Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies: How Spies & Codebreakers Helped Shape the Twentieth Century [Hardcover]

James Gannon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2001

How important is it to know your enemy’s secrets? The German victory at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, the entrance of the United States into World War I, the defeat of Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union’s faster-than-anticipated development of the atomic bomb were all facilitated by stealing enemy secrets. Espionage and codebreaking have, throughout history, been instrumental in the rise, fall, and preservation of world powers. In Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies James Gannon provides the full story behind the critical intelligence breakthroughs that helped alter the course of history in the twentieth century. The interception of the Zimmerman Telegram, the deciphering of the German Enigma machine, the Soviet’s damaging penetration of the British Foreign Service through the “Cambridge Five” spy ring, and the U.S. counterintelligence coup known as Operation Venona (still secret until 1995) are just some of the episodes detailed here.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While most of the stories here are already well known the deciphering of the German Enigma machine's code, for example, or the penetration of British intelligence by the Soviet-controlled Cambridge Five spy ring Gannon, a former documentary producer and self-described "reporter with a nose for a good story," retells them with aplomb, positioning them nicely to fit his theme. The familiar story of undercover German spy Richard Sorge, who worked against Hitler as a member of the Nazi Party, takes on both pathos and suspense. In Gannon's hands, the unraveling Sorge, weakened by alcoholism and despair, goes to his fate anew; his execution comes as a sad surprise, even though it really isn't news to anyone. The tale of another WWII secret agent, Rudolf Roessler (code-named "Lucy"), takes on a fresh aura of mystery although "...more than half a century since Roessler breathed the neutral Swiss air in war-torn Europe, nobody knows the truth." Gannon's basic strength is in depicting the delicate balance of espionage and showing how a nation's fate can hinge on the concealment or discovery of vital information. Overall, this is an entertaining survey that successfully plants the subliminal question: What if?

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Quality intelligence is vital to effective decision-making, and this book reviews some of the crucial personalities and operations that helped shape our world. World War II was the central event of the last 100 years, and much of the book is given over to recounting the desperate efforts to gather information during that conflict. Most of these stories are well known, so the history of the Polish spy who helped bring down the Communist government is a welcome addition. Gannon believes that Donald Maclean was a more important spy than Kim Philby because of the former's greater access to American secrets, but perhaps most important was Klaus Fuchs, who passed America's atomic secrets to the Soviets. The resulting Cold War stalemate came to define the century. The author is a freelance writer and former TV documentary producer. Although he used some archival sources, he culled most of the information from the open literature. Suitable for public and academic libraries, alongside Phillip Knightley's The Second Oldest Profession: Spies and Spying in the Twentieth Century (LJ 12/86) and Jeffrey T. Richelson's A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (LJ 8/95). Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc.; First Edition edition (August 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574883674
• ISBN-13: 978-1574883671
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual Book...., May 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies: How Spies & Codebreakers Helped Shape the Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed Gannon's book. He wrote about areas that I knew very little about. The fact that the Polish Cryptanalysts were able to reverse engineer the Enigma machine with the help of the French who managed to get keys from a spy. The poles never got the credit they deserved for this, when they gave the Brits an Enigma machine the Brits made up several cover stories, i.e. the Poles hijacked a German army truck and stole the machine.
The book dispells the notion that the Allies were reading German communications line for line. There were several periods when the British did not have the German keys and in several cases they had to steal them from obscure weather stations that the Germans had near the Artic.
The book is very factual and concise. The author does not try to impress the reader with his knowledge.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The influence of intelligence on 20th-century war and politics, December 12, 2005

By 

Christopher Kasparek - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies: How Spies & Codebreakers Helped Shape the Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

This is a rare wonderful, non-sensationalized, well-documented account of the influence of intelligence efforts--from traditional spying, through cryptology and high tech--on political and military currents in the 20th century. A notable aspect of the overarching story is the regularity with which credit for intelligence successes has been misappropriated by the ambitious and ruthless.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Key Spies and Codebreakers of the Twentieth Century, November 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies: How Spies & Codebreakers Helped Shape the Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

Crisply written accounts of spies and codebreakers who helped shape turning points in the history of the last century.