Reddit reviews The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
We found 4 Reddit comments about The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I've been reading this book recently, and I definitely recommend it, but both sides pretty much know who is diplomatic staff and who is intelligence with an official cover. They just don't do anything because of diplomatic reasons, besides heavily monitoring their activities. I'm sure Russia already has a list of CIA guys in the embassies.
The people in Russia on unofficial covers is a whole other thing.
A lot of fiction in this thread, I'd like to mention some non-fiction:
My first master's degree was in Intelligence Studies with a concentration in Intelligence Operations.
My two favorite books are supplemental to each other but talk about the the US v. the USSR during the mid 80s to late 90s. One is from the perspective a former CIA case officer and the other is from the perspective of a former KGB case officer.
The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB by Milt Bearden
Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer
A great overview of intelligence history is A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century by Jeffery T. Richelson. Richelson is very knowledgeable about intelligence history and well respected as one of the premiere historians in the field. He has written a ton of other books and I imagine they're pretty good and worthwhile.
Finally, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis is a great book not only about the Cuban Missile Crisis but examining how national security decisions are made.
right... just like in the 500 page book, legacy of ashes or this lovely book, the main enemy. Argghhh! I wish we had books we could refer to!