Secret Empire

Eisenhower, CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage

By: Philip Taubman

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

During the early and most dangerous years of the cold war, a handful of Americans, led by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, revolutionized spying and warfare. In great secrecy and beyond the prying eyes of Congress and the press, they built exotic new machines that opened up the Soviet Union to surveillance and protected the United States from surprise nuclear attack. Secret Empire is the dramatic story of these men and their inventions, told in full for the first time.©2003 Philip Taubman (P)2003 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"In this exciting, meticulously researched spy story, Taubman takes readers behind the closed doors of the Eisenhower administration to tell about the small group of Cold Warriors whose technological innovations...revolutionized espionage and intelligence gathering." (Publishers Weekly)

Solid and Enjoyable Cold War History

This is an interesting and balanced account of US espionage and reconnaissance efforts during the first part of the Cold War. The author mixes the personal stories and anecdotes of the people who built the U2 and the Corona satellites with a wealth of interesting technical detail and a solid account of the larger Cold War context. Eisenhower is well drawn and impressive. His concern about needless escalation and provocation shames his more militant advisors and generals and may have prevented a nuclear war.

This book is likely to be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in the Cold War and the technology of reconnaissance.

The Bloodless War

This book gives great insight into the start of the US reconnaisance satellite program, as well as the key players in its beginning. With great detail into the technical obstacles to be overcome when trying to create something that has never been built before, this book also highlights tension created within the intelligence community, Washington, and Moscow.

I would recommend this book to anybody with an interest in intelligence, satellites, or the Cold War.

If you’re curious about technical espionage this is the book for you

A commenter in a Facebook discussion on the SR-71 mentioned this book as a great read elucidating the revolution in espionage wrought by advances in technology from the fifties through the turn of the century. Wow, was here right. Very thorough and insightful writing that delves not only into the enormous technical barriers that had to be overcome but also the bureaucratic infighting and politics that all-too-often hindered progress. Taubman also discusses the limits of technical intelligence vis-à-vis human intelligence as it pertains to more current problems of terrorism and nuclear proliferation and the immense challenges of dealing with the huge volume of visual and audio information now gathered electronically. It kept my interest throughout and I recommend it highly.

More people should know what Ike accomplished.

Liked it. Eisenhower has been written in the history books as a post WWII General/President that isn't known for much social change. This book casts light on his focus on intellegence and building the mechanisms to gather it.

Fascinating

As a student of pre-modern history (pre-Renaissance), I usually have little interest in this period or genre of history as it is usually tainted by politics and the shortsightedness of having been so recent. However, this history is one of the most fascinating histories I have read or listened to.

I was taught that the Eisenhower years were a kind of "Howdie Doodie", "Happy Days" world where Ike went golfing and the world was all rosey. Not true--Ike and his administration had to fight a very hard and dangerous world during the Cold War. It is remarkable that they of this time kept is so isolated to the average American.

Here is a story of how we brought technology to espionage in a very heightened way. This is a story of unsung heroes and geniuses and gutsy men who protected us from a very real threat, both real and apparent.

Normally, a history with so much sci-tech as its backbone would be rather specialized and boring; this one is not. The technical problems to be solved were significant and very difficult. There is a lot of spine in this book

This story needs to be told.

Not about Eisenhower

I was looking for a book on Ike. The tech stuff was interesting but not really much news

A good in depth review of the era

I enjoyed this book. Some said that it gets too detailed but I think maybe only a chapter is a little slow. My only disagreement is that the author takes a seemingly pro-CIA, NSA stance. That's ok though, it doesn't taint the book as a whole and is only mentioned really in the epilogue, I tend to view the CIA and NSA a bit more cautiously, though I do see value with both of the agencies.

Edward Land Develops The CIA

Would you consider the audio edition of Secret Empire to be better than the print version?

Unknown

What did you like best about this story?

The involvement of Edward Land with the CIA and President Eisenhower.

What does Michael Prichard bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I rarely read books any longer but I did like his reading.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was surprised about what went on behind the scenes in the 50's regarding our intelligence efforts.

Thorough and Detailed Account of 50s & 60s Recon

If you remember any of the spy thrillers of the 1970s & 80s (The Eiger Sanction, Falcon and the Snowman, etc.), you'll remember references to spy satellites but never an explanation on how they worked, how they were developed, and in fact what part of the US government actually ran them. This book gives a detailed and really interesting account about all of this.

I had no idea that before communications technology was advanced enough to allow digital transmission of satellite images that the satellites would actually drop film back to earth that would get captured and developed. I had heard of the U2 program (and of Gary Powers captures) but never knew how the program came about and what intelligence was actually able to be gleamed from those flyovers. These are just a few of the scores of stories included in the book.

In short, this is a very worthy read for anyone like me who finds these kinds of things interesting.

Good Listen

I thought this was a good book overall. There is some times to where the history jumps around and leaves you unsure of the date they are talking about. I would recommend this book and I'm glad I got to listen to it. Very good overview of the spy history. If you like the U2 story and the spy satellites you will enjoy this.