Spy Book, 2nd Edition
by Norman Polmar, Thomas Allen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Norman Polmar, Thomas AllenEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-07-13
ISBN: 0375720251
Number of pages: 752
Publisher: Random House Reference
Book Reviews of Spy Book, 2nd Edition
Book Review: LOTS OF SPIES, BUT NOT ALL
Summary: 4 Stars
SPY BOOK, with 2500 entries packed into one big paperback, is an exceptionally handy reference tool, but still far from a complete encyclopedia of espionage. For example, a photo display on page 513 shows Soviet postage stamps honoring the intelligence officers Stanislav Vaupshasov, Rudolf Abel, Konon Molody, Richard Sorge and Ivan Kudrya, plus British agent Kim Philby. If you look for an entry on each of these men, you will find it--except for Kudrya. At the place where he should appear you will see: Kryuchkov, Vladimir... Kuczynski, Dr. Jürgen... Kuczynski, Robert René... Kuczynski, Ursula... Kuehn, Dr. Bernard... Kuklinski, Col. Ryszard... A rather full listing within such a small range of the alphabet, but still no cigar. Turn the page, and you'll discover no listing for Leonid Kvasnikov, head of the Soviet "technical department" (atomic espionage) in the US during WWII--a rather serious omission.
A quick check for other names that come to mind reveals that most are represented, but Dmitry Bystrolyotov, Pavel Fitin, Vera Goutchkoff (Guchkova) and Jan Valtin (Richard Krebs) are missing. Each scholar of espionage who comes to the book will probably add a half dozen names to this list. There is an entry on Vasili Mitrokhin, the KGB archivist who brought thousands of copied documents out to the West in 1992, but no entry for Melita Norwood, the chief British spy he exposed. (Her story broke in 1999; Mitrokin, incidentally, is given the first name "Nikitish," which was his patronymic.) There is an entry on Los Alamos, but no separate entries for the Manhattan Project, Tube Alloys or General Leslie Groves, who was not a spy but did head America's most secret wartime project. Most entries fail to conclude with a citation of the literature on the subject. The bibliography and list of VENONA codenames at the back are fairly random selections, not the last word.
The edition I consulted is the second from 2004, and it is mostly up to date, but some information is hoary. The VENONA project, much studied and publicized after the National Security Agency released its documents to the public in 1995-1996, is represented with a full entry, but many figures involved in it (such as Fitin) are given short shrift. Theodore Hall, exposed in 1996 as the Soviet agent MLAD, receives a suitable entry; but Morris and Leontina Cohen are described only with outdated material from the 1960s (as the Krogers). Anatoly Yatskov, control officer of Lona Cohen when she carried Hall's drawing of the plutonium bomb from Albuquerque to New York, is not described in this role (nor is she), but appears only as Anatoli Yakovlev, the pseudonym he used in the USA, and as the control officer of Harry Gold--information from the time of the Rosenbergs' trial.
Despite such lacks, the book is good to have when you need to grab some basic facts in a hurry, as when in the heat of writing. It appears to be strongest in US intelligence. For example, I found the entry on William Donovan very full and illuminating. There are many interesting photographs and some box-charts of organizational structures, plus lists of CIA and KGB directors, and explanations of tradecraft terms. The layout is attractive and conveys a sense of enthusiasm. All in all, it does a better job than previous spy encyclopedias, and so is well worth having. But too many spies get away.
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