Book and Film Recommendations

Ariel Vromen
2018

This Netflix espionage drama is a fictionalized account of the true story of Ashraf Marwan, who was Egyptian President Nasser's son-in-law and special adviser and confidant to his successor Anwar Sadat, while simultaneously Israeli Intelligence's most precious asset of the 20th century. Based on NYT bestselling book The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel by Uri Bar-Joseph.

Philip E. Orbanes
Harper, 15 Jul 25

Monopoly X is the fascinating true story of what is arguably the most unusual and best-kept secret operation of World War II. The masterminds at England’s top-secret MI-9, and later America’s MIS-X, created a special version of the popular game, hiding tools, maps, and money within game boards—delivered by fictitious charities—to captured Allied servicemen held at gunpoint behind barbed wire in German prison camps. This ingenious and complex plot, dubbed “Monopoly X,” was never discovered by the Nazis and led to many successful Allied breakouts.

The creation and consequences of Monopoly X remained a deep secret through the war and for decades after, until now. For the first time, Phillip E. Orbanes tells the full story of the people behind this clandestine program—how it was devised, implemented, and used to great success. A tale of derring-do as compelling as the World War II classic, The Great Escape, Monopoly X is an amazing war story of Allied intelligence services, resistance forces in Europe, heroes and heroines, a notorious traitor, and the pivotal role a seemingly innocent board game played in secret codes and espionage.

Monopoly X includes a 16-page black-and-white photo insert.

Justin Black
Spycraft 101, 23 May 2024

Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy collects together eleven separate true incidents stretching across more than a century of geopolitics, where the shadowy world defined by espionage, covert action, and diplomacy by other means briefly surfaced. When operations spun out of control and could no longer be covered up, or when brave men and women refused to stay silent any longer, no matter the cost.

From a serial killer who used the chaos of World War II to obscure his crimes to a former soldier turned hitman paid to kill a foreign dissident, these are some of the most astounding true stories that have largely been lost to history.

This edition features nearly one hundred photographs which bring these events to vivid life.

Christopher Andrew (Editor), Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (Editor)
Routledge, 01 June 1997

Eternal Vigilance? seeks to offer reinterpretations of some of the major established themes in CIA history such as its origins, foundations, its treatment of the Soviet threat, the Iranian revolution and the accountability of the agency. The book also opens new areas of research such as foreign liaison, relations with the scientific community, use of scientific and technical research and economic intelligence. The articles are both by well-known scholars in the field and young researchers at the beginning of their academic careers. Contributors come almost equally from both sides of the Atlantic. All draw, to varying degrees, on recently declassified documents and newly-available archives and, as the final chapter seeks to show, all point the way to future research.