Molehunt: The Secret Search for Traitors That Shattered the CIA

by David Wise

Book Overview

In 1961 a KGB officer defected to the U.S.--and began telling flimsily corroborated tales of a Soviet mole inside the CIA. Here Wise takes us inside some of the CIA's most sensitive operations in a riveting, revelation-packed expose of the witch hunt for Soviet moles that lasted for almost two decades.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394585143
• ISBN13: 9780394585147
• Release Date: March 1992
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 325 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A Hall of Mirrors

This is a critical but carefully put together retrospective of the life and times of James Jesus Angleton, U.S. master-counter spy, and long time head of the CIA's counterintelligence directorate. Angleton's wariness and suspicious mode of operating, more often than not, bordered on paranoia. Long revered, and operating under an undeserved but legendary cloaked-and-dagger reputation that carried with it more than just a bit of an aura of spy-dome mystique, Angleton wrecked a 30-year career and with it took down the CIA's counter-intelligence arm. When Angleton fell for the mostly contrived and self-serving disinformation about a mole operating within the CIA, fed to him by a defecting KGB officer named Anatoli Golitsin, the mole hunt that would virtually destroy U.S. counter-intelligence, was on. It still remains unclear as to whether or not Golitsin was a "sent" double agent to protect or deflect attention away from moles like Aldridge Ames are John Walker. Angleton was completely "taken in" by Golitsin and trusted him completely. Golitsin, on his part, used his contrived CIA "mole scare" and what he called the Communist "Master Plan," to gain a Svengali-like hold over Angleton that resulted in a complete hoodwinking of the wily counter-intelligence expert, a hoodwinking that in retrospect is difficult to comprehend. This power over Angleton was turned into access that Goltisin used to burrow his way even deeper into the heart of the CIA's family jewels. It resulted in unauthorized access to coveted CIA counter-espionage files that he took home, the right to call the shots on counter-espionage policy, and the actual right to "vet" East European defectors, among others. It helped that the "Master Plan," that Golitsin was peddling just happened to converge with Angleton's own Cold War paranoid nature. As a result, Golitsin used his access and influence over Angleton to virtually tie U.S. counter-intelligence into knots. It is important to mention in passing that Angleton's, other claim to fame, was that he was a drinking buddy of the infamous British spy, Kim Philby. After Bill Colby was appointed CIA Director, and the dust finally settled, Golitsin was found to be just short of a self-serving fraud, mostly seeking a soft place to land in the West as a political refugee. Within months of Colby's tenure as DCI, Both Angleton and his "charge" were unceremoniously sacked and the counter intelligence directorate has been on an upward gradient to repair the damage ever since. In at least one book, Angleton himself came under suspicion as the most likely mole that Golitsin is supposed to have come to finger. This is a good read. Four Stars

Fascinating and Scarey

This is a great book about the CIA and Jim Angleton. It is the kind of true story that is almost hard to believe because it is so compelling and so interesting. There have been several movies that have been based on some of the characters and events in this book. Matt Damons character in The Good Sheperd is a carbon copy of Angleton and also Michael Keaton played him in the mini series The Company. I recommend this book to everybody.

Great Work From Author

This book is a detailed examination of the internal search for a spy that was supposedly in the CIA during the 60 - 70's that was headed up by the chief of counter intelligence James Angleton. The book focuses on Angleton's almost demonic search for this supposed spy. The spy was never found but the search did an incalculable amount of damage to the CIA and overall U.S. security due to the paranoid and distrustful management style that the CIA adopted. The book is written in the style of an investigative reporter, by that I mean straight forward timeline with backed up facts and lots of detail. It provides the read with an interesting view into the CIA and the problems the culture of mistrust caused. It is a very readable book and is a must for those who are interested in the workings of the CIA during the cold war.