Spies
The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West
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Spies
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Narrated by:
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Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
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By:
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Calder Walton
About this listen
The riveting story of the hundred-year intelligence war between Russia and the West with lessons for our new superpower conflict with China
Espionage, election meddling, disinformation, assassinations, subversion, and sabotage - all attract headlines today about Putin's dictatorship. But they are far from new. The West has a long-term Russia problem, not a Putin problem. Spies mines hitherto secret archives and exclusive interviews with former agents to tell the history of the war that Russia and the West have been waging for a century. Espionage dark arts were the Kremlin's means to equalise the imbalance of arms between the East and West before, during and after the Cold War. There was nothing 'unprecedented' about Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. It was business as usual, new means for old ends.
The Cold War started long before 1945. Western powers gradually fought back after the Second World War, mounting their own shadow war, deploying propaganda, recruiting intelligence networks and pioneering new spy technologies against the Soviet Union. Spies is an inspiring, engrossing story of the best and worst of mankind: bravery and honour, treachery and betrayal. The narrative shifts across continents and decades, from the freezing streets of St. Petersburg in 1917 to the bloody beaches of Normandy; from coups in faraway lands to present-day Moscow, where troll farms weaponise social media against Western democracies. This fresh reading of history makes Spies a unique and essential addition to the story of the unrolling conflict between Russia, China and the West that will dominate the twenty-first century.
©2023 Calder Walton (P)2023 Hachette Audio UKListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: John Pomfret
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
From the award-winning and acclaimed author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, From Warsaw with Love tells the epic story of how Polish intelligence officers forged an alliance with the CIA in the twilight of the Cold War. In 1990, soon after the Polish people voted in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Polish government sent a veteran spy, who’d battled the West for decades, to rescue six American officers trapped in Baghdad.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating and well researched
- By wacek szymkowiak on 07-23-24
By: John Pomfret
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Dirty Wars
- The World Is a Battlefield
- By: Jeremy Scahill
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 24 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 788
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 685
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 694
From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen, Somalia, and beyond, Scahill speaks to the CIA agents, mercenaries, and elite Special Operations Forces operators who populate the dark side of American war-fighting. He goes deep into al Qaeda-held territory in Yemen and walks the streets of Mogadishu with CIA-backed warlords. We also meet the survivors of US night raids and drone strikes - including families of US citizens targeted for assassination by their own government - who reveal the human consequences of the dirty wars the United States struggles to keep hidden.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Non political BUT very anti-violence
- By aaron on 05-11-13
By: Jeremy Scahill
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The Quiet Americans
- Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War - a Tragedy in Three Acts
- By: Scott Anderson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Scott Anderson
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 434
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 377
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 371
At the end of World War II, the United States was considered the victor over tyranny and a champion of freedom. But it was clear—to some—that the Soviet Union was already seeking to expand and foment revolution around the world, and the American government’s strategy in response relied on the secret efforts of a newly formed CIA. Chronicling their fascinating lives, Scott Anderson follows the exploits of four spies. Despite their ambitions, time and again their efforts went awry, thwarted by ham-fisted politicking and ideological rigidity at the highest levels of the government.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Tragedy for One
- By Amazon Customer on 09-23-20
By: Scott Anderson
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Operation Gladio
- The Unholy Alliance Between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia
- By: Paul L. Williams
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 395
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 337
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Story5 out of 5 stars 338
In this disturbing exposé, journalist Paul L. Williams describes a secret alliance forged at the close of World War II by the CIA, the Sicilian and US mafias, and the Vatican to thwart the possibility of a Communist invasion of Europe. Williams presents evidence suggesting the existence, in many European countries, of "stay-behind" units consisting of 5,000 to 15,000 military operatives.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A haunting, spellbinding tale.
- By Anthony on 12-07-15
By: Paul L. Williams
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GCHQ
- Centenary Edition
- By: Richard Aldrich
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 25 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
GCHQ is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the UK, and has existed for 100 years - but we still know next to nothing about it. In this ground-breaking book - the first and most definitive history of the organisation ever published - intelligence expert Richard Aldrich traces GCHQ’s development from a wartime code-breaking operation based in the Bedfordshire countryside into one of the world leading espionage organisations.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely fascinating
- By philstopford on 04-01-24
By: Richard Aldrich
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The Road to 9/11
- Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
This is an ambitious, meticulous examination of how U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s has led to partial or total cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, including, perhaps, the catastrophe of 9/11. Peter Dale Scott, whose previous books have investigated CIA involvement in southeast Asia, the drug wars, and the Kennedy assassination, here probes how the policies of presidents since Nixon have augmented the tangled bases for the 2001 terrorist attack.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Full of Interesting Information, Hard to Follow
- By Blizzard on 09-20-13
By: Peter Dale Scott
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The Sword and the Shield
- By: Christopher Andrew, Vasilli Mitrokhin
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 31 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 537
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 454
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 451
This book reveals the most complete picture ever of the KGB and its operations in the United States and Europe. It is based on an extremely top secret archive which details the full extent of its worldwide network. Christopher Andrew is professor of modern and contemporary history and chair of the history department at Cambridge University, a former visiting professor of national security at Harvard, a frequent guest lecturer at other United States universities, and a regular host of BBC radio and TV programs.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book on the history of the KGB
- By Clydene on 05-28-12
By: Christopher Andrew, and others
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The Plot to Betray America
- How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It
- By: Malcolm Nance
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 695
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 593
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Story5 out of 5 stars 588
In The Plot to Betray America, New York Times best-selling author and renowned intelligence expert Malcolm Nance reveals exactly how President Trump and his inner circle conspired, coordinated, communicated, and eventually strategized to commit the greatest acts of treachery in the history of the United States: Compromising the presidential oath of office in exchange for power and personal enrichment.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic Read
- By Customer on 11-14-19
By: Malcolm Nance
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Legacy of Ashes
- The History of the CIA
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,598
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,866
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,850
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Flawed but Important
- By Michael on 07-18-08
By: Tim Weiner
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White Malice
- The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa
- By: Susan Williams
- Narrated by: Chanté McCormick
- Length: 21 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
In White Malice, Susan Williams unearths the covert operations pursued by the CIA from Ghana to the Congo to the UN in an effort to frustrate and deny Africa’s new generation of nationalist leaders. This dramatically upends the conventional belief that the African nations failed to establish effective, democratic states on their own accord. As the old European powers moved out, the US moved in.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A very good read.
- By Amazon Customer on 11-20-22
By: Susan Williams
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Shadow State
- Murder, Mayhem, and Russia's Remaking of the West
- By: Luke Harding
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
Moscow’s support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election has grown into the biggest political scandal of modern times. Its American players are well-known. In Shadow State, award-winning journalist and best-selling author Luke Harding reveals the Russians behind the story: the spies, hackers, and internet trolls. Harding charts how the Kremlin has updated Communist-era methods of influence and propaganda for the age of Facebook and Twitter, and considers the compelling question of our age: what exactly does Vladimir Putin have on President Trump?
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5 out of 5 stars
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The reader is mispronouncing words!
- By Jonathan on 07-20-20
By: Luke Harding
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The Compatriots
- The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad
- By: Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogan
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
The history of Russian espionage is soaked in blood, from a spontaneous pistol shot that killed a secret policeman in Romania in 1924 to the attempt to poison an exiled KGB colonel in Salisbury, England, in 2017. Russian émigrés have found themselves continually at the center of the mayhem. Russians began leaving the country in big numbers in the late 19th century, fleeing pogroms, tsarist secret police persecution, and the Revolution, then Stalin and the KGB - and creating the third-largest diaspora in the world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book. Extremely detailed history of the USSR
- By M. Gordon on 03-03-20
By: Andrei Soldatov, and others
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The Iran Wars
- Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East
- By: Jay Solomon
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 312
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 282
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 282
The Iran Wars is an absorbing account of a battle waged on many levels - military, financial, and covert. Jay Solomon’s book is the product of extensive in-depth reporting and interviews with all the key players in the conflict - from high-ranking Iranian officials to Secretary of State John Kerry and his negotiating team. With a reporter’s masterly investigative eye and the narrative dexterity of a great historian, Solomon shows how Iran’s nuclear development went unnoticed for years by the international community only to become its top security concern.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Titled Towards Confrontation
- By Jim on 03-19-17
By: Jay Solomon
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The Longest War
- America and Al-Qaeda Since 9/11
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 152
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 87
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
In The Longest War, Peter Bergen offers a comprehensive history of this war and its evolution, from the strategies devised in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to the fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond. Weaving together internal documents from al-Qaeda and the U.S. offices of counterterrorism, first-person interviews with top-level jihadists and senior Washington officials, along with his own experiences on the ground in the Middle East, Bergen balances the accounts of each side.
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2 out of 5 stars
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More Bush bashing..yes, but still worth reading.
- By Dennis on 01-18-11
By: Peter L. Bergen
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To Start a War
- How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq
- By: Robert Draper
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 180
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 143
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 144
Even now, after more than 15 years, it is hard to see the invasion of Iraq through the cool, considered gaze of history. For too many people, the damage is still too palpable, and still unfolding. Most of the major players in that decision are still with us, and few of them are not haunted by it, in one way or another. Perhaps it's that combination, the passage of the years and the still unresolved trauma, that explains why so many protagonists opened up so fully for the first time to Robert Draper.
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5 out of 5 stars
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If you’ve grown weary of the current GOP administration’s incompetence...
- By Marynelle on 09-04-20
By: Robert Draper
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The New Nobility
- The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB
- By: Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogin
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4 out of 5 stars 59
While Vladimir Putin has been president and prime minister of Russia, the Kremlin has deployed the security services to intimidate the political opposition, reassert the power of the state, and carry out assassinations overseas. At the same time, its agents and spies were put beyond public accountability and blessed with the prestige, benefits, and legitimacy lost since the Soviet collapse.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A little difficult to follow
- By Jairus on 12-10-10
By: Andrei Soldatov, and others