Books like The reluctant spy by John Kiriakou

Joseph Conrad’s 1907 political thriller follows London spy Adolf Verloc as he navigates anarchism, espionage and moral compromise, revealing a bleak portrait of the city and the exploitation of the vulnerable.

“[The United States’ goal in Angola] was not to keep out the Cubans and Soviets but to make their imperial efforts as costly as possible and to prove that, after Vietnam. we were still capable of response, however insane. It is this story that has been told, and in impressive and convincing detail, by John Stockweli, the former chief of the CIA’s Angola task force.’ His hook should not he missed. Since strategic thought survives by ignoring experience, it has a highly professional interest in avoiding accounts such as this. By the same token, all who are alarmed about the tendency toward such strategic thinking should strongly welcome Mr. Stockwell’s book.” —John Kenneth Gaibraith. New York Review of Books In Search of Enemies is much more than the story of the only war to be found when the CIA sought to recoup its prestige after the Vietnam debacle. Though no American troops were committed to Angola, only “advisors,” many millions were spent, many thousands died, and many lies were told to the American people, in waging a war without purpose to American vital interests and without hope of victory. In Search of Enemies is unique in its wealth of detail about CIA operations and convincing in its argument that the clandestine services of the CIA should be abolished. John Stockwell, who lived in Africa for ten of his early years, is a graduate of the University of Texas and an alumnus of the U.S. Marine Corps. After twelve years as a CIA officer, he resigned from the agency on April I. 1977

Spies are rare. Robert Hanssen was an FBI counterintelligence officer who, for 22 years, secretly supplied the KGB with trade secrets, making him one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history.

By day, he taught spycraft at the CIA's clandestine training center, The Farm. By night, he was a minivan-driving single father racing home to have dinner with his kids. But for more than two years, Jim Nicholson met covertly with agents of Russia's foreign intelligence service and turned over troves of classified documents. In 1997 Nicholson became the highest ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage. But while behind the bars of a federal prison, he groomed the one person he trusted most to serve as his stand-in: his youngest son, Nathan.

After 9/11, a college freshman turns to public service, training with the CIA and spending a decisive period in Afghanistan, where he confronts the early years of the War on Terror.

Former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates gives a candid, personal account of his time serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen Dulles, key figures in U.S. foreign policy and CIA leadership during the early Cold War, are examined in a joint biography.

Jawbreaker is a first‑person memoir by former CIA officer Gary Berntsen that recounts his intense, on‑the‑ground role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, detailing covert operations, alliances with Afghan fighters, and the battle at Tora Bora.

In the shadow of post‑Soviet Russia, a Soviet intelligence officer, trained as a seductress, confronts a CIA operative whose daring penetration threatens both men’s careers and the fragile balance of power.