Betrayal in Berlin, Steve Vogel
Betrayal in Berlin, Steve Vogel
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Betrayal in Berlin
The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation

Author: Steve Vogel

Narrator: Joel Richards

Unabridged: 17 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/24/2019


Synopsis

The astonishing true story of the Berlin Tunnel, one of the West’s greatest espionage operations of the Cold War—and the dangerous Soviet mole who betrayed it.Its code name was “Operation Gold,” a wildly audacious CIA plan to construct a clandestine tunnel into East Berlin to tap into critical KGB and Soviet military telecommunication lines. The tunnel, crossing the border between the American and Soviet sectors, would have to be 1,500 feet (the length of the Empire State Building) with state-of-the-art equipment, built and operated literally under the feet of their Cold War adversaries. Success would provide the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service access to a vast treasure of intelligence. Exposure might spark a dangerous confrontation with the Soviets. Yet as the Allies were burrowing into the German soil, a traitor, code-named Agent Diamond by his Soviet handlers, was burrowing into the operation itself. . . Betrayal in Berlin is Steve Vogel’s heart pounding account of the operation. He vividly recreates post-war Berlin, a scarred, shadowy snake pit with thousands of spies and innumerable cover stories. It is also the most vivid account of George Blake, perhaps the most damaging mole of the Cold War. Drawing upon years of archival research, secret documents, and rare interviews with Blake himself, Vogel has crafted a true-life spy story as thrilling as the novels of John le Carré and Len Deighton.

About Steve Vogel

Steve Vogel is the author of Through the Perlious Fight and The Pentagon: A History, both published by Random House. He is a reporter for the national staff of the Washington Post who covers the federal government and frequently writes about the military and veterans. Based overseas from 1989 through 1994 and reporting for the Post and Army Times, he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first Gulf War, and subsequently reported on military operations in Somalia, Rwanda, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Vogel also covered the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and its subsequent reconstruction. He lives in the Washington metro area.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Melisende on August 28, 2019

Anyone who is at all interested in this period of history, especially as it relates to Cold War espionage, should pick this up and read it. Don't be put off by the number of pages, at least 100 of them are dedicated to notes, bibliography and a list of interviewees and dates. I have a whole three she......more

Goodreads review by Martin on December 13, 2019

Wow. This is a real life story of Cold War espionage that reads like a fast paced spy novel, but as they say “truth is stranger than fiction” and in this case even more entertaining. I was not aware of the history of this tunnel operation nor of the double agent George Blake ( I had heard of Philby......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on December 30, 2019

I received an ARC of this book to review from the publisher. I found the book to be interesting, but there were far too many characters involved in the narrative to make the story easy to follow. We meet George Blake, an officer in the SIS who also happens to be working for the KGB. He ultimately bet......more

Goodreads review by Elliott on September 11, 2022

The nerd in me loves cold war espionage history. If you like that kind of thing, you may find this book very interesting.......more

Goodreads review by Ed on May 09, 2020

Shortly after returning from a recent trip to Berlin, I attended a chamber music concert in Chicago and noticed that a man sitting a couple of seats from me was reading this book. During a break in the performance, I asked him about it and he enthusiastically recommended that I read it. I’m very glad......more