Angleton, James Jesus - Click for access to biographic material on Angleton Angleton, James Jesus - Click for access to biographic material on Angleton
Barnes, Tracey - Click for Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men -- Four Who Dared (1995)
Bissell, Richard - Click for Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men -- Four Who Dared (1995)
Casey, William J. - Click for biographic material on Casey
Coffin, William Sloane, Jr.
Goldstein, Warren. William Sloane Coffin Jr.: A Holy Impatience. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Rossinow, H-1960s, H-Net Reviews, Jul. 2006 [http://www.h-net.org], notes that Coffin "was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its early years during the Korean War.... The particular uses that the ... CIA made of him reflected both his language abilities and his remarkable social skills.... Coffin ... developed extensive contacts with 'White Russian' communities in France and elsewhere, exiles from the Soviet regime, and as a CIA employee he trained anti-Soviet agents who were parachuted into the Soviet Union (it failed badly; the men were caught)."
Colby, William E. - Click for biographic material on Colby
Dulles, Allen - Click for biographic material on Dulles
FitzGerald, Desmond - Click for Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men -- Four Who Dared (1995)
Harvey, Bill
Clark comment: I wanted to enjoy this book, but was in the end disappointed. The author clearly worked hard to capture Bill Harvey and his work and life, and there is no question that doing so was an almost impossible task. However, it seems in some ways that Stockton gathered material in his research that he felt he had to use even if it was not central -- or even germane -- to his story. I almost quit the book when the author went into wildly speculative musings about the Kennedy assassination and, then again, when much space was wasted (to no conclusion) on Harvey's links with Marajen and Michael Chinigo. The Berlin part is interesting, and probably an accurate reflection of work and life in that place at that time. Just as things went downhill after Berlin for Harvey, so do they go downhill for this book after that time. There are just too many "it must have been...," "he was likely to...," and the like for me to feel comfortable that what is being coveyed is on the mark. Legends certainly deserve a legend teller, but we are unlikely to see another biography of Harvey. Therefore, we will have to make do with this book with all its flaws.
For Goulden, Intelligencer 15.2 (Fall/Winter 2006-2007), "some -- but by no means all -- of [Harvey's] career" is covered in this work. Since "much of Harvey's work was done in the darkest of shadows, one is not going to learn much about the specifics of how he earned his reputation." The reviewer's "one major criticism" of the book concerns Stockton's dragging "David Atlee Phillips into ill-grounded speculation about the assassination of President Kennedy."
Peake, Studies 51.2 (2007), reminds us that "Richard Helms characterized Bill Harvey as aggressive, demanding, and conscientious, with a good knowledge of operations. Flawed Patriot adds meat to these bones while tempering the contrary Angletonian view found in David Martin's Wilderness of Mirrors and the image of Harvey as the 'weird eccentric' portrayed by Norman Mailer in his novel Harlot's Ghost. The story of Harvey's often controversial career has lessons for all readers interested in intelligence."
A review by Chapman, IJI&C 20.4 (Winter 2007), deals more with evaluating Harvey's career as presented by Stockton than with evaluating the author's effort. The reviewer does note, however, that "Stocktons build the cornerstone of the Harvey legend on the Berlin Tunnel.... By Stockton's account, the tunnel was Harvey's brainchild, with him as planner, architect, and engineer, but that is gravely in dispute."
Hickman, I&NS 23.6 (Dec. 2008), comments that "readers who expect a biographical work to get at larger questions will find some disappoitment" with this book. In addition, it "is organized awkwardly (at times, even poorly)"; and Stockton's "incorporation of interviews and primary source material is substandard." This reviewer is also bothered by the author's failure to use more thoroughly Harvey's 1975 testimony to the Church Committee. Bohning, Intelligencer 16.2/67/fn3 (Fall 2008), calls Failed Patriot "[a]n excellent account of the ZRRIFLE program."
Helms, Richard M. - Click for biographic material on Helms
Hunt, E. Howard
Constantinides notes that "Szulc managed to pull together much material that had reached the public domain, but questions have arisen about ... the book.... [T]here is no documentation. Certain items on CIA and its organization are quite wrong."
Kisevalter, George
Clark comment: This is a biography of CIA case officer George Kisevalter. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Kisevalter's language skills and personality placed him at the center of some of the CIA's most significant spy cases. His resume including working with Pyotr Popov, Oleg Penkovsky, and Yuri Nosenko. Ashley's presentation is both more and less than a biography. Because of the author's use of taped conversations with Kisevalter, the book has some of the flavor of an autobiography. This comes complete with possible hyberbole on the part of the speaker, who enjoyed telling his stories. On the other hand, Ashley has clearly sought to fill some of the gaps and to validate the details by additional research and interviews with some of the people who had worked with or near Kisevalter. However, this is not the standard academic biography, with substantial accompanying documentation (nor does the author claim it to be such). Some level of fact checking and/or comparison with other accounts is needed. Nevertheless, since he was so close to the Popov and Penkovsky cases, just hearing Kisevalter's take on two of this country's most significant spies is worth the price of admission.
According to Peake, Studies 49.1 (2005), this "is a sympathetic biography of a unique CIA intelligence officer who served his adopted country with honor and dedication." Goulden, Intelligencer 14.2 (Winter/Spring 2005), comments that "the book provides keen insight into what a CIA case officer actually does in the field." Although the author's "prose takes the reader down some rabbit trails that would have best been left unexplored[,]... 'hearing' Kisevalter's story in his own voice is a remarkable memento of a remarkable man."
For Bath, NIPQ 21.2 (Jun. 2005), this work "is more than the record of a skilled intelligence officer, it also offers a rare picture of the case officer's day-to-day activities and challenges." Schecter, I&NS 20.4 (Dec. 2005), notes that Ashley based this work "on a month long series of interviews" with Kisevalter, "his business friend." Kisevalter's "insights in Popov's character, why he defected and stayed on as an agent in place until exposed and executed go far beyond any previous public accounts of the case." His memories of the Penkovsky case add "important details on the tradecraft used and his own role."
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