Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World

Rating:
Summary: Solid Cold War memoir
Review: A meaty, readable memoir of an officer's counterintelligence career during the Cold War. It could get a bit tedious in places, and Herrington has an annoying habit of inserting unnecessary rah-rah patriotism, but overall a solid read. The Clyde Conrad case is one of the most important, but least known, spy cases in U.S. history.

Rating:
Summary: Letting the Truth Out
Review: An excellent book that shows how hard US Army agents work to "get the bad guys." Colonel Herrington shows how much time, effort, and sacrifice each of those soldiers is making daily in their effort to keep our country safe. They deserve the recognition and he shows their point of view in this gripping history. I recommend it both as a interesting/exciting read and to get great sense of an overlooked part of our history.

Rating:
Summary: Letting the Truth Out
Review: An excellent book that shows how hard US Army agents work to "get the bad guys." Colonel Herrington shows how much time, effort, and sacrifice each of those soldiers is making daily in their effort to keep our country safe. They deserve the recognition and he shows their point of view in this gripping history. I recommend it both as a interesting/exciting read and to get great sense of an overlooked part of our history.

Rating:
Summary: great book from a soldier who served in the unit
Review: I am a soldier currently stationed in germany. I have just left ft meade, md where i was in the Foreign Counter Intelligence. When i arrived at the unit, the book was a must read for all soldiers. I am glad that i read the book. It was so "real" and to be in the unit with some of the soldiers during that time was just an awesome expericence. the work the "spy catchers" do and are still doing for our country is excellent. The book is a must read especially for all the Berlin Cold War freeks.

Rating:
Summary: Better than fiction!
Review: I read a lot of espionage fiction, but found author Herrington's account of real Cold War espionage cases far more exciting than the best of the fiction offerings I've read. I could not put the book down, and was particularly saddened by the revelations that the spies caught by Herrington and his agents were able to steal from their organizations with impunity partly because of terrible security. If the past is a guide to the present and future, then look no further for an explanation of the outrageous happenings in Las Alamos--it is all between the covers of Herrington's book. A great job!

Rating:
Summary: Captivating from cover to cover...fantastic narrative here
Review: I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but once I read the first page I was hooked. The author provides two classic cases of the worst treachery the United States military has ever been exposed to, and he writes well because he was involved in both of them. The intrigue and research into the cross-departmental assistance was very informative in light of today's "territorial" exclusiveness. A well written work that is easy for a lay person to follow, I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Spy Catcher
Review: Stuart Herrington here documents from first-hand knowledge the extent of enemy acquisition of our most sensitive Cold War plans and documents, how traitorous Americans played the key role in that penetration, and how hundreds of hard-working and dedicated counterintelligence officers worked for decades to finally ferret out the betrayers and bring them to justice. Understated in tone and extremely well written, this will become an intelligence classic.

Rating:
Summary: a worthy book, but tedious
Review: There are two major triumphs covered in this volume. One for each side. Fortunately the NATO side won but it would have been a close thing indeed if the ball had dropped during the seventies and eighties when the war plans of the north central forces were being leaked to the Soviets almost as they were being written.
Too many of the previous reviewers have treated this book as a reality based version of the usual spy fiction. Well, keep in mind, that no matter how sexy the fictioneers have it this is not James Bond. As open as he was, he would have been knocked off years ago. If you saw "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", the TV series, you came away with a much better sense of the numbing boredom and tediousness of much of the CI and spy's tradecraft. I refer you to a classic of the reality genre, McCargar's Short Course in the Secret War (cf) and the more recent book by Ib Melchior (cf)
The amount of time it took to find the penetrators and then to build a case so that they could be punished is just one of the difficulties detailed herein. The other and most difficult side of the coin is, how do you find out what was copied in the first place? In the West, we did not have the constant paranoia caused by the KGB in the East and the effectiveness of a closed society such as was the DDR in keeping tabs on its citizens.
Sure, at the first hint of a leak you could shut down and get rid of everyone who might have done it, but that is doubly counter productive, as as is so often shown on the TV series Law and Order, the first suspect is often not the one at all, and the real one will go to ground. The second is that those who are left will become so paranoid that they will not be able to keep their eyes on their desks from looking over their shoulders so much.
Finally, this puts the lie to certain events in the intelligence community some years back when the entire HUMINT apparatus was almost fatally disrupted by belief in IMINT and SIGINT to keep track of things. Well, first things first, if the object cannot be seen such as a document or is never spoken of in a communication, then technical means are useless. All these cases herein depended on timeless face to face interaction between spy and case officer.
We have seen this again today in that we have no persons who can go into deep cover and infiltrate the other side. And few who can even interrogate fluently in the languages of the Middle East. The DEA and the FBI and Treasury agents have proven time and time again that infiltration is necessary to solve major crimes. How much more important is it when national existence is at stake.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling, true and authoritative counter-spy text book.
Review: This is the best work of Stu Herrington so far. I was tipped to this book by an old school chum asking if I knew anything about the book. I finally went out yesterday evening and bought a copy. I am glad I did. I served with Col. Herrington in the now infamous 766th MI Detachment from 1983 to 1985 through some bad times as well as some great times. I disagree with a previous reviewer who did not like the praise Stu frequently showered upon his Special Agents. I thought it added something special to this true story of spies and traitors. Those Special Agents deserved every word of his praise. He painted such an accurate photograph in words that I felt I was seeing the faces, hearing the voices and back working with those he praised. He brilliantly captured the essence of the spy catcher's daily routine that vacillated between sheer boredom and high-pressure adrenaline rushes. He did not hide some of the internal problems and failures while telling the story of history making successes. I could not put the book down until I finished it about three hours before I had to get up this morning to go to work. I viewed this book as a tribute and memorial to the dedicated military men and women who served in the shadows to protect the USA, and up until now never did received their just praise and recognition. I salute those men and women to made these successes possible and also Stu Herrington for telling their story. Sam Carlson, Lt. Col.