King of Spies: The Dark Reign of America's Spymaster in Korea [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Harden, Blaine

Verlag: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, New York, 2017

Beschreibung

As new condition black boards/red spine/black spine lettering contained in an as new condition non price-clipped color photographic dust jacket. Includes List of Other Books by Blaine Harden; Preliminary Page Quotes; Introduction: The Spy Who Came in from the Motor Pool; Acknowledgments; Note on Sources; Notes; Bibliography; and Index. Illustrated with a section of black-and-white photographic plates. The lower page edge has a small remainder dot. (see photographs) "The untold story of one of the most powerful spies in American history. In 1946, Master Sergeant Donald Nichols was repairing jeeps on the sleepy island of Guam when he caught the eye of recruiters from the army's Counter Intelligence Corps. After just three months' training he was sent to Korea, then a backwater beneath the radar of MacArthur's Pacific Command. Though he lacked the pedigree of most U.S. spies - Nichols was a seventh-grade dropout - he quickly metamorphosed from army mechanic to black ops phenomenon. He insinuated himself into the affections of America's chosen puppet in South Korea, President Syngman Rhee, and became a pivotal player in the Korean War, warning months in advance about the North Korean invasion, breaking enemy codes, and identifying most of the targets destroyed by American bombs in North Korea. But Nichols's triumphs had a dark side. Immersed in a world of torture and beheadings, he became a spymaster with his own secret base, his own covert army, and his own rules. He recruited agents from refugee camps and prisons, sending many to their deaths on reckless missions. His closeness to Rhee meant that he witnessed -- and did nothing to stop or even report -- the slaughter of thousands of South Korean civilians in anti-Communist purges. Nichols's clandestine reign lasted for an astounding eleven years. In this riveting book, Blaine Harden traces Nichols's unlikely rise and tragic ruin, from his birth in an operatically dysfunctional family in New Jersey to his sordid and shocking postwar decline. But King of Spies is not just the story of one American spy. It is a groundbreaking work of narrative history that -- at a time when North Korea is threatening the United States with long-range nuclear missiles -- explains the origins of an intractable foreign policy mess." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 005462

Bibliografische Details

Titel: King of Spies: The Dark Reign of America's ...

Verlag: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, New York

Erscheinungsdatum: 2017

Einband: Hardcover

Zustand: As New

Zustand des Schutzumschlags: As New

Auflage: 1st Edition