Customer Reviews

The Great Game: The Myths and Reality of Espionage

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In 2004's "The Great Game", author Frederick Hitz faces the inevitable challenge of every former intelligence officer in discussing his trade: much of what he knows is likely still classified. In preparing a class on intelligence for university students, Hitz chose an interesting way to approach this challenge. He compars our popular view of espionage as presented in novels and film with real-life declassified cases, mostly from the Cold War. The result is a concise, well-written, and fascinating introduction into the intelligence business.

Hitz systematically examines a variety of topics: recruitment, betrayal, bureaucracy, counterintelligence, and a variety of aspects of tradecraft, both human and technical. He enlivens his narrative with fictional examples from a century's worth of spy fiction, from Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" to the latest John LeCarre and Tom Clancy novels. His real life points of comparison include Russians who spied for the US (Popov and Penkovsky) and Americans who spied for the Soviets (Ames and Hanssen). His examples are drawn primarily from American and British spy fiction and actual espionage.

Many of Hitz's more thoughtful insights are those of a Cold War veteran who watched others squeezed by the pressures of double and even triple lives, or were undermined by doubts in their respective causes. He knowledges that much of espionage can be redundant or futile, but he is quick to note that good intelligence is often essential to national survival. His closing chapters address the new and different challenge of fanatical non-nation state threats like al-Qaeda.

"The Great Game" is highly recommended as an accessible introduction to the intelligence business.

I liked and enjoyed this book, and have no quarrel with any of its factual claims. I did, however find it (mildly) frustrating. This has to do with it's organization. I came to the book, noting its engagement with spy fiction, and hoping for suggestions on what to read! The book is organized by aspect of espionage and for each, the author discusses various real cases and makes comparisons to a select group of spy fiction.

But, the result is that it is the same group of spy novels that are examined over and over. The inevitable Le Carre is referred to quite often, as expected, as are a few other famous authors. And to be sure, a number of lesser known lights are mentioned. But the thematic organization means that you have to read the entire book to find them. Some authors are mentioned only once in passing.

Now, the author would be entirely within his rights to object that I have critiqued the book for not doing something the author never intended to do. Fair enough, as it is not exactly billed as a comprehensive review of spy novels, either. Just pointing out how it is put together.

The book is a fun and interesting read.

This book, along with "Why Spy" covers topics that were within my professional purview in the 1960's and, thus, I will attest to the accuracy of the author's discourse. The business can be boring, deadly, even historic, but it has been and remains necessary. I recommend this work to anyone looking for a good introduction to a delicate topic.

I liked the premise of the book, to contrast our view of intelligence gathering with "real life". Each section has something good. Too much information is repeated throughout the book. It is very American-centric, which is OK, but there are other spy organizations in the world.