Washington Examiner: Opinion: "R. James Woolsey knows espionage - he was director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993 to 1995. Today he is a vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton and an adviser to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He also likes to read and discuss spy novels.
EXAMINER: What's the best spy novel?
WOOLSEY: I can't pick one best book because different books are trying to do so many different things. For giving a feel for what case officers actually do, the best one is 'Agents of Innocence,' the first novel by David Ignatius. It's modeled in part on a real guy who was a case officer and then a division chief in the Near East. He penetrated the PLO but was killed in the Beirut embassy bombing in 1983.
Woolsey recommends:
*"Agents of Innocence," by David Ignatius
*"The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," by John le Carre
*"Our Man in Havana," by Graham Greene
*"Judgment on Deltchev," by Eric Ambler
*"Tears of Autumn," by Charles McCarry
*"Confessions of a Spy," by Pete Earley
*"Tower of Secrets," by Victor Sheymov
*"What Went Wrong?" by Bernard Lewis
*"Dream Palace of the Arabs," by Fouad Ajami"
EXAMINER: What's the best spy novel?
WOOLSEY: I can't pick one best book because different books are trying to do so many different things. For giving a feel for what case officers actually do, the best one is 'Agents of Innocence,' the first novel by David Ignatius. It's modeled in part on a real guy who was a case officer and then a division chief in the Near East. He penetrated the PLO but was killed in the Beirut embassy bombing in 1983.
Woolsey recommends:
*"Agents of Innocence," by David Ignatius
*"The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," by John le Carre
*"Our Man in Havana," by Graham Greene
*"Judgment on Deltchev," by Eric Ambler
*"Tears of Autumn," by Charles McCarry
*"Confessions of a Spy," by Pete Earley
*"Tower of Secrets," by Victor Sheymov
*"What Went Wrong?" by Bernard Lewis
*"Dream Palace of the Arabs," by Fouad Ajami"
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