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Mole Paperback – September 18, 2016
| William Hood (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Vienna. 1952.
The Cold War is at its most bleak as tensions and suspicions run high.
A mysterious letter, dropped through the car window of an Austrian intelligence officer, begins the remarkable story of the Russian peasant who rose to high rank in Soviet Military Intelligence, only to become the first Soviet official to ever work for the West.
It is an act that provides the CIA with the innermost secrets of the Russian military.
But it will plunge the man himself into the harrowing life of the penetration agent, or mole — the lonely man in the enemy camp.
Whatever his motives may be, the role of a spy is to betray trust.
Yet can a man who has volunteered, or been forced, to commit treason logically be trusted again?
William Hood reveals that when an intelligence service buys a spy, it buys him totally.
For the spy, espionage is a one-way street, ending only in betrayal or discovery…
Mole is a historical memoir with high stakes that will keep you hooked until the last page.
Praise for William Hood
‘A skillful spy novel’ - The Wall Street Journal
William J. Hood (1920-2013), was a retired senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency and a writer. During World War II, having just transferred from the Army into military intelligence, he volunteered for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the C.I.A. After the war, he remained in Europe. His hobbies included photography, marksmanship, sailing, jazz, and collecting first editions.
- Print length290 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateSeptember 18, 2016
- Dimensions6 x 0.66 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101537630733
- ISBN-13978-1537630731
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Product details
- Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (September 18, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 290 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1537630733
- ISBN-13 : 978-1537630731
- Item Weight : 1.11 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.66 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,902,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,763 in Crime & Criminal Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
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William Hood tells a story similar to that of Adolf Tolkachev a generation later: Motivated not by greed but by outrage over past injustices inflicted on his family, a well-placed Russian provides the US with priceless information. Eventually, though, he is strung along too long until finally he is undone – not (as far as can be determined) so much through carelessness on our part or clever detective work on Moscow’s, but likely through a mole. Thus the title could refer not just to this book’s hero Pyotr Popov but to the villain who probably led to his downfall, George Blake. The particular error that undid Tolkachev was made in the US, the one that probably undid Popov in London, but generally speaking there was little warning (in Popov’s case) or virtually none (in Tolkachev’s).
To be fair, Popov never wanted to defect. Even so, both he and Tolkachev should have been brought in before it was too late, no matter how reluctant they may have been. And to be very fair, William Hood does not place the blame for undoing Popov unequivocally on Blake. He leaves open the possibility that Popov’s own carelessness was partly to blame.
Based no doubt on personal experience, Hood holds to the view that those closest to the action have greater realism about what is possible and what not, while those in DC are tempted by unrealistic projects, leading them to ask for the impossible – a trope of this genre, especially if the author is a case officer who has spent significant time on site. He characterizes some of the ideas that originate in Langley as “unrealistically ambitious headquarters schemes” and “the height of folly.” (pg. 112)
The bulk of the book relies on information provided by “Gregory Domnin,” who (according to Wikipedia) appears to be based on an agent named George Kisevalter. Towards the end of the book, though, with the cloak and dagger story over, Hood turns away from his source to spend the last fifty pages or so speculating on what likely happened to Popov after his arrest and what exactly may have led to his undoing. To my own surprise, it was this last section – which by the way provides some background to the movie “The Good Shepherd” – I found the most interesting.
Hood also reviews Soviet-era literature on the case, including a close reading of accounts that appeared in Izvestya in 1963. Some of his deductions may be speculative, but Hood’s speculation is informed. He knows, for example, exactly how cumbersome it is to encipher a text, leading him to deduce that a wordy thank-you message Popov allegedly wrote was probably enhanced for publication, to say the least. He is able to tell which documents are authentic and which faked based on their style as much as content.
On the whole, the book is quite well-written – not one agent is described with the cliché “legendary.” Hood is level-headed and unsentimental – which is quite different from unfeeling. In short, just the sort of guide one would want in this labyrinth of mirrors.
The book is generally well written but it shouldn't be thought of as a research book on this subject; Hood rarely cites any references. His literary excursions in the last two chapters are detached from the main body of events and should have been avoided.
permission to write this book from them.
Lots of time consuming research was done.Book published in
1982. Was a good price & in perfect condition. Arrived quickly.
317 pgs.
Major Pyotar Popov was a Russian success story.Raised in a small
village..poor. Very smart, Was noticed by Moscow and was educated
for free.
He was given a job with the GRU. Part of the KGB.Miltary Intel.
He had a wife,a daughter/1 son and a stupid mistress.He was bored
and drank too much. He was forgetful.He played a dangerous game.
Took great risks.
He began spying for the USA in the 1950's.He was in reality a brave
man. He loved Russia.Russia announced in 1962 that he had been execu-
ted.
** Popov may be dead, but the info he gave touched off a debate with
in the CIA that continues to this day. **
This is a interesting book. Well written. I loved it. I could not put
it down. Full of trade craft info.
Missing from the book is photos. I would like to see what Popov looked
like.
Book is exciting and extremly sad too.The Communists that took over
Russia (mostly Stalin in his purges) have killed more than 30 million of
its citizens.
Your heart aches for the people...Note-there is another POPOV that was a
spy, he spied for England..his name was Dusko Popov. He tried to tell J
Edgar Hoover about Perl Harbor and Hoover would not listen.
He was known as TRICYCLE...bbp okc ok 62
