Spying in America : espionage from the Revolutionary War to the dawn of the Cold War

Summary: Can you keep a secret? Maybe you can, but the United States government cannot. Since the birth of our country, nations large and small, from Russia and China to Ghana and Ecuador, have stolen the most precious secrets of the United States. Written by a former director of the CIA's clandestine service, this work presents a history of more than thirty espionage cases inside the United States. These cases include Americans who spied against their country, spies from both the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War, and foreign agents who ran operations on American soil. Some of the stories are familiar, such as those of Benedict Arnold and Julius Rosenberg, while others, though less well known, are equally fascinating. From the American Revolution, through the Civil War and two World Wars, to the atomic age of the Manhattan Project, the author details the lives of those who have betrayed America's secrets. In each case he focuses on the motivations that drove these individuals to spy, their access and the secrets they betrayed, their tradecraft or techniques for concealing their espionage, their exposure and punishment, and the damage they ultimately inflicted on America's national security. This book serves as an introduction to the early history of espionage in America. The author's unique experience as a senior intelligence officer is evident as he skillfully guides the reader through these cases of intrigue, deftly illustrating the evolution of American awareness about espionage and the fitful development of American counterespionage leading up to the Cold War.

Record details

ISBN: 9781589019263 (hbk. : acid-free paper)
ISBN: 1589019261 (hbk. : acid-free paper)
Physical Description: print
xiii, 320 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Washington, DC : Georgetown University Press, c2012.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-302) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

The peril of disbelief -- The Revolutionary War. Espionage and the Revolutionary War ; The first spy: Benjamin Church ; The undetected spy: Edward Bancroft ; The treasonous spy: Benedict Arnold. -- The Civil War. Espionage and the Civil War ; Allan Pinkerton and Union counterintelligence ; The chameleon spy: Timothy Webster ; The spy in the Union capital: Rose Greenhow ; The counterspy as tyrant: Lafayette Baker ; The Confederacy's reverend spy: Thomas Conrad ; Union espionage. -- Espionage During the World Wars, 1914-45. Espionage before World War I ; Prelude to war: Germany's first spy network ; U.S. counterespionage and World War I ; Spy hysteria between the world wars ; German espionage in World War II ; The spy in U.S. industry: the Norden bombsight ; The double agent: William Sebold ; German intelligence failures in World War II ; The spy in the State Department: Tyler Kent ; Japanese espionage in World War II. -- The Golden Age of Soviet Espionage: the 1930s and 1940s. The origins of Cold War espionage ; America's counterespionage weapon: Venona ; The Golden Age exposed: Igor Gouzenko ; The "Red Spy Queen" : Elizabeth Bentley ; Spy versus spy: Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss ; The spy in the Treasury: Harry Dexter White ; The spy in the White House: Lauchlin Currie ; The spy in U.S. counterespionage: Judith Coplon. -- The Atomic Bomb Spies: Prelude to the Cold War. The atomic bomb spies ; The executed spies: The Rosenbergs ; The atomic bomb spy who got away: Theodore Hall ; The spy from the cornfields: George Koval. -- Espionage in the Cold War and Beyond.