Thoughts about books & writing

Category: True Stories

The Shocking Secrets of Sonya the Soviet Spy

Agent Sonya: The Spy Next Door

Ben Macintyre (Penguin Random House, NY)

4.5 out of 5.0 stars

Disclosure: You can borrow books from your local library at no charge. You can buy books from Amazon or elsewhere. Sometimes I buy books to keep; many times I borrow books from the library. In my blog, I provide a link to books on Amazon. If you buy after clicking through to Amazon via one of these links, I receive a commission

What’s it about?

It’s the fascinating true story of Ursula Kaczynski — code name Sonya — who spied for the Soviet Union before, during and after World War II. Despite being Jewish, she became an avowed communist, going on to spy for the Soviets in China, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK.

What was her biggest impact?

Without doubt, her most devastating contribution to the Cold War was the work she did in running Klaus Fuchs, one of the expert western scientists building the atomic bomb. The material Fuchs provided enabled the Soviets to catch up and build their own atomic weaponry.

A fascinating true spy story

Was she ever caught?

No. The book brings to light the shocking incompetence of the spy catchers in MI5. They consistently missed meaningful clues and failed to capitalize on the opportunities that came their way. Ultimately, after Klaus Fuchs was caught and Ursula knew that her cover was almost certainly blown, she fled to East Germany where she made her new home for the remainder of her life. She died in her eighties in 2000, an acclaimed Soviet hero.

What was the most shocking part of the book?

One might assume that it was the many affairs and lovers she had but that wasn’t it. It was the fact that she continued to believe in communism long after it had become clear to her that it was a failed philosophy. In East Germany she saw first hand the devastating consequences of the communist system in action and yet she still believed.

Most powerful quote?

“She spent her adult life fighting for something she believed to be right, and died knowing that much of it had been wrong” (Chapter 24).

Was it worth reading?

Absolutely. Ben Macintyre is a brilliant writer. The book is incredibly well researched and is a fascinating read. There are parts that get a little dry to read but they are nonetheless important parts of the overall story. Ultimately, it’s an amazing account of the critical role that Sonya played in Cold War history and the way in which the great minds of the spy world overlooked her, largely because she was a woman and a mother.

Benghazi: What Every American Should Know About What Happened

“13 Hours in Benghazi: The Inside Account of What Really Happened”

Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team (Twelve, NY)

5.0 out of 5.0 stars

Disclosure: You can borrow books from your local library at no charge. You can buy books from Amazon or elsewhere. Sometimes I buy books to keep; many times I borrow books from the library. In my blog, I provide a link to books on Amazon. If you buy after clicking through to Amazon via one of these links, I receive a commission.

This is a compelling, raw, and impactful read. If you’re like me, you’ve heard lots about the Benghazi disaster via the media but this brings it into a much sharper focus. The book notes that it is not designed to point blame but it’s tough to read this and not want answers and accountability.

What I learned

Benghazi is the second major city in Libya. The late dictator, Gaddafi, pretty much crushed Benghazi and favored Tripoli. The Libyan uprising against Gaddafi began in Benghazi.

The US had an embassy in Tripoli and a Special Mission in Benghazi, located inside a compound. Close to the compound, was the CIA Annex. The US Ambassador, Chris Stevens, seemed like a genuine guy and wanted to support the people of Benghazi.

The US created a Global Response Staff (GRS) after 9/11 to protect US operations and personnel in dangerous locations. These included CIA security people and former military “special operators” who were contractors. The GRS in Benghazi were located in the CIA Annex. The CIA base chief is known only as “Bob.” That’s a good thing, because readers are left with a very poor impression of Bob.

The Benghazi operation were also protected by local “friendly” Libyan forces called the 17 February militia and hired local Libyan (unarmed) security. Both of these local forces seemed to be unreliable and unpredictable.

The main players

The contract operators are Rone, Jack, Tig, D.B., Tanto, and Oz. These guys are tough. Forget everything you’ve heard about tough before — these guys are at a new level.

Chris Stevens, the US Ambassadors, comes across as a really impressive individual. At one point, the book mentions that “Outside the view of reporters, he met with fellow diplomats and Libyans of high and low station, from government ministers to local officials, powerful businessmen to small shopkeepers … Often Stevens’ contacts grew so comfortable in his presence that they dispensed with titles altogether, and used his first name” (chapter 3).

Interestingly, Stevens had previously asked for increased security in Libya but this had been denied.

The Attack

In September, Stevens visited the Special Mission in Benghazi to participate at a ribbon cutting event at a local school. His visit had been reported in the media and he brought two security officers with him.

On the morning of September 11, a Libyan national was observed scouting out and photographing the compound from a neighboring building.

Around 9pm, the Ambassador went to his room for the evening. Shortly after that, armed attackers stormed the compound, the gates were opened, the Libyan guards disappeared, and the attackers began setting fire to the building in which the Ambassador was staying. In panic, the Americans in the compound contacted Tripoli and Washington and sought safety in the “safe haven” within the compound.

In a stunning turn of events, the operators in the annex, who had geared up and were ready to rush to the compound, were told to stand down by the CIA chief, Bob. He insisted that he wanted the local Libyan forces to resolve the problem. He didn’t want the operators involved. Frustrated, the operators stood by as they heard the desperate radio calls from the trapped Americans who were under attack and unable to escape.

In the compound safe haven, the Ambassador and two of his security team were battling smoke inhalation and desperately seeking a way out of the building. In the smoke and confusion, the ambassador and one of the team, Sean Smith, became separated. Neither would survive the attack.

Back at the annex, some 20 minutes after receiving the first calls, the operators defied the CIA boss and set out for the compound. In the ensuring 13 hours, the team, with reinforcements from Tripoli, rescued the surviving Americans and returned to the Annex. Despite desperate attempts, no one was able to locate the ambassador from the burning building but they did recover the body of Sean Smith.

Back at the Annex, the exhausted team braced for another attack. The attack came in the former of mortar fire, which killed one of the operators (Rone) and one of the Tripoli team (Glen Doherty), and seriously wounded another (Oz). Finally, support arrived and evacuated the surviving Americans to the airport.

Libyan nationals recovered the body of the ambassador and returned it to the Americans.

What was shocking?

The most shocking thing was the decision of the CIA boss not to send in the operators to rescue the Americans in the compound. The operators believed this cost lives. Referring to one of the operators, the author notes:

He believed that Sean Smith wouldn’t be dead and Chris Stevens wouldn’t be missing , if only they’d rushed to the Compound when they first jocked up.” (chapter 10).

It was also stunning that back in the US, the Obama Administration was selling the story that the attack was unplanned and was the result of a demonstration against an anti-Muslim video. In reality, this appeared to be a well-planned and orchestrated account, a position the Administration was later forced to admit.

Concluding thoughts

It’s a long book but it’s absolutely worth reading. It’s compelling because it really happened and it was the first time the US had lost an ambassador since the 1970s.

The commitment of the operators and the other security team members was amazing. It’s a miracle that the US didn’t lose more people in the incident.

In Memory of the four Americans and seven Libyans who paid the ultimate price:

J. Christopher Stevens

Sean Smith

Tyrone (Rone) Woods

Glen (Bub) Doherty

The Book

The Movie

One of the most compelling personal Holocaust survival stories ever written

Night

Elie Wiesel (Bantam Books)

5.0 out of 5.0 stars

Disclosure: You can borrow books from your local library at no charge. You can buy books from Amazon or elsewhere. Sometimes I buy books to keep; many times I borrow books from the library. In my blog, I provide a link to books on Amazon. If you buy after clicking through to Amazon via one of these links, I receive a commission.

Today, January 27, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day in 1945, the Russian army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

This week, I read again Eli Wiesel’s compelling personal account of surviving the Holocaust. It’s a truly moving story and one that will break your heart. Wiesel catalogs his experiences as a Jew in Sighet, a small rural community in Transylvania, watching the horrors of anti-Semitism unfold. His story follows his life as a 15 year old, assigned first to the ghettos, then transported to Auschwitz, then to Buna, and finally to Buchenwald where he was liberated by the American forces. Wiesel survived: his mother, father and little sister did not.

As I read the book this time, what stood out to me the most was the incomprehensible nature of the depravity that emerged. Five examples stand out:

The first is the rejection of Moshe the Beadle. In the initial wave, all foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet. Moshe the Beadle was one of them. Miraculously, he escaped and ultimately returned to the village to warn the Jews about what was really going on. The deportees hadn’t been relocated: they’d been taken to a forest and executed. We learn that “Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered their prisoner. Each one had to go up to the hole and present his neck. Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets” (p.4).

But no one believes Moshe the Beadle. He is dismissed as a crazy old man who has lost his mind. The horrors he recounts are simply incomprehensible.

The second is the silence of the majority. Yet it was not only the silence it was the cold, calculating thinking that seemed to underlie the indifference. Wiesel describes being marched out in the deportation: “The town seemed deserted. Yet our friends of yesterday were probably waiting behind their shutters for the moment when they could pillage our houses” (p.19).

The third is the moment when Wiesel and his father are being marched to the barracks and see flames coming from a ditch.They were burning something. A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load — little children. Babies!” (p.30).

The fourth is the execution of a young boy by hanging. This time the inhumanity was such that Wiesel tells us that even “the Lagerkap refused to act as executioner. Three SS replaced him” (p. 61). The boy was too light to die quickly. “For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed” (p.62).

The last is the sad sight of the German workmen who who seemed to enjoy watching the trainload of emaciated Jews fighting for pieces of bread: “a workman took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it into a wagon. There was a stampede. Dozens of starving me fought each other to the death for a few crumbs. The German workmen took a lively interest in this spectacle” (p.95).

In a time when Holocaust denial seems to be on the rise, we must never forget. Read this book. Tell a friend. Teach your children.

Lost in the Andes: A worst nightmare survival story

5.0 out of 5.0 stars

Disclosure: You can borrow books from your local library at no charge. You can buy books from Amazon or elsewhere. Sometimes I buy books to keep; many times I borrow books from the library. In my blog, I provide a link to books on Amazon. If you buy after clicking through to Amazon via one of these links, I receive a commission.

Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors

Piers Paul Read (Open Road)

This is ultimately a story about the indomitable human spirit and the will to survive. It’s a story of courage and heroism, faith and hope, resilience and rugged determination. It’s a compelling read and it will give you chills. If it were not a true story, the reader could be forgiven for saying the story was far-fetched. But it’s real. It happened and 16 survivors battled through tragic circumstances for ten weeks to tell the tale.

The story involves 45 individuals — a rugby team, their families, friends and the air crew — who leave Montivideo, Uruguay, to fly to Santiago, Chile, for a rugby game that would never be played. The plane crash lands in a remote part of the Andes and the battle for survival begins. The survivors must battle bitter cold, starvation, altitude, terrible injuries, the hostile terrain and utter loneliness. When they learn that the search for them has been abandoned, they commit to finding a way back, despite the incredible odds stacked against them.

But this is also a story about families who never gave up hope. Despite the official pronouncements that their loved ones were almost certainly dead and that it was a waste of resources to continue searching, they fought on in a vain hope. Searching. Waiting. Daring to hope when everything looked hopeless.

The most compelling part of the story comes when the survivors confront the bitter reality that, abandoned in the barren and snow covered terrain, they will starve. Unless they resort to the only food source available to them — the frozen bodies of their fallen companions. The revulsion of this necessity will impact the reader but not nearly as strongly as it impacted the survivors.

In a compelling moment, one of them leads the way:

Most of the bodies were covered by snow, but the buttocks of one protruded a few yards from the plane. With no exchange of words Canessa knelt, bared the skin, and cut into the flesh with a piece of broken glass. …

He prayed to God to help him do what he knew to be right and then took a piece of meat in his hand. He hesitated. Even with his mind so firmly made up, the horror of the act paralyzed him. His hand would neither rise to his mouth nor fall to his side while the revulsion which possessed him struggled with his stubborn will. The will prevailed. The hand rose and pushed the meat into his mouth. He swallowed it.”

Concluding thoughts

The tale of the survivors’ ordeal is gripping. But with the agony of the tale comes the ecstasy of the rescue. The reader’s emotions are torn as parents meet surviving children, while other parents have their hopes dashed yet again.

Equally compelling is the change in the survivors and their new understanding of the things that matter in life. Perhaps one of the most poignant comments comes late in the book where the author reports:

“They all agreed, however, that their ordeal on the mountain had changed their attitude towards life. Suffering and privation had taught them how frivolous their lives had been. Money had become meaningless. No one up there would have sold one cigarette for the five thousand dollars they had amassed in the suitcase. Each day that passed had peeled off layer upon layer of superficiality until they were left with only what they truly cared for: their families, their novias, their faith in God and their homeland.”

Would that all of us could attain such an understanding of life, without having to face such an ordeal.

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