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Summary: describing the murky underworld of British Intelligence
Review: "Spy Catcher" by Peter Wright, I thought, was an excellent book... about the spying that actually went on behind the scenes... during the cold war. It is a must for any student of politics, international, or otherwise. It seems that a war was actually being fought by spies, (MI5, MI6, the K.G.B., the C.I.A., etc), beneath our very noses. (In the latest James Bond film, "Tomorrow Never Dies," there is a reference made to MI5, and MI6). Basically, discussed in the book, was British Internal Security, and the secret state, also a title to a book by Richard Thurlow, entitled "The Secret State: British Internal Security in the Twentieth Century." In a word, "Spy Catcher" should be read as a personal guide to understanding the dynamics of cold war politics.
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Summary: A Close Look at a Troubled Time with Some Twists
Review: A former director in MI5 British counter intelligence tells a story of cold war spying. Read this and yes, there was a Cold War; a war of espionage, with its spys, handlers, cells, traitors and double agents. This autobiography brings to the fore serious leaks in the British counter intelligence and foreign intelligence services - like the US's FBI and CIA, respectively - that thwarted their efforts. He discusses with criticism the defections of the elite public school, university educated,Don Maclean and Guy Burgess in 1951 and Kim Phiby in 1963, well known chapters in the espionage history of the era. Wright's major thesis however is that the mole most responsible for the intelligence community's failed efforts during the 50's and early 60's was its Director General, Roger Hollis, his boss for much of that period. Without knowing more, his arguments pointing to Hollis are compelling and do much to explain the subtleties of counter-espionage and intelligence gathering. Of particular note is his take on the "Cuban Missile Crisis". With comewhat tortuous logic he has the famed, sometime double agent, Oleg Penkovsky as the leak who informed of the Cuban sites and the shipboard missiles being transported to their destination, photos of which were the persuasive evidence supporting the tough policy of the then administration. This leak according to Wright however was disinformation designed to lead the Americans to the conclusion there was no "missile gap" - a major point in the 1960 presidential campaign - but rather an advantage was with the Americans, giving them the confidence to get tough and exchange the missile threat for a hands off policy - militarily - with Cuba which is what Khruschev wanted all along, looking to that island communist state as the launching pad for Western Hemisphere communism. Keep in mind that Hollis never went to jail and the noteworthy achievement of Kennedy Administration was its handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis which helped many forget the disaster of the "Bay of Pigs".
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Summary: One of a Kind: Thank You Peter Wright
Review: I feel the same as my UK friend - this book is almost impossible to put down. The fact that what you are reading is REAL makes the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up (if espionage is your bag). The book is well written and full of witty descriptions and quips in that dry British syle some Americans have come to love. If you are even remotely fond of Ian Fleming's James Bond, this book is the real deal. Thank You, Mr. Wright.
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Summary: spy catcher
Review: i was fortunate enough to have traded a book for a book when i was in wales last year and i will say that i could not put this book down until it was finished. it took me about 3 days during my trip in great britain. when i was in london i went and visited the churchill's cadinet war rooms from wwII. i the war rooms i saw pictures of philby who defected to the ussr later. it was a great way to be pulled into the book even further.
even today you see the technology that was started and developed by the peter wright and the rest of the true characters
in the book.ie the us signate plane that was brought down in china last year. that technology was started by peter wright and mi5 and mi6.
i will also say that there are times in the book when you feel a little mad at the british higher ups because their system was full of people that got to where they are from their name not their merits, and the fact that they were incompetent at the same time. i loved this book. can't you tell.
i have read it for a second time and loved it even more. you pick up more the second time.
definately get this book.
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Summary: Excellent book on the British spy's of the 50's & 60's
Review: No wonder this book was banned in the United Kingdom. It sheds a horrible light on MI5 by MI6. It's really no secret that there were spies in the UK in the 40's 50's and the 60's, what ridiculous is how little effort was put into catching them. And of course after reading this book you should get "The Sword and the Shield" and see what the USSR used all this information for, you will be very surprised.There are allocations of a 5th uncaught spy but it would appear that if it were so, they weren't working for the USSR. But then spy catchers are a suspecious lot. Great read! (way better than the fictional stuff!)
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Summary: British counterintelligence tradecraft
Review: Peter Wright was a former assistant director of MI5 (Britain's secret service or counter-intelligence). This is his story of his career, including his anecdotes about his American allies. He joined MI5 as a scientist who specialized in tools for espionage. He had been promised credit for his years as a civilian scientist. When this promise was broken at retirement, he wrote this book to even out things. This is an interesting book that can't be summarized in a few paragraphs. It is definitely worth reading for the details on government activities in a "democracy". Watergate was a notable failure of such activities. Do these activities continue? Of course! Pages 158-9 tell of his proposal for a "Bolshevik model" for former colonial countries: let a political party control the army and secret police so that neither the army or another political party could gain control of the government. He pointed out that only those newly created countries that adopted this principle have escaped military dictatorships and civil war. Does the above advice seem to cynical and radical? But our Establishment DOES control the army and secret police so that neither the military or a populist political party (one not controlled by corporate interests) can gain control. Yet the classic solution for democracies, from Aristotle to Machiavelli to our Founding Fathers was well-armed citizens and their militia. It has worked well for over over a century, and the idea still survives today.
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Summary: The ultimate insider's view of Britain's MI5
Review: Reading "Spycatcher", I was continually struck by this thought: how was it possible for Peter Wright to publish a book which exposes so much of the internal operations of Britain's MI5 domestic intelligence/security service? He names names, describes personalities in often unflattering terms, and details what were surely the most sensitive of investigations undertaken by MI5. What may be MI5's loss is the public's gain, as we get a rare glimpse at the very heart of a (by definition) highly secretive agency, charged with ensuring the security and continuance of one of the Western world's greatest democracies.
Wright is undoubtedly a brilliant man, as are his colleagues (Wright describes how one of them does crossword puzzles completely in his head). Although the book opens with his retirement day, in which he shreds his diaries, he is somehow able to reconstruct the minutest details of operations that span his 20-year career with MI5, from the mid-50s to mid-70s, as well as critical pre-World War II events that he investigated for MI5. Wright is a radio engineer by training and original profession, and he joins MI5 as their first scientist in order to bring the benefits of technology to the agency. As MI5's top scientist, he is immediately charged with carrying out their most sensitive bugging and eavesdropping operations, which indoctrinates him into MI5's most secretive activities. Eventually, he leaves scientific advocacy behind to assume a role hunting down suspected Soviet spies within MI5 itself.
Although Wright has many successes, he is never able to fully prove his most shocking assertion, which is that Roger Hollis, the head of MI5 for many years (and Wright's superior), was a Soviet spy. The circumstantial evidence Wright presents, however, is very convincing. Wright's analysis and the logic he applies are impressive because he not only looks at the various events themselves, but he constantly considers how events would have unfolded differently if his thesis were untrue.
"Spycatcher" is a fascinating book, for many reasons. First of all, it takes the reader deeper within an actual government intelligence agency than almost any spy novel, and it has the added benefit of being true. The case against Hollis, and other spies exposed by Wright and his compatriots at MI5, serves as a warning about the fragility of security agencies: a few well-placed enemy spies can destroy massive amounts of work. Many of these top-level spies recruited by the Soviets were left-wing students at Britain's finest universities (Oxford and Cambridge), which shows how ideology expressed in an academic environment can lead to radical behavior and revolutionary actions. However, spying on potential domestic subversives is not a pleasant task, as Wright himself admits. "Spycatcher" also shows the special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K., which is not without its tensions.
Finally, "Spycatcher" illustrates the need to fight back using many of the tactics of the enemy, however despicable they may be. Intelligence work is not pretty: it involves tapping communications, breaking and entering, planting agents, soliciting defectors (using whatever might best appeal to them), and trying to detect and eliminate the enemy's spies before they do the same to yours. And in the end, the intelligence information received may be completely wrong, either because of the motives of the agents who provided it (who may be double agents), or because it is the product of an enemy disinformation campaign. However, if the U.K. and U.S. had not played the spy game against the Soviets, they would have put the countries at serious risk. Winning the intelligence game is not easy, but this was definitely an important front during the Cold War in Wright's day, and the war on terror today. The Soviets had an active disinformation campaign during the Cold War; in fact, one of the more spectacular assertions of Wright's is that the Cuban missile crisis was a Soviet disinformation exercise to distract attention from their long-range missile development programs. As "Spycatcher" proves, the intelligence game is like a hall or mirrors - you're never sure if you're seeing something real or something which is exactly backwards. But, it is still important to attempt to play the game as best as one can.
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Summary: Fascinating search for the Fifth Man, true life intelligence
Review: Story of British spies ~ MI5 in particular ~ from one who livedthrough it. Wright was the first scientist to join MI5, the domesticspy-catchers, and led the way for others. The bulk of the book is taken up with the search for the Fifth Man ~ Wright's candidate is Roger Hollis, who was head of MI5 during the early Sixties ~ a well-hidden Soviet mole like Philby and his ilk. Reading it, at times, it appears that Wright considers himself responsible for every innovation in spy technology during the '50s and '60s, but if you can get over his view of himself, the book becomes a fascinating read, on a par with anything Le Carré wrote. As far as the Fifth Man goes, my mind is still open, but Wright gives excellent cause to suspect that Hollis probably was at least bent, if not broken.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating search for the Fifth Man, true life intelligence
Review: Story of British spies ~ MI5 in particular ~ from one who livedthrough it. Wright was the first scientist to join MI5, the domesticspy-catchers, and led the way for others. The bulk of the book is taken up with the search for the Fifth Man ~ Wright's candidate is Roger Hollis, who was head of MI5 during the early Sixties ~ a well-hidden Soviet mole like Philby and his ilk. Reading it, at times, it appears that Wright considers himself responsible for every innovation in spy technology during the '50s and '60s, but if you can get over his view of himself, the book becomes a fascinating read, on a par with anything Le Carré wrote. As far as the Fifth Man goes, my mind is still open, but Wright gives excellent cause to suspect that Hollis probably was at least bent, if not broken.
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