American Spies

American Spies is about Americans who spied for other governments against the United States. The author has been head of the CIA’s counterintelligence division and that inside perspective removes the sensationalism often associated with spy books; this makes the narratives much more believable. In the book you meet people mostly considered ordinary who because of money, family or social problems are convinced or volunteer to pass secrets to the Soviets, the Chinese, or Israel. Only after they are caught are the often darker sides of their personas brought to light. The book contains stories of Walker, Pelton, Howard, Pollard, Ames and Hanssen and others. Their clandestine efforts hurt the United States militarily, economically, politically and industrially. The losses are hard to calculate but are many tens of billions of dollars at least. The book is very readable; it is a history of espionage played out on American shores. The stories are long enough to be detailed but short enough to hold attention. While reading I kept hoping someone would find out about them and stop the leakage of secrets but usually they were able to spy for years undetected. I very much recommend this book as a caution to our current times.