Gehlen: Spy Of The Century
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image; creased spine
From the shadows of the Third Reich to the corridors of post-war Western intelligence, Gehlen: Spy of the Century chronicles the extraordinary double life of Reinhard Gehlen — Hitler's chief of Eastern Front espionage who, upon Germany's defeat, bartered his vast Soviet intelligence network to the Americans and went on to found West Germany's federal intelligence service, the BND. E.H. Cookridge presents a meticulously researched account of one of the twentieth century's most cunning and morally ambiguous spymasters, whose wartime allegiances and post-war usefulness made him simultaneously indispensable and deeply controversial to his new Western handlers during the Cold War. Cookridge, a veteran intelligence journalist and author, illustrates with gripping authority how Gehlen's career sat at the very nexus of ideological betrayal, realpolitik, and the shadowy compromises that defined the early Cold War era. The narrative uncovers the systemic moral bargains struck by Western intelligence agencies as they recruited former Nazi operatives in the race against Soviet communism — a story whose implications reverberate through modern geopolitics. For readers drawn to the darker mechanics of power, espionage, and the uneasy alliances forged in the ruins of World War II, this is an essential and deeply unsettling account of how one man's survival instinct helped shape the intelligence landscape of the modern world.
Author: E.H. Cookridge
Format: Paperback
Genre: Cold war & espionage
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image; creased spine
From the shadows of the Third Reich to the corridors of post-war Western intelligence, Gehlen: Spy of the Century chronicles the extraordinary double life of Reinhard Gehlen — Hitler's chief of Eastern Front espionage who, upon Germany's defeat, bartered his vast Soviet intelligence network to the Americans and went on to found West Germany's federal intelligence service, the BND. E.H. Cookridge presents a meticulously researched account of one of the twentieth century's most cunning and morally ambiguous spymasters, whose wartime allegiances and post-war usefulness made him simultaneously indispensable and deeply controversial to his new Western handlers during the Cold War. Cookridge, a veteran intelligence journalist and author, illustrates with gripping authority how Gehlen's career sat at the very nexus of ideological betrayal, realpolitik, and the shadowy compromises that defined the early Cold War era. The narrative uncovers the systemic moral bargains struck by Western intelligence agencies as they recruited former Nazi operatives in the race against Soviet communism — a story whose implications reverberate through modern geopolitics. For readers drawn to the darker mechanics of power, espionage, and the uneasy alliances forged in the ruins of World War II, this is an essential and deeply unsettling account of how one man's survival instinct helped shape the intelligence landscape of the modern world.