Books like Kgb/CIA by Celina Bledowska

When World War II formally came to a close on to September 1945, a new secret war was only just beginning: the underground conflict between the security services of the two great superpowers, the KGB from the Soviet Union and the CIA from the United States of America. The history of postwar intelligence operations is naturally dominated by the efforts of the KGB and the CIA. Both have conducted a variety of operations, from direct large-scale military intervention and subversion to covert spying and surveillance missions. Both have had their successes and their failures. The fiasco of the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba was soon followed by American success in the Cuban missile crisis in which President Kennedy's deft tactics were assisted by intelligence supplied by a Soviet defector. Although the operations of the world's secret services often make the headlines these stories only scratch the surface; the search for the real truth is an elusive affair demanding patience, persistence, foresight and, often, just plain luck. KGB/CIA: Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence Operations goes beyond mere journalistic reportage to discover just how intelligence work is conducted. There are elements of the business which read almost as fiction, and it is this factor which ensures the widespread popular interest in the KGB and CIA. On the one hand we have the CIA creating "Air America" and setting up training camps for irregular forces of Montagnard tribesmen during the Vietnam conflict, while on the other, a Bulgarian dissident is openly murdered in a London street by a specially made weapon concealed in an otherwise innocent umbrella. What have intelligence operations achieved? How have they been planned and carried out? KGB/CIA: Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence Operations examines all these questions while providing a clear and authoritative account of KGB and CIA activities. The history of the intelligence world is traced from the atom spies of the 1940s to the support for the Contras and Sandanistas of the 1980s. The authors'compelling narrative is combined with over 300 painstakingly researched photographs, which provide a superb visual commentary to this traumatic and revealing story. - Jacket flap.

First publish date: 1987