The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA: Amazon.de: Antonio J. Mendez: Englische Bücher

Taschenbuch: 376 Seiten
Verlag: William Morrow Paperbacks; Auflage: Reprint (7. November 2000)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0060957913
ISBN-13: 978-0060957919
Gr��e und/oder Gewicht: 22,4 x 14,2 x 2,6 cm

Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 4.0 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (14 Kundenrezensionen)

Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 841.295 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)

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The problem with memoirs by ex-secret agents is that they usually make their careers sound about as exciting as that of $6-an-hour bowling alley security guard, unless you're of the opinion that filing papers and making phone calls is the epitome of thrills. Antonio Mendez, however, has produced a tome that makes the life of a CIA agent sound every bit the slam-bang world of intrigue and skulking in the shadows that movies like Mission: Impossible make it out to be.

Honored by the CIA on its 50th anniversary as being one of the agency's 50 "Trailblazers," the now-retired Mendez spins a fast-paced tale of intriguing characters partaking in skullduggery in exotic locales, made all the more appealing because Mendez himself is the featured star of the proceedings. In an almost offhand manner, he writes about seeing and doing things that would wilt the flower of courage in almost any reader. "Was I proud to be enlisting," he rhetorically ponders at one point, "on our side in the Cold War? You bet." Originally drafted by the CIA as a "technical artist" to provide cover for agents behind enemy lines, Mendez worked his way up the ladder and progressed to a full-fledged agent in the field, sneaking diplomats past enemy guards and spiriting informants into the night, eluding capture and torture at every turn--and using his artist's eye for detail to paint vivid word pictures of his predicaments. Mendez possesses a remarkably keen sense of the mechanics of a good cloak-and-dagger story, and fortunately pours it on in abundance here in his quite hefty--and surprisingly lively--autobiography. --Tjames Madison -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

From Booklist

A recent retiree from the CIA's gadgets department, Mendez parts the curtains on his career in espionage. The CIA cleared every word in Mendez's book, as it does every tome by former employees, perhaps a pro forma task here because Mendez doesn't talk out of school and sports an admiring attitude toward the CIA. Palpably proud to have been a secret agent, Mendez effectively conveys the thrills its practitioners derive from espionage, via an anecdotal accounting of his varied 30-year career. Like many, he answered a vaguely worded newspaper advertisement and started out as a document forger. Ambitious, Mendez broadened his perspective beyond the print shop, mastered disguise and surveillance techniques, and spent a few years abroad supporting operations in Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Thailand. After Vietnam wound down, Mendez's career so prospered that he became the go-to guy for spiriting assets from hostile territories: the reader receives a vivid sense of the clandestine world through his part in the successful operations to extract a KGB defector from India and an Iranian spy from revolutionary Iran. The latter exploit was a prelude to an operation lavishly publicized at the time--the escape of six Americans from the U.S. embassy, seized by Iranians. Mendez divulges the hitherto-suppressed details of the caper, a zanily brazen operation in which the diplomats and Mendez slipped out of Teheran posing as Hollywood filmmakers. Garnished with his efforts to defeat KGB surveillance in Moscow (and glazed, no doubt, by coauthor McConnell), Mendez's memoir is a dish cloak-and-dagger connoisseurs will savor. No surprise the CIA's PR sentinels were all for it. Gilbert Taylor -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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Highly Recommended 16. Mai 2000

Von John Malcolm

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

What a great book! And not just for us "inside the beltway." Full of interesting technical information, operational background and personality. I highly recommend this over and above any fiction writer. They fail to invent themes and spies, grasping for the hook to make a reader buy their books about subs, Red Storms and the like, he invented, in some instances to save his life and the lives of others, real solutions to real life problems.

The details, the lives, and the problems are detailed very clearly, cleanly, and openly.

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A Waste of Time 3. April 2000

Von Ein Kunde

As another reviewer has noted, there is a paradox in involved in "insider" stories from the espiocrats. It is completely understandable and commendable that the intelligence community seeks to inform the public of the original, brave work that goes into serving the country's security, but, considering most of the successful work must occur secretively, such promotional efforts ultimately make for dime-store dramas. Such is this book, which I found to be a complete waste of time. I intended to drop it off at the Strand, NYC's great used bookstore, but they already had nearly a shelf-full of these. I was forced to dispose of this book more permanently.

Suitable For Someone Who Has Not Read Much About Espionage 10. M�rz 2000

Books like "The Master of Disguise," "A Spy for All Seasons," and other memoirs written by intelligence community insiders present with a paradox that is known to those who are well-read in espionage related subjects. Such books always offer the tantalizing prospect of detailed information that only an insider could possibly possess, but consistently fail to deliver when it comes to revealing significant information beyond what has already been pointed out by technically attentive fiction writers like Tom Clancy. The paradox arises because, as anyone with serious interest in espionage knows, it is quite absurd to expect ex-CIA agents to reveal anything remotely important or significant from their former occupation. Not surprisingly, "The Master of Disguise" seems to consist of slightly sensationalized, self-aggrandizing baubles for the casual reader. If you have not read much about the CIA, this is an entertaining account which you can ooh and ahh over after forking over the dollars the author seems to need for his retirement fund. If you have already read your share of insider accounts, save your money and buy the paperback if you must-- this book does not provide anything new or significantly enlightening.