The book's jumping off point is the dapper and urbane Southerner of inherited wealth Frank Wisner, who oversaw spy operations in southeastern Europe during the waning days of the war. From detailed accounts of covert ops in post-WWII Germany and southeast Europe to new intelligence 'battlegrounds' in the far-flung jungles of the Philippines and Vietnam, the reader learns how the CIA began to infiltrate sovereign countries to support nascent anti-communist groups or set up new forms of resistance to counter a Soviet Union increasingly more cunning and savvy in its counter-espionage operations.

Anderson creatively focuses his overarching historical narrative on the careers of four secret service operatives - Frank Wisner, Michael Burke, Peter Sichel and Edward Lansdale - to reveal the depths of American involvement in anti-communist espionage operations, while vividly painting the human toll it took.ĭespite its exploration of a relatively short 12-year timeframe, Anderson's book is sprawling in scope. The Quite Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War-a Tragedy in Three Acts by Scott Anderson tells the story of America's shift from a nimble and principled anti-communist stance in the early post-war years to a clumsy and misguided shamble among foreign governments a mere decade later. Despite its frosty connotations, the Cold War was very hot for those frontline soldier-spies who dedicated their hearts, minds and bodies to a cause that, over time, would creep into blurry realms of moral compromise and disillusionment. The years between 1944-1956 saw the founding of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) - the first federal agency in American history tasked with gathering intelligence and conducting covert operations around the world - followed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In the twilight days of a hot World War II, the emergence of a strange new 'cold' war with the Soviet Union, a former ally, pushed American intelligence into a committed battle against the spread of communism.

A page-turning journey through Cold War espionage through the eyes of four American secret service operatives reveals the depth of American involvement in - and manipulation of - foreign governments.

The quiet americans book