Historical Dictionary of Cold War Counterintelligence (Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence)
Counterintelligence refers to organizations or efforts designed to prevent enemy organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence. Examples include careful classification and control of sensitive information, active spreading of disinformation to mislead the enemy, and direct targeting of enemy intelligence collection methods and resources. This volume brings together in dictionary format information on counterintelligence agencies, operations, terminology, and more. It is another in the publisher's well-crafted Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and Counterintelligence series. The A–Z entries are concise yet sufficiently informative. Readers will find information on agency directors, agents, moles, defectors, and code names for operations and people. Most entries are one-third of a page (Hanssen, Robert), but longer entries can be over a page or two (John Paul II). Much of the focus is on American and former Soviet Russia and German operations, and the work certainly does open the door to the myriad of nefarious activities going on in the world during the period defined as the cold war, 1945–1991. The appendixes provide various lists, among them "Espionage Prosecutions in the U.S.," "CIA Assets Compromised by Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen," and "Soviet Intelligence Defectors." The volume concludes with a classified bibliography and an index. This is an excellent introductory resource for those interested in the cold war and in security and intelligence issues. It would be useful in college as well as in public libraries, especially if it joins other titles in the series. Tomchyshyn, Terri