Cassidy's Run

by David Wise

Wise, David

Genres: Espionage, History, Nonfiction, Crime

308 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

From Wikipedia:
«David Wise (May 10, 1930 – October 8, 2018) was an American journalist and author who worked for the New York Herald-Tribune in the 1950s and 1960s, and published a series of non-fiction books on espionage and US politics as well as several spy novels. His book The Politics of Lying: Government Deception, Secrecy, and Power (1973) won the George Polk Award (Book category, 1973), and the George Orwell Award (1975).»

Most of his books were non-fiction examinations of espionage and U.S. politics. According to his obituary in the New York Times, “He also wrote three spy novels, which were praised for their insight and authority.” Those novels include:
• Spectrum, 1981
• The Children's Game , 1983
• Samarkand Dimension , 1987

Reviews

[Chuckles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its been almost twenty years since I first read this, I think I read it again a decade or so later. It was that well done, and maybe the only book of its kind, in that it recounts an FBI double agent operation against the Soviet Union, conducted over many years during the height of the cold war.

The writing is done in a ‘facts first’ format, at least we presume so since the author didn’t source everything. Therefore its hard to tell if opinions and conclusions about events were his own assumptions or those of his interview subjects. Regardless, the writing came across as clean and professional. I ended up reading several other books by this author related to espionage and the like, very interesting in the dry technical aspects, if not exciting like a James Bond story.

In essence we see the operation from beginning to end, including where First Sergeant Joe Cassidy, a US Army NCO assigned to an Army nuclear program, is “dangled” before a known Russian intelligence officer operating out of a diplomatic position in Washington DC. Very cool and it kicks off from there, eventually leading to the identification of several clandestine Soviet assets operating in the US drawn out because of the operation. Two FBI agents were killed in a plane crash while conducting arial surveillance of a pair during a critical point in the operation, showing it wasn’t all just a big game. Of course if you lived through the cold war and appreciated the actual danger of nuclear armegeddon that existed, you understand.

While the book wasn’t that old by the time I read it, the operation was long concluded by that time. The “dangle” event described in the early part of the book occured in 1959, before even my time, and “Cassidy’s run” continued through to the late seventies. The author added details of what happened up through the 90s to some people involved, incliding on the Soviet side, with the fall of the Soviet Union and journalists gaining more access to Soviet records including those of the KGB/GRU and to former KGB/GRU officials who spilled the beans publicly. I read a few books covering those events and found many of them rather dry in contrast to this story.

Its probably a 4/5 but I’ll add a star because, again, its probably the only one of its kind that I’ve read, not your typical “spy” book.

[D Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe that this book was meticulously researched and as such it represents an important account of the espionage episode that it describes. Having said that, I think that the subject matter deserves a better rendering than this book. The writing style is tedious. This case would probably make an engaging movie provided that this book is not used as the basis for the screenplay.

[Fisher_FA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic in every way. Wise is a master in this genre and provides superb detail that tells the whole story. What I like best is how is deftly included the “big picture” without exhausting the reader.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really interesting. I loved learning about how the spy world works. I learned a lot about the FBI. This was well worth the read. I will say it ends very differently than I expected, but I realized that may be because I have read too many fiction spy books.

[Ondra Soukup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, though too detailed account of one episode of cold war confrontation.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Wise is well acquainted with the worlds of espionage and counter-espionage, and "Cassidy's Run" reflected that. While it's a fairly short book, it's probably the most detailed narrative of a long-term, counter-espionage operation I've ever read. Wise does a great job in putting the cloak and dagger action into the context of not only the Cold War, but also the 1970s post-Church Committee fallout on the Intelligence Community. If you find the non-fiction variety of spy stories interesting, this is certainly the book for you. It will hold your attention, amaze you at the capabilities of our security services, and probably also make you furious at some of the behaviors of bureaucracy.

On the negative side, I felt a little sense of "bait and switch" with the manner in which Wise used the deaths of two FBI agents in this "secret spy war." Those deaths were certainly tragic, and they were certainly related to the FBI's counter-espionage operation. However, using that event as the start of the narrative seemed to imply the centrality of the event in the greater story; it was not. Nor were the deaths the result of KGB (actually GRU in this story) assassins wielding silenced weapons or poison-tipped umbrellas: they were the result of an airplane crash. I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of the deaths. I just think Wise shouldn't have tried to make it larger in his narrative than it was.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first nonfiction book I ever read about espionage was one co-authored by David Wise, writer of this narrative. While that, The Invisible Government, was a serious overview of the CIA, this book has a much narrower focus, being about the work of a US Army mole burrowed in Soviet spy operations within the United States. Using this story as a thread spanning over two decades, Cassidy's Run delves into several spin-off operations against Soviet sleeper agents.
Chief among the topics pursued by the Soviets was the research being done in the States on nerve agents. Since Army sergeant Cassidy had access to such information, he run by the Defense Department and the FBI to plant disinformation, hoping to lead Soviet researchers down expensive, but fruitless, paths. However, author Wise ends his book with evidence that the USSR succeeded where the USA had failed, producing an unprecedentedly toxic binary delivery system, a system which may still remain operational.

[Raven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this one more than I did. While it was enlightening, and the time period it references has a lot of disturbing history in it, I couldn't get into the spy games when I feel strongly that neither side should have been developing better nerve gases to begin with. Add to that the usual grain of salt that you add when reading anything remotely recent on intelligence or national security -- you know you're not getting the whole story -- and it was worth reading once but not something I'll be eagerly passing on to my friends.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Wise always sucks me in but I think I expected more from this book. That being said, I think it's a good book that highlights the intel war between the US and Soviet Union during the Cold War and shows some of the potential blowback from those deceptions.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at how counterintelligence work is actually done.

[Brian Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very fascinating description of a cold-war counterintelligence operation. Well researched. I'd rate this as a must read for intelligence and CI professionals.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cool!