Steve Vogel

Betrayal in Berlin (eBook, ePUB)

George Blake, the Berlin Tunnel and the Greatest Conspiracy of the Cold War

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

'Riveting and vivid ... At the heart of the book is Blake's own remarkable story, which Vogel tells with some sympathy, if not approval. It reads like a Hollywood screenplay' Foreign Affairs

'A fascinating account of Blake's career as a spy ... Blake's story has been told before, as has the tunnel's, but Steve Vogel pulls them together accessibly and comprehensibly, along with the wider political context and entertaining detail about personalities of the period' Spectator

'Excellent... although there are other books on Blake, Mr. Vogel's handling of his tale is original and rewarding... meticulously researched and full of vivid detail' Wall Street Journal

'A spy thriller that kept me up all night. Magnificent story-telling' Peter Snow

A true Cold War espionage thriller set around the ultra-secret Berlin Tunnel - where British officer George Blake must run a high-stakes double cross to maintain his cover.

The ultra-secret "Berlin Tunnel" was dug in the mid-1950s from the American sector in southwest Berlin and ran nearly a quarter-mile into the Soviet sector, allowing the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to tap into critical KGB and Soviet military underground telecommunication lines.

George Blake, a trusted officer working in a highly sensitive job with SIS, was privy to every aspect of the plan. Over the course of eleven months from May 1955 to April 1956, when the Soviets discovered the tunnel, "Operation Gold" provided seemingly invaluable intelligence about Soviet capabilities and intentions. The tunnel was celebrated as an astonishing CIA coup upon its disclosure, and the agency basked in its new reputation as a bold and capable intelligence agency that had, for once, outwitted the KGB. But in 1961, a Polish defector shocked the CIA and SIS by revealing that Blake was a double agent who had disclosed plans for the tunnel to the KGB before it was even built. Blake was arrested and sentenced in 1961 to 42 years in prison, the longest term ever imposed under modern English law. In the years since, the tunnel has been labelled a failure, based on the assumption that the Soviets would never have allowed any information of importance to be transmitted through the tapped lines. Not so.

In a work of remarkable investigative reporting, Steve Vogel now reveals that the information picked up by the CIA and SIS was more valuable than even they believed. But why would the Soviets, knowing full well that the tunnel existed, have let slip many of their most valuable secrets? Or did they actually know?

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: John Murray Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 24. September 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781473647503
• Artikelnr.: 56794248

Autorenporträt

Vogel, Steve

Steve Vogel is the author of Through the Perlious Fight and The Pentagon: A History, both published by Random House. He is a reporter for the national staff of the Washington Post who covers the federal government and frequently writes about the military and veterans. Based overseas from 1989 through 1994 and reporting for the Post and Army Times, he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first Gulf War, and subsequently reported on military operations in Somalia, Rwanda, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Vogel also covered the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and its subsequent reconstruction. He lives in the Washington metro area.

Rezensionen

"One of the most dramatic spy stories of the Cold War, superbly told by a real authority on the subject. Steve Vogel draws on his family background and reportorial expertise to recreate the paranoid atmosphere of divided Berlin and the wall that symbolized the superpower standoff. With a cast of characters that could have come straight out of a John le Carré novel, this is a "mole versus mole" espionage tale like no other." - Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

"The best spy book I have ever read...Steve Vogel is a talented and gifted writer who brings the personalities and idiosyncrasies of every participant in this operation to life. His research is vast, varied, and full of detail. It is truly one of those rare books you can't put down." - Sandra "Sandy" Grimes, retired twenty-six year veteran of CIA's Clandestine Service and co-author of Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed

"A crackling Cold War espionage story, Betrayal in Berlin takes you to the peaks of spying ambition and the depths of betrayal." - David E. Hoffman, author of The Billion Dollar Spy

"Swiftly moving, richly detailed... As well paced as a le Carré novel, with deep insight into the tangled world of Cold War espionage." - Kirkus Reviews

"This captivating study will thrill World War II buffs as well as mystery readers of all ages." - Library Journal

"This is a fascinating, fast-paced narrative, and Vogel is particularly well-suited to write it." - Washington Post

"Betrayal in Berlin is one of the best Cold War non-fiction espionage books I have read. For me, Mr. Vogel is up there with Ben Macintyre." - Spybrary Podcast

"Excellent... although there are other books on Blake, Mr. Vogel's handling of his tale is original and rewarding... meticulously researched and full of vivid detail." - Wall Street Journal

"A riveting and vivid account. ... reads like a Hollywood screenplay" - Foreign Affairs

"Blake's story has been told before, as has the tunnel's, but Steve Vogel pulls them together accessibly and comprehensibly, along with the wider political context and entertaining detail about personalities of the period." - The Spectator

"A well-researched and fascinating look back at the Cold War." - Washington Times

"Betrayal in Berlin has everything a great spy story needs: fascinating characters, plenty of dramatic action, atmospheric backdrops, and world-changing consequences." - Monte Reel, author of A Brotherhood of Spies: The U-2 and the CIA's Secret War

"A dazzling, true-life saga of the spy-versus-spy underpinnings of the Cold War." - Washington Independent Review of Books

"Vogel's ability as a storyteller has made this into a great spy yarn." - The Virginia Gazette

"A super book, beautifully told and compelling throughout. Vogel sketches George Blake perfectly as a diffident traitor who combines high intellect with ruthlessness." - Luke Harding, author of Collusion and Shadow State

"Reads like a thriller, reaches sources previously untapped .... Betrayal in Berlin is reliable, exciting, well-sourced and fair. . . Vogel transports the reader back in time into rooms and meetings that, at the time, were extraordinarily sensitive. ... The best book to date on the Berlin Tunnel." - Studies in Intelligence