Mole
New York, N.Y. Ballantine Books, 1982. First Ballantine Books Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing. Mass market paperback. xvii, [1], 298, [4] pages. Corners of several pages creased. Some page soiling and discoloration. Cover has some wear and soiling. The thrilling true story of Lt. Col. Pyotr Popov, the first agent the CIA recruited within the Soviet intelligence service. Reads like the best of le Carre -- but fact. This book builds to a dramatic conclusion with the kind of mounting tension one would expect to find in the best novels about espionage. William J. Hood was a retired senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency and a writer. During World War II, Mr. Hood volunteered for the Office of Strategic Services. "Bill Hood was one of the heroes of O.S.S. and C.I.A., a major figure and leader in the clandestine services over three decades, a member of Allen Dulles's wartime team, and a successful and inspiring leader of operations in Central Europe and at headquarters," wrote a former colleague. After the war, Mr. Hood remained in Europe, working for the agency in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, often as chief of station. He was one of three deputies of James Jesus Angleton, the head of counterintelligence at the agency. Before retiring, he was chief of operations for Latin America and had worked in New York undercover at the United Nations. After he retired, Mr. Hood wrote "Mole," a nonfiction story of a Soviet Army colonel who became a double agent. He then wrote three spy novels, "Spy Wednesday," "The Sunday Spy," and "Cry Spy," all of which were well received. His last book was "A Look Over My Shoulder," a biography of Richard Helms, whom he had worked for when Helms was the director of the agency. Derived from a Kirkus review: The inside, CIA-approved story of Major Pyotr Popov, first US-recruited mole in Soviet Intelligence--by the retired executive officer of the Agency's Counter Intelligence Staff. As a bonus, Hood provides some splendid background on the birth and growth of the rival CIA-KGB networks. The setting is the Vienna of The Third Man--an open city occupied by the Four Powers, a clandestine city where "broad daylight" never happens. Major Popov, Soviet military intelligence case officer on the Yugoslav line, contacts American intelligence with an offer to sell the new tables of organization of a Soviet Armored Division for $120. He needs the money, it turns out, to cover some missing funds he's spent supporting his stable of underpaid agents. For the next seven years he works under Gregory Comnin, a CIA senior case officer fluent in Russian, and develops great affection for him. Meanwhile he lives in a shabby hotel room with his wife and four children--until he's transferred to Schwerin and promoted to being the deep-cover head of the "illegals section," which makes him one of the greatest CIA coups ever. Why is Popov selling secrets? Because he's a peasant who never wore shoes until he was 13, and hates the Politburo's barbarism toward peasants. But when Popov places "illegal" Margarita Tairova in Manhattan, where she's meeting her husband, and they spot their FBI surveillance team and flee back to Moscow, Popov is recalled--he's the most obvious one to have betrayed them. After breaking him down, the KGB attempts to turn him into a double agent: and, failing, has him executed. Authentic tradecraft from a pro. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Espionage, Spy, Counterspy, Double Agent, Pyotr Popov, CIA, KGB, Military Intelligence, Case Officer, Secret Agent, Gregory Comnin, Margarita Tairova, Ivanushka Durachok, Schwerin, Opergruppe Karlhorst
ISBN: 0345304918
[Book #82348]
Price: $25.00