First published 2022
Before 1940, America had no spy organization and only a handful of codebreakers working in isolated rooms. The country recruited no agents, stole no secrets, and ran no covert operations abroad. This changed when Winston Churchill pressed the United States to join the fight against Hitler. Reynolds, a historian and former CIA officer, traces how America's entire modern intelligence apparatus grew from these wartime beginnings. He examines the creation of the first American spy service, built from scratch during World War II. The book covers the full scope of wartime intelligence operations, combining unknown historical details with compelling espionage narratives. Reynolds shows how these early codebreakers and spies contributed to Allied victory and established the groundwork for Cold War intelligence operations. This comprehensive study reveals the rapid transformation from an intelligence vacuum to a sophisticated system that would shape American foreign policy for decades.
Genres: history, 20th-century, non-fiction, 21st-century, military-history, espionage
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-fiction
Setting: America, United States
Period: 1940s
832 pages · Paperback · William Morrow Large Print