Gibraltar under an assumed name) they all were at Gibraltar at some point before the invasion, a place I have visited and marveled at it's small size yet major importance. This story alone may have been worth “the price of admission” because many details were added to my knowledge of the invasion and collaboration with the French.
I recommend reading the actual presentations by authors who devote time and energy to getting it right with extensive research, footnotes, and quotes. Yet, there is a place for a book like Dulles’s, maybe it will provide the spark of interest to do further research, yes, I did enjoy his presentation and do recommend this book to all followers of the genre.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my non-fiction book, I read Great True Spy Stories by Allen W. Dulles. The book is composed of amazing and significant to history sky stories. It is very thorough and provides an unbiased look into the struggles and procedures that spies went through. The compositions of each story were not engaging as one may hope however, the author is telling the true stories, not the exciting exaggerated stories. The tales are not as exciting as an action movie however they are engaging enough to keep the reader going. The book efficiently explains the tales to the point where the reader could write an essay with all of the information they are given. The tone of the book is very informative and formal, there is no question left at the end of each chapter. One example of the formal tone is “One great achievement of the combined British and American air photo-reconnaissance units of World War II, about which Constance Babington-smith writes in her book, was the discovery by introducing aircraft of the german experimental rocket discovered by introducing aircraft of the German experimental rocket established at Peenemunde on the Baltic Seam and the various ramps and other installations along the Atlantic coast which the Germans were building for the launching of the V-1 and the V-2 rockets” (293). As this quote shows the book is very formal and even monotonous at times however, this does not mean that the book is any less interesting. My favorite part of this book was when the author gave us the opportunity to really get inside the emotions and motivation of the characters in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in spy stories. This book is quite possibly the best-written composition of stories you will ever find in one place. Just because this book is not a super action novel does not make it any less informative and interesting. If you are looking to write any kind of report or are simply fascinated by spies I would 100% recommend this book.

[Danielle Woolard · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. - first did not finish in yeeeears. I usually try to slug through them, but this one is brutal.. I made it almost halfway through but not quite.

I appreciated that it was a compilation of different articles related to different spy stories. The problem is, we're only given a glimpse of story, and context clues are implied that you already know. So unless you know your history and war tactics really well, which I do not, there's so much missed.

So many different writers in one book, so of course we're going to get a variety of writing styles. But some of the stories were so dry, more stories than not were truly a chore to read.

[Kuduop Mawich · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great true spy history

[janet wakefield · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book,
but I wouldn't recommend the read unless you are into spies.
It wasn't very exciting.

[Chase Parsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1968, this is a collection of 39 real stories about spies from various authors. Some stories are excellent but some of them are pretty dry. Most of the stories are from the World War II or Cold War era, and although that is cool, I wish there was more variety over region and/or time.

My favorite stories were:
4) "The Rise and Fall of a Soviet Agent" by Edward Sheehan. This great tale was about Kim Philby, the infamous Briton who had a long career spying for the USSR.
3) "The Clerk they Wouldn't Believe" by Igor Gouzenko. This one was about a Soviet spy who tried to defect when he is in Canada. He actually had a horrible time doing so because no one believed him or cared, and time was his constantly enemy!
2) "A German Blunder" by Barbara Tuchman. About the Zimmerman telegram, it explains the infamous intercepted note from Germany to Mexico about the proposal to invade the US for part of the Mexican Cession after the war. Tuchman is a stellar writer as always!
1) "Assassin Disarmed by Love" by John Steele. This instant classic is about a Soviet spy meeting a German woman and their struggle to defect to the West.

In closing, I liked about half of the stories, so it really matters which one you read, and the emphasis is mostly on WWII and the Cold War.

[Jane Mackay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this hard on the heels of HAVEL: A LIFE, by Michael Zantovsky has given me a much deeper understanding of how accurately named the Iron Curtain was, and how truly it divided the world in two.

This book was published in 1968, so all of these tales are of men and women -- on behalf of governments -- playing deadly games with their own lives in a time when the only type of electronic communication was the radio (or not even that, as in the case of Casanova's spying and the spy who brought down Babylon. Again.), when the only way to gain and transmit information was in person. The ultimate stakes: the everyday lives of millions of people.

Most of these stories are inside tales of spying during the first two world wars and the Cold War. They provide a remarkable view of a battleground that we normally never see -- and a vivid depiction of how one piece of information -- or misinformation -- can profoundly change the course of history.

[Jwduke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read books to learn something an apply it to analytics. This book was interesting. Yes there were many lessons to apply to analytics, by a legendary American spy master, but there were plenty of riveting soy stories as well! I enjoyed this book.

If you like spies, intelligence, or want to know more about it, start here.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good if somewhat flat collection of spy stories

[Mikey Inglish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly boring with the exception of probably just a couple of stories.

[truenorth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some very interesting stories, but I would say not written in a very entertaining way. The stories would have had the potential to be page turners.

[Vladimir Poplavskij · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting stories about spy life and background.
Really fails and adventures.

[Hubert Ricard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toujours intéressant de lire des histoires vraies souvent racontées par n des protagonistes

[Rick Vickers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent stories about the art of espeonage. Edited by a former CIA director.

[Amyem]

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/9...