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- It was the height of the Cold War, and a dangerous time to be stationed in the Soviet Union. One evening, while the chief of the CIA’s Moscow station was filling his gas tank, a stranger approached and dropped a note into the car. The chief, suspicious of a KGB trap, ignored the overture. But the man had made up his mind. His attempts to establish contact with the CIA would be rebuffed four times before he thrust upon them an envelope whose contents would stun U.S. intelligence. In the years that followed, that man, Adolf Tolkachev, became one of the most valuable spies ever for the U.S. But these activities posed an enormous personal threat to Tolkachev and his American handlers. They had clandestine meetings in parks and on street corners, and used spy cameras, props, and private codes, eluding the ever-present KGB in its own backyard—until a shocking betrayal put them all at risk.
- Drawing on previously classified CIA documents and on interviews with firsthand participants, The Billion Dollar Spy is a brilliant feat of reporting and a riveting true story of intrigue in the final years of the Cold War.
Check Out What Readers Said about Kindle/eBook!
“If you think you have a strong sense of how espionage was conducted during the Cold War, you’re probably wrong. Histories, and the crowded shelves of spy novels set during the era, offer a cursory and misleading view of the day-to-day reality as it was lived by the men and women who worked for the CIA and the KGB. David E. Hoffman’s outstanding tale about one extraordinary Russian spy for the US and his CIA handlers is truly eye-opening. You won’t be able to look at spycraft in what is called humint — human intelligence — the same way ever again.” By Mal Warwick
“Over the course of more than 20 meetings with his CIA handlers, Adolf Tolkachev passed on thousands of pages’ worth of military secrets — information that gave the United States a decisive lead in the final stages of the Cold War arms race that would last right into the 1990s, and that saved the Defense Department and its contractors in excess of $2 billion dollars. In exchange, Tolkachev got — well, I won’t spoil this tale of Cold War espionage for you; you’ll simply have to read it for yourself.” By S. McGee
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Product Details
Author: David E. Hoffman
Kindle price: Hardcover $16.39 Paperback $10.09
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (May 10, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345805976
ISBN-13: 978-0345805973
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (666 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,284 in Books
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