Título: Spying Through a Glass Darkly
Autor: David Alvarez
Sinopse: For the period between World War II and the full onset of the Cold War, histories of American intelligence seem to go dark. Yet in those years a little known clandestine organization, the Strategic Services Unit (SSU), emerged from the remnants of wartime American intelligence to lay the groundwork for what would become the CIA and, in ways revealed here for the first time, conduct its own secret war of espionage and political intrigue in postwar Europe. Telling the full story of this early and surprisingly effective espionage arm of the United States, Spying through a Glass Darkly brings a critical chapter in the history of Cold War intelligence out of the shadows. Constrained by inadequate staff and limited resources, distracted by the conflicting demands of agencies of the U.S. government, and victimized by disinformation and double agents, the Strategic Services Unit struggled to maintain an effective American clandestine capability after the defeat of the Axis Powers. Never viscerally anti-communist, the Strategic Services Unit was slow to recognize the Soviet Union as a potential threat, but gradually it began to mount operations, often in collaboration with the intelligence services of Britain, France, Italy, Denmark, and Sweden, to throw light into the darker corners of the Soviet regime. Bringing to bear a wealth of archival documents, operational records, interviews, and correspondence, David Alvarez and Eduard Mark chronicle SSUs successes and failures in procuring intelligence on the capabilities and intentions of the Soviet Union, a chronicle that delves deeply into the details of secret operations against Soviet targets throughout Europe: not only in the backstreets of the divided cities of Berlin and Vienna, but also the cafes, hotels, offices, and salons of such cosmopolitan capitals as Paris, Rome, Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw. A remarkable account of a clandestine war of espionage, kidnappings, blackmail, disinformation, and political subversion, Spying through a Glass Darkly also describes the quantity and quality of intelligence collected by SSU and disseminated to its customers in the U.S. governmentinformation that would influence the attitudes and actions of decision makers and, as the Cold War evolved, the course of the nation in a new and dangerous world.
Contexto da obra
Quando a classificação é mais ampla, o contexto do livro costuma depender ainda mais de autoria, tema e edição. “Spying Through a Glass Darkly”, de David Alvarez, publicado pela editora University Press of Kansas, em 2016 e com 360 páginas, integra a categoria Livros Variados. Por isso, autoria, edição e tema acabam tendo ainda mais peso na forma de apresentar o livro.
Editora: University Press of Kansas
Páginas: 360
Ano: 2016
Edição:
Linguagem: en
ISBN: 070062192X
ISBN13: 9780700621927
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora University Press of Kansas propõem um mergulho em narrativas densas que exploram momentos cruciais da história política, militar e social dos Estados Unidos e do mundo. A leitura costuma ser detalhada e fundamentada em fontes originais ou análises críticas, com foco em temas como direitos constitucionais, conflitos armados, políticas públicas urbanas e biografias históricas. O ritmo varia entre relatos minuciosos de batalhas e estudos jurídicos ou sociais que demandam atenção ao desenvolvimento das ideias e seus desdobramentos ao longo do tempo. O catálogo revela obras que combinam rigor acadêmico com uma narrativa que busca clareza e profundidade, contemplando tanto eventos do século XX quanto questões contemporâneas.
