Without Cloak or Dagger: The Truth About the New Espionage [Hardcover]

Miles Copeland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 1974

Although published in 1974, it's still the best book on humtel (i.e., human intelligence). Covers everything: recruitment, training, case officers, desk officers, security officers, cutouts, analysts, the difference between intelligence officers and spies, dummy corporations, front organizations, the use of journalists and academics, difference between intelligence and espionage (and counter-intelligence and counter-espionage), the difference between intelligence gathering and law enforcement (and why their goals often conflict), organizational structures of intelligence agencies, career path of a typical CIA employee, brief history of the OSS and CIA. If you want to know what spying IS, and HOW it works, this book is a great start.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 351 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 9, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671216627
• ISBN-13: 978-0671216627
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,147,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Two Required Intelligence Books for ANYONE, April 7, 2000

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Without Cloak or Dagger: The Truth About the New Espionage (Hardcover)

This is one of my two required readings for any aspiring intelligence officer or student of intelligence (the other one is by Allen Dulles, "The Craft of Intelligence." An absolute gem across the board, providing insights into both capabilities and culture. This is really the only down-to-earth book that combines "a day in the life of a spy" with a serious practical discussion of just how and why spies do what they do. It is fun and easy to read, and offers some real world annecdotes that do not violate security but offer instead glimpses of the joys, the insanities, and the terror (10% of the time) or boredom (90% of the time--such as spending hours if not days waiting for a senstive asset to show up) that characterize the life of a spy.

To his credit, Copeland understood very early on that the spy world was missing out on what is known today as Open Source Intelligence (see my own book, "The New Craft of Intelligence" or view the 30,000 free pages at OSS.Net). The description on pages 41-42 (of the original hard-cover version) of how "Mother" concocted an entire network and got the head of Secret Intelligence to agree its production was worth $100,000 a year (big money in 1946), only to reveal that his source was actually five issues of The New York Times "demonstrated not only the naiveté of our nation's only existing group of espionage specialists but the value of ordinary New York Times reporting on matters regarded as being of high-priority intelligence interest." Nothing has changed in 50 years. We still need our spies, but they need to be a bit more serious, a bit less white, a lot older, and much more focused. We lack--we need--men of the caliber of Dulles and Copeland today.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Espionage Text, April 1, 2002

By 

Brent Zhorne (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Without Cloak or Dagger: The Truth About the New Espionage (Hardcover)

This book is a bit dated now, but is a great primer on the espionage business. Copeland relates his experiences and those of other spies - both on our side and the other side(s) - in a matter of fact, this-is-how-it's-done style. If you like either fiction or non-fiction accounts of espionage, this is the book to get so that you understand just what the heck those "spooks" are doing.