Book Reviews by Hayden Peake
Hayden Peake served in Army military intelligence and later with the CIA’s Directorates of Operations and Science and Technology. He has been compiling and writing reviews for the “Intelligence Officer’s Bookshelf” that appear in Studies in Intelligence, published by the CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence since December 2002. These reviews are reprinted from Studies in Intelligence.
Spy Sites of Washington, DC, by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton with Henry R. Schlesinger. (Washington, DC: Georgetown, University Press, 2017) 332, photos, appendices, maps, index.
Pamela Kessler set the precedent with her 1992 book, Undercover Washington: Touring the Sites Where Famous Spies Lived, Worked and Loved (EPM Publications) that included about 100 entries. In the 25 years since then, many new espionage cases have become public and new details about previous ones discovered. In Spy Sites of Washington, retired CIA officer Robert Wallace and espionage historian H. Keith Melton account for these changes in 220 entries that contain crisp commentary, color photos, and maps that locate each site.
Spy Sites contains seven chapters, each encompassing a historical period beginning with the Revolutionary War and ending in the post-Cold War era. Each chapter contains familiar topics, such as Washington’s intelligence contributions, and some less well-known entries, such as Dolly Madison’s efforts to save White House treasures during the War of 1812, including her rescue of the Gilbert Stuart painting of Washington. (6) The seldom mentioned exploits of Daniel Webster are also included. (7–8) To the Civil War era, Spy Sites adds the story of Confederate spy Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow and points out locations used by spies from both sides in the war, many of which are still standing. (26–28)
The post-Civil War period section includes an entry for the elite Alibi Club, where OSS officer David Bruce and DCI Allen Dulles were among the elite membership (limited to 50). (46) The story of Agnes Meyer Driscoll, a groundbreaking cryptographer, runs through the World War I and World War II sections covering the period during which she worked on the Japanese naval codes, until her retirement from NSA in 1952. (57–58)
The WWII chapter contains many OSS-related locations, including a photo of the French embassy where OSS agent Elizabeth Thorpe, clad only in a necklace and high heels, stole codes from the embassy safe. (87–88) Several British intelligence officers serving in America are also mentioned, one of whom was Roald Dahl, who would later author the beloved children’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (107)
Among the many Cold War entries is one for Ashford Farm, a once-top secret, Maryland safehouse where many Soviet defectors and U-2 pilot Gary Powers were debriefed. (138) This was also the time of early NSA penetrations, and the section contains an entry about Soviet spy and NSA employee Jack Dunlop, whose sad end as a suicide is particularly morbid.
The later Cold War period section includes the story of the hapless former CIA officer Edwin Moore, who attempted to peddle documents to the KGB and was caught when the KGB didn’t believe him and notified the FBI. (192–194) A more uplifting entry deals with the first CIA female chief of station, Eloise Page, (158) and a photo of the first National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) building in the District. (163) Even Congress got into the act when Soviet officer Aleksandr Mikheyev attempted to recruit an aide to then-Congresswoman Olympia Snow, who reported the pitch to the FBI. The aide wore a recorder to the next meeting, ending Mikheyev’s tour in America. (231)
The final chapter includes the much publicized 21st century cases. In addition to the narrative, Spy Sites adds locations and other less well-known details. For example, it identifies the parks where Brian Regan, the NRO would-be spy who couldn’t spell, hid stolen classified documents and then forgot where he had hidden them. (251) Then there is the Alexandria, Virginia, restaurant on the Potomac River where a US diplomat met his Taiwanese handler, while the FBI observed the exchange of documents. (256) And then there is the case of the 11 Russian illegals, three of whom lived in the Washington area. (261) The final entry lists intelligence officers who are buried in Arlington National Cemetery. (272)
If you want proof that the Washington area has been the crossroads of international espionage, follow the paths laid out in Spy Sites and see for yourself.
Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War, by Ben Macintyre. (Crown, 2016) 380, bibliography, appendices, photo, index.
In July 1941, while newly appointed Coordinator of Information (COI) William Donovan was setting up his new organization, British Lt. David Stirling was in a military hospital in Egypt recovering from a near-disastrous first parachute jump and planning an elite Special Forces unit that would become the Special Air Service (SAS). Rogue Heroes first tells how he managed to convince skeptical generals that his idea of a small, highly trained unit operating behind enemy lines in North Africa could wreak havoc on German airfields, lines of supply, and communications. And second, Rogue Heroes describes the operations in unforgiving African deserts that proved him right.
Stirling exits the battlefield saga in late 1942 after his capture by a German officer—“the unit dentist”—while on a mission in Tunisia. (197) One of his cell mates, nominally, “Capt. John Richards,” proved to be Private Theodore Schurch, the only British soldier executed for treachery during the war. (351) Stirling was not fooled. And although he proved adept at escaping on four occasions, he was equally susceptible to being captured and he spent the balance of the war in Colditz prison.
What was, by the end of the Africa campaign, an SAS regiment did not collapse after Stirling’s capture. It did, however, undergo reorganization and was temporarily stalled before reinstatement. And as demands for Special Forces services grew, a second regiment was formed—commanded by Stirling’s somewhat less colorful brother, Bill.
Rogue Heroes is initially concerned with SAS missions in Libya that destroyed aircraft and supplies behind enemy lines, after attacking from the desert (which few thought could be done). Modifying its tactics as needed, the regiment would go on to serve in Egypt, Italy, France, and Germany. Macintyre’s account of these exploits weaves in perceptive narrative portraits of the eccentric, aristocratic dilettante Stirling and his maverick, malcontent “Dirty Dozen” colleagues. All were self-reliant volunteers and most contemptuous of traditional army conventions and formalities. Stirling’s successor to command was Capt. Robert “Paddy” Mayne, a Northern Irishman characterized as “unexploded ordinance.” (209) A moody, heavy drinker “given to violent explosions of temper . . . and insubordination,” (38) Mayne was a dedicated, effective fighter and controlled his demons when necessary; he would lead his troops until the end of the war. More in Stirling’s mold was a subordinate, Capt. George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, the self-deprecating son of the World War I admiral. He would go on to become the first commander of the Special Boat Service (SBS), an SAS wartime spin-off.
For reasons not mentioned, Macintyre does not include source notes in his account. He does acknowledge the contribution of the SAS War Diary (Extraordinary Editions, Ltd., 2011; facsimile of original diary, 1946), a monumental volume that lists all wartime missions, and these are included in an appendix.
Rogue Heroes concludes with a summary of the post-war lives of the regiment’s survivors. Stirling, among other activities, helped train security units in Arab and African countries, and was knighted in 1990. (345) One survivor became a pub owner, while Paddy Mayne turned to exploring but never came to terms with his demons.
As with all Ben Macintyre’s books, he tells his story wonderfully, and in Rogue Heroes he has made another significant contribution to WWII Special Forces and intelligence history.
Foxtrot in Kandahar: A Memoir of a CIA Officer in Afghanistan at the Inception of America’s Longest War, by Duane Evans. (El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie LLC, 2017) 174, photos, no index.
In Directorate S, author Steve Coll makes a single reference to “Team Foxtrot, another Pentagon-commanded Special Forces-CIA collaboration” unit that was incorrect in one detail: it was commanded by CIA officer Duane Evans. Foxtrot in Kandahar is the story of how that came about and what the team did in Afghanistan.
After 9/11, Evans immediately volunteered for duty in Afghanistan. An operations officer and former chief of station in Latin America, (1) Evans did not have the language skills sought by the Counterterrorism Center (CTC) as it worked to put people in the field to defeat the Taliban and find Osama Bin Ladin, but he did have compensatory experience, and Special Forces service with the 83rd Airborne Division. Convincing the CTC to accept him for an overseas mission took time. He encountered unexpected bureaucratic and leadership issues that he handles skillfully in his book. In the end, it was his case officer skills working with an Afghan source in Washington that made the difference.
By the time Evans received an assignment in October, the first team sent to Afghanistan—headed by Garry Schroen, a Dari speaker and former station chief in Pakistan—had been in Afghanistan since 26 September and was functioning in the north. Evans was to go first to Pakistan and then southern Afghanistan. Attached to Team Echo, he became Hamid Karzai’s aide and got to know him well.
One of Team Echo’s missions was to assist Karzai, putatively in Afghanistan, but actually in Pakistan, to return to Kandahar without alerting the Taliban. Unfortunately, the secretary of defense announced Karzai’s whereabouts during a press conference. That increased the risk and changed the schedule. When Team Echo left for Afghanistan, Evans remained behind, but his flak jacket did not: he had given that to Kazai. While waiting to follow in the second lift, Evans received a call from Headquarters: he was to lead Team Foxtrot and “infiltrate into Kandahar province and link up with Gul Agha Shirzai,” and see him safely to Kandahar, where he would once again be governor.
At this point, Evans ran into a turf tussle with the local station that wanted to replace him with one of its officers. Evans’s account of how he overcame that challenge makes interesting reading.
Team Foxtrot went to Kandahar overland and were resupplied by airdrops one of which included horse feed. The cable informing Headquarters they did not have horses was uncharacteristically forthright.
They fought several battles along the way to Kandahar and Evans found his leadership skills challenged in several instances. On this point he has some kind words for CIA Headquarters—not a common occurrence—for refraining from “dictating actions from thousands of miles away . . . allowing the team leaders to call the shots as each saw fit. ” (151)
In Kandahar, Team Foxtrot was reunited with Team Echo and Hamid Karzai. Now there were Taliban safehouses to inspect, boxes of captured documents to examine, tribal conflicts among the Afghans to settle, and Afghan agents to debrief. One of the agents reported the Taliban had mined the roof of the Governors Palace, “2500 lbs of explosive, it turned out”—where a conference of leaders was going to take place. An explosive ordnance team (EOD) team was sent to neutralize that threat. (150)
It was now December 2001—time for Evans to return to Headquarters, an order he accepted with mixed feelings, since much remained to be done.
In his new assignment, he began to have concerns. He found the “lack of our in-depth understanding of Afghan culture and history [was making] it difficult for us to achieve positive results . . . for the long term.” (168) Looking back he asks, “Was it worth it?” (170)
Foxtrot in Kandahar is a well written, firsthand account from memory. It has the ring of truth and fills a gap about the Afghan war that illuminates the problems that continue there to this day.
Trotsky’s Favourite Spy: The Life of George Alexander Hill, by Peter Day. (Biteback Publishing Ltd., 2017) 291, endnotes, bibliography, photos, glossary, index.
Question: what do the tall, slender, handsome, and polished British actor Hugh Fraser (Poirot’s sidekick) and George Hill have in common? Answer: It was Fraser who played the 5’6”, plump, unsophisticated George Hill in the 1983 made-for-TV movie Reilly, Ace of Spies that starred Sam Neil. In Trotsky’s Favourite Spy, with one exception (noted below), author Peter Day avoids any hint of artistic license and portrays Hill as he was: a pilot, army officer, MI6 agent, SOE officer, linguist, philanderer, author, playwright, and father.
Born in Czarist Russia, Hill acquired his linguistic abilities traveling throughout Europe and the Balkans with his British merchant father. Schooled in England, he returned and entered his father’s business in Riga before joining a firm north of Vancouver, Canada. At the start of World War I, he lied about his age and enlisted in the Canadian infantry. Sent to France, he was wounded at Ypres. In short order, after recovering, he married, was commissioned, and assigned to the intelligence staff at the war office. Trained in counterespionage, he also learned Bulgarian in four weeks and was sent on a secret mission to Bulgaria. Upon his return, he joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and learned to fly at a base near Cairo. He was then assigned to serve with the RFC in Russia, where he did indeed meet Trotsky—and this is where the exception noted above comes into play.
The book’s title asserts Hill spied for Trotsky and the chapter entitled “Trotsky’s Troubleshooter,” implies a close relationship. But in fact, the narrative makes no mention of spying for Trotsky and in the “Troubleshooter” chapter, they are never shown to have met. Subsequently, Day writes that Trotsky, then minister of war, was grateful for Hill’s support for the Bolshevik air force, and for his efforts to get the railroads functioning. (57) But that didn’t make him Trotsky’s spy.
It was during this same period of 1918 that Hill joined forces with MI6’s agent, Sidney Reilly, and Day tells of their adventures in Moscow recruiting agents, their role in the failed Lockhart plot to overthrow the Bolsheviks, and their eventual escape.
Shortly after Hill and Reilly returned to London, MI6 dispatched them to southern Russia to report on the activities of White Russians attempting to overthrow the Bolsheviks. Eventually Hill was given other assignments to help the anti-Bolshevik armies, but all failed in the end, and Hill returned to London.
During the interwar years, Hill struggled to make his mark in business and writing. His plays were not sensations, but his memoirs did better. Day notes that “spies were not supposed to write their memoirs and Hill encountered strong opposition from MI6.” (139) Day does not mention that Sir Paul Dukes had been allowed to published his memoir of the same period in Moscow, and that may be why Hill persisted and published Go Spy The Land and later Dreaded Hour, which Day describes as embellished. He was then paid for three articles on sabotage that were published, further infuriating MI6.
When World War II began, Hill, then 46, applied to rejoin MI6 but was rejected. But his sabotage articles had come to the attention of the unit that would become SOE, and he promptly accepted an offer of employment. He was assigned initially to training at the same school as Kim Philby, who mentioned “jolly George Hill,” in his memoir.
When the opportunity arose to place an officer in Moscow to liaise with the NKVD, Hill was an obvious choice and, to the surprise of the Brits, he was accepted despite the Soviet knowledge of his experiences with Reilly during the revolution. He was posted with the rank of colonel.
The chapters covering Hill’s WWII service in the Soviet Union are among the most interesting in Trotsky’s Favourite Spy. Hill was promoted to brigadier and had many fascinating experiences, often controversial. Toward the end, almost as an aside, Day includes a chapter that summarizes Hill’s view of the espionage profession and his role in it and what the Soviets thought of his memoirs, which had been translated into Russian. The Soviet authors’ views “were by no means unremittingly hostile,” he writes. (242) It is an analysis worth reading.
Hill’s post-war years were spent in business and reporting to MI6 about his various ventures. “He had become respectable,” Day concludes. (252) He died of leukemia in 1970.
Trotsky’s Favourite Spy is based on interviews with Hill’s survivors and recently released government reports of his work. It adds much to what was previously known about a colorful secret agent, whether or not he was Trotsky’s favorite.
Churchill’s Spy Files: MI5’s Top-Secret Wartime Reports, by Nigel West. (The History Press, 2018) 464, endnotes, appendices, index.
For the first half of World War II, MI5 kept its counterintelligence and counterespionage operations secret. Not even the prime minister was informed. His well-known interest in such matters was offset by an equally well-known tendency for being indiscrete. MI6, on the other hand, didn’t share this view and presented Bletchley Park decrypts to the prime minister daily. In Churchill’s Spy Files, intelligence historian Nigel West tells how and why MI5 changed its policy and in 1943 began sending the prime minister monthly summary reports on its double-agent operations, prepared for his eyes only—not even his closest advisors were informed. Ironically, Soviet intelligence did have access since they were edited by Anthony Blunt, one of the now infamous Cambridge spies. (15) The reports have now been released by the British National Archives, and West presents all of them in Churchill’s Spy Files.
Typically, MI5’s director-general or the minister responsible for MI5, presented the report to the prime minister in person and remained while it was read to deal with any questions. Setting a precedent with the first report, the prime minister asked for further information on an agent named Wurmann, a German defector. West treats this case in Chapter 27. (404ff) The ninth report, dated 7 March 1944, disclosed a leak concerning the upcoming invasion, and Churchill in this case “demanded more information” which was supplied promptly. (228)
In general, the reports did not identify active agents by name; codenames were used and some— GARBO, MUTT & JEFF, TRICYCLE, and ZIGZAG—will be familiar to those acquainted with the Double-Cross operation. Little has been reported on others, for example, FREEK, PUPET, BRONX and HARLEGUIN, FIDO, and METEOR.
In all cases, West adds explanatory background material to aid reader understanding. For example, he notes that MI5’s ability to run and monitor the double agents was highly dependent on decryptions of German hand ciphers labeled “ISOS.” To emphasize this point, he cites MI5 officer Guy Liddell, who reported that MI5 could claim to have captured only three agents “single-handedly.” (431)
West’s commentary also describes the often contentious relationship between MI5 and MI6, as well as the support arrangements with the interrogation centers at Camp 020 and in post-war Germany. He demonstrates that, by war’s end, a successful model for counterintelligence operations had been established—albeit one highly dependent on the ISOS data. Churchill’s Spy Files is a unique and valuable contribution to WWII espionage history and the literature of intelligence.