Espionage: The Greatest Spy Operations of the Twentieth Century

by Ernest Volkman

DISCOVER THE SPYING OPERATIONS THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY

Espionage expert Ernest Volkman goes behind the scenes of 20th-century history to uncover twenty-three incredible capers, con games, and subterfuges. Here are just a
* Windows shattered in Manhattan, shrapnel struck the Statue of Liberty, and the Brooklyn Bridge swayed when, in July of 1916, German saboteurs blew up the huge Black Tom munitions dump near Bayonne, New Jersey. The spectacular explosion galvanized public opinion against Germany and helped bring the United States into World War I.
* Japan's seizure of the Mandate Islands in the central Pacific triggered U.S. covert activities. Could the secret of Amelia Earhart's tragic final flight be connected to America's pre-war jitters?
* In the early 1920s, to ensure the survival of the fledgling Soviet state, Lenin used his personal intelligence service, CHEKA, to control anti-Bolshevik resistance. Enemies of the revolution were lured to their destruction through the ironically named Trust Operation.
* How were the Allies able to counter Hitler's deadliest weapons? For six years a mole inside Nazi Germany's scientific establishment betrayed the secrets of his country's classified military research to Britain's MI6.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Espionage

Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Ernest Wyman Volkman was an American author, investigative reporter, and journalist who wrote about war, espionage, and the criminal underworld. Volkman was a 1959 graduate of Walt Whitman High School in South Huntington, New York, and attended Hofstra University.
A U.S. Army veteran, Volkman was also a military intelligence specialist and wrote many books on the subjects of spies and spying.

Reviews

[Bulent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sanırım kitabın Türkçe çevirisi, üstelik iki çevirmen olmasına rağmen, google translate ile yapılmış. Ya da çevirmenlerin Türkçesi en az editörün Türkçesi kadar kıt. Sadece hemen herkesin bildiği "Domuzlar Körfezi"ni "Domuzlar Koyu" olarak çevirmekten ya da La Carre'in Türkçeye Köstebek diye çevrilen Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy kitabındaki "tinker" kelimesini "tamirci" yerine " tenekeci" diye çevirmekten söz etmiyorum. Cümle kurguları da çok kötü.

Bunlar kitabın Türkçe öevirisi ile ilgili yorumlar, peki kitabın kendisi diyenler için de şunu söylemek mümkün: Volkman'ın kitabı bir dizi casusluk olayını arka arkaya sıralayıp anlatırken, ikginçtir, pek bir şey söylemiyor. Kitap casusluk dünyasında yapılan hataları sergileyen bir çalışma gibi daha çok. Ya bazı hatalar yapılıyor, ya da zaten çaba sarfedilmeden kazanılmış bir takım başarılar üzerine kurulmuş tezgahlar bozuluveriyor. Bundan kurtuluş yok. Zaten bizim bu operasyonları öğrenebilmemiz de bu hatalar sonucu mümkün olabiliyor.

Ancak ilginçtir, Volkman yapılan başarılı operasyonları da eğer ABD'ye karşıysa bir hatalar zinciri olarak görüyor. Purl Horbor Baskını mesela. Bir Japon istihbaratçı gemilerin konumundan, üssteki asker sayısına; körfezdeki akıntının yönünden uçak pilotlarının alışkanlıklarına kadar, üstün bir başarıyla topladığı verileri ülkesine göndermiş; Volkman bunu "zaten bir işe de yaramadı" diye yorumluyor.
Ya da Sovyetlerin Atom Bombası Projesini ABD'den çalma hikayesi bu güne değin defalarca ve neredeyse tüm ayrıntısıyla anlatıldı. Rosenberg çiftinin bu operasyonda oynadıkları rolün ne kadar tali bir görev olduğu defalarca yazıldı. En son operasyonu yürüten Sovyet casusu Pavel Sudoplatov Özel Görevler - Sovyet İstihbarat Şefinin Anıları ismiyle basılan anılarında hem Almanya'dan ABD'ye sığınan bilim insanlarının hangi saikler ile Sovyetlere bilgi aktardığını yazdı hem de Rosenberg çiftinin bu operasyondaki görevini. Volkman ise bu konuda Amerikan söylemini tekrarlıyor sadece.

Bu arada Volkman'ın anti-sovyetik yanından hiç bahsetmeyelim bile.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was on a CIA kick not so long ago (and still sort of semi-am but I'm not reading it so intensively), and it just so happened that the library had a display of books on intelligence work at about the same time, so I picked this up.

Sadly, this isn't quite about the CIA, or not the CIA specifically. It's also not about the process of intelligence work. It's more of a collection of stories about spywork during the Cold War; going wrong, going right, going... weirdly, and not going at all. It's interesting, if not useful for my work.

The book is divided into sections. Grand Deceptions is about successful disinformation campaigns, Spies in the Ether is about communication between and around spies, The Enemy Within is about moles and mole-hunts (Black Tom was my favorite, about a WWI sabotage operation), A Wilderness of Mirrors (containing my other favorite chapter, The Lady at the Kiosk, about a couple of... quadruple agents is probably the closest) is about really weird and bizarre occurances in spy history, plus Disasters and Spectaculars, which are exactly what they say on the tin and probably the most useful bits for me. They contain four case studies each, and are told quite well.

Generally speaking, I don't think I would necessarily recommend this for research, but it's definitely entertaining.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after reading Spies by the same author. I enjoy the way Volkman writes and I have learned a lot from reading these books. I have even been able to use some of it while teaching my world history class. Each chapter is a separate espionage history. Some of the histories are worth 5 stars, some are 4, all of them well researched.

[Rupert Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating stuff. A bit heavy going in places and heavy use of jargon (though there is a glossary), but overall a really interesting book. I had heard of some of these cases - Burgess & Maclean, Enigma, Double Cross etc, but others were totally new to me even though very important - Plumbat & Cornflakes for example.

A good read, though you do need to concentrate.

[Cosma Dragos · Rating 2 out of 5]

MEH BEH

[Lena Donan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lepšiu faktografickú knihu o geopolitických hrách, aka špionáži po novom, si neviem predstaviť. Nechám sa prekvapiť.