From Warsaw with Love
Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging of an Unlikely Alliance
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Donald Corren
-
By:
-
John Pomfret
About this listen
From the award-winning and acclaimed author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, From Warsaw with Love tells the epic story of how Polish intelligence officers forged an alliance with the CIA in the twilight of the Cold War. In 1990, soon after the Polish people voted in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Polish government sent a veteran spy, who’d battled the West for decades, to rescue six American officers trapped in Baghdad. As the US cobbled together a coalition to undo Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, the CIA asked the Polish government for help. The American officers held valuable intelligence that, if discovered by Saddam, could have spelled ruin for Desert Storm.
John Pomfret’s gripping account of the cliff-hanger in Iraq is just the beginning of a saga about intelligence cooperation between Poland and America, cooperation that a CIA director would describe as “one of the two foremost intelligence relationships that the United States has ever had”. Poland’s ex-communist spies snooped for America from Havana to Moscow, Pyongyang to Tehran. Pomfret also reveals shocking details about the CIA’s “black site” program that held suspected terrorists in Poland after 9/11 as well the role of Polish spies in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
As the US teeters on the edge of a new cold war with Russia and China, Pomfret explores these little-known events as a reminder of the challenges and importance of alliances in a dangerous world.
Contributor Bio(s): John Pomfret, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, served as a correspondent for the Washington Post for two decades, covering wars, revolutions, and China. His most recent book, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, won the Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. The recipient of numerous journalism awards, he lives with his wife and three children in Berkeley, CA.
©2021 John Pomfret (P)2021 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Poland
- The First Thousand Years
- By: Patrice M. Dabrowski
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 25 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since its beginnings, Poland has been a moving target, geographically as well as demographically, and the very definition of who is a Pole has been in flux. In the late medieval and early modern periods, the country grew to be the largest in continental Europe, only to be later wiped off the map for more than a century. Yet even under these constraints, Poles persisted in their desire to wrest from their oppressors a modicum of national dignity and, ultimately, managed to achieve much more than that.
-
-
Easy listen.
- By Pieter Reyneke on 01-11-23
-
Spies, Lies, and Algorithms
- The History and Future of American Intelligence
- By: Amy B. Zegart
- Narrated by: Amy B. Zegart
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Amy Zegart separates fact from fiction as she offers an engaging and enlightening account of the past, present, and future of American espionage as it faces a revolution driven by digital technology. Drawing on decades of research and hundreds of interviews with intelligence officials, Zegart provides a history of US espionage, gives an overview of intelligence basics and life inside America's intelligence agencies, and explores the vexed issues of traitors, covert action, and congressional oversight.
-
-
Superb and insightful!
- By Cameron on 02-01-22
By: Amy B. Zegart
-
The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom
- America and China, 1776 to the Present
- By: John Pomfret
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 30 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our relationship with China remains one of the most complex and rapidly evolving and is perhaps one of the most important to our nation's future. Here, John Pomfret, the author of the best-selling Chinese Lessons, takes us deep into these two countries' shared history and illuminates in vibrant, stunning detail every major event, relationship, and ongoing development that has affected diplomacy between these two booming, influential nations.
-
-
Indispensable for understanding the US China relationship
- By D. Keith on 03-12-17
By: John Pomfret
-
Spies
- The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West
- By: Calder Walton
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spies is the history of the secret war that Russia and the West have been waging for a century. Espionage, sabotage, and subversion were the Kremlin’s means to equalize the imbalance of resources between the East and West before, during, and after the Cold War. There was nothing “unprecedented” about Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. It was simply business as usual, new means used for old ends.
-
-
A detailed history, inexcusably marred by politics
- By Thomas Randolph on 08-12-23
By: Calder Walton
-
The Reconstruction of Nations
- Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Modern nationalism in northeastern Europe has often led to violence and then reconciliation between nations with bloody pasts. In this fascinating book, Timothy Snyder traces the emergence of Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Belarusian nationhood over four centuries, discusses various atrocities (including the first account of the massive Ukrainian-Polish ethnic cleansings of the 1940s), and examines Poland's recent successful negotiations with its newly independent Eastern neighbors, as it has channeled national interest toward peace.
-
-
just a text book
- By Anonymous User on 03-01-23
By: Timothy Snyder
-
Damascus Station
- A Novel
- By: David McCloskey
- Narrated by: Andrew B. Wehrlen
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
CIA Case Officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian Palace official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship, which supercharges Haddad's recruitment and creates unspeakable danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy. But the cat-and-mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime.
-
-
The Performance !
- By Allenby on 01-02-22
By: David McCloskey
-
Poland
- The First Thousand Years
- By: Patrice M. Dabrowski
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 25 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since its beginnings, Poland has been a moving target, geographically as well as demographically, and the very definition of who is a Pole has been in flux. In the late medieval and early modern periods, the country grew to be the largest in continental Europe, only to be later wiped off the map for more than a century. Yet even under these constraints, Poles persisted in their desire to wrest from their oppressors a modicum of national dignity and, ultimately, managed to achieve much more than that.
-
-
Easy listen.
- By Pieter Reyneke on 01-11-23
-
Spies, Lies, and Algorithms
- The History and Future of American Intelligence
- By: Amy B. Zegart
- Narrated by: Amy B. Zegart
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Amy Zegart separates fact from fiction as she offers an engaging and enlightening account of the past, present, and future of American espionage as it faces a revolution driven by digital technology. Drawing on decades of research and hundreds of interviews with intelligence officials, Zegart provides a history of US espionage, gives an overview of intelligence basics and life inside America's intelligence agencies, and explores the vexed issues of traitors, covert action, and congressional oversight.
-
-
Superb and insightful!
- By Cameron on 02-01-22
By: Amy B. Zegart
-
The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom
- America and China, 1776 to the Present
- By: John Pomfret
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 30 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our relationship with China remains one of the most complex and rapidly evolving and is perhaps one of the most important to our nation's future. Here, John Pomfret, the author of the best-selling Chinese Lessons, takes us deep into these two countries' shared history and illuminates in vibrant, stunning detail every major event, relationship, and ongoing development that has affected diplomacy between these two booming, influential nations.
-
-
Indispensable for understanding the US China relationship
- By D. Keith on 03-12-17
By: John Pomfret
-
Spies
- The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West
- By: Calder Walton
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spies is the history of the secret war that Russia and the West have been waging for a century. Espionage, sabotage, and subversion were the Kremlin’s means to equalize the imbalance of resources between the East and West before, during, and after the Cold War. There was nothing “unprecedented” about Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. It was simply business as usual, new means used for old ends.
-
-
A detailed history, inexcusably marred by politics
- By Thomas Randolph on 08-12-23
By: Calder Walton
-
The Reconstruction of Nations
- Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Modern nationalism in northeastern Europe has often led to violence and then reconciliation between nations with bloody pasts. In this fascinating book, Timothy Snyder traces the emergence of Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Belarusian nationhood over four centuries, discusses various atrocities (including the first account of the massive Ukrainian-Polish ethnic cleansings of the 1940s), and examines Poland's recent successful negotiations with its newly independent Eastern neighbors, as it has channeled national interest toward peace.
-
-
just a text book
- By Anonymous User on 03-01-23
By: Timothy Snyder
-
Damascus Station
- A Novel
- By: David McCloskey
- Narrated by: Andrew B. Wehrlen
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
CIA Case Officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian Palace official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship, which supercharges Haddad's recruitment and creates unspeakable danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy. But the cat-and-mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime.
-
-
The Performance !
- By Allenby on 01-02-22
By: David McCloskey
-
The Fourth Man
- The Hunt for a KGB Spy at the Top of the CIA and the Rise of Putin's Russia
- By: Robert Baer
- Narrated by: Robert Baer, Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of the Cold War, American intelligence caught three high-profile Russian spies: Aldrich Ames, Edward Lee Howard, and Robert Hanssen. However, rumors have long swirled of another mole, one perhaps more damaging than all the others combined. Perhaps the greatest traitor in American history, perhaps a Russian ruse to tear the CIA apart, or perhaps nothing more than a bogeyman, he is often referred to as the Fourth Man.
-
-
A Who Done it without The Who Did it
- By Amazon Customer on 05-25-22
By: Robert Baer
-
War Transformed
- The Future of Twenty-First-Century Great Power Competition and Conflict
- By: Mick Ryan
- Narrated by: Grant Cartwright
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
War Transformed provides insights for those involved in the design of military strategy, and the forces that must execute that strategy. Emphasizing the impacts of technology, strategic competition, demography, and climate change, Mick Ryan uses historical and contemporary anecdotes to highlight key challenges faced by nations in a new era of great power rivalry. Just as previous industrial revolutions have advanced societies, the nascent fourth industrial revolution will have a similar impact on how humans fight, compete, and build military power in the twenty-first century.
-
-
Good but is quickly becoming dated
- By howiepalms on 06-12-23
By: Mick Ryan
-
Collapse
- The Fall of the Soviet Union
- By: Vladislav M. Zubok
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 23 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong, 5,000 nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward, the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the 20th century.
-
-
Hopefully Not Prescient
- By Joshua on 01-29-22
-
The Path to Power
- The Years of Lyndon Johnson
- By: Robert A. Caro
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 40 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.
-
-
The Best of all Biographies
- By David C. Daggett on 12-14-13
By: Robert A. Caro
-
The Spy Who Knew Too Much
- An Ex-CIA Officer’s Quest Through a Legacy of Betrayal
- By: Howard Blum
- Narrated by: Steve Hendrickson
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a sunlit morning in September 1978, a sloop drifts aimlessly across the Chesapeake Bay. The cabin reveals signs of a struggle, and “classified” documents, live 9 mm cartridges, and a top-secret “burst” satellite communications transmitter are discovered aboard. But where is the boat’s owner, former CIA officer John Paisley? One man may hold the key to finding out. Tennent “Pete” Bagley was once a rising star in America’s spy aristocracy, and many expected he’d eventually become CIA director.
-
-
The, too long, story of an obsession
- By Tony on 10-30-22
By: Howard Blum
-
Tadeusz Kościuszko
- The Life and Legacy of Poland’s Most Famous General
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Bill Hare
- Length: 1 hr and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, streets, bridges, monuments, and even neighborhoods bear Tadeusz Kościuszko’s name across the country, and in Polish communities, he is often hailed as a hero equal to General Washington himself. Tadeusz Kościuszko: The Life and Legacy of Poland’s Most Famous General profiles one of the Revolutionary War’s most important figures.
-
-
Informative and entertaining
- By William on 09-06-21
-
Black Wave
- Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry that Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East
- By: Kim Ghattas
- Narrated by: Kim Ghattas, Nan McNamara
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research, and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging sectarian violence from Egypt to Pakistan, the war for cultural supremacy led to many events.
-
-
Unveiling the darkness of the Middle East
- By Matty D on 02-18-20
By: Kim Ghattas
-
Poland
- A Novel
- By: James A. Michener
- Narrated by: Larry McKeever
- Length: 30 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sweeping novel, James A. Michener chronicles eight tumultuous centuries as three Polish families live out their destinies. With an inspiring tradition of resistance to brutal invaders, from the barbarians to the Nazis, and a heritage of pride that burns through eras of romantic passion and courageous solidarity, their common story reaches a breathtaking culmination in the historic showdown between the ruthless Communists and rebellious farmers of the modern age.
-
-
Horrible narration
- By Hack on 01-27-17
-
A Chip Shop in Poznań
- My Unlikely Year in Poland
- By: Ben Aitken
- Narrated by: Will M. Watt
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not many Brits move to Poland to work in a fish and chip shop. Fewer still come back wanting to be a Member of the European Parliament. In 2016, Ben Aitken moved to Poland while he still could. It wasn’t love that took him but curiosity: he wanted to know what the Poles in the UK had left behind. He flew to a place he’d never heard of and then accepted a job in a chip shop on the minimum wage. When he wasn’t peeling potatoes he was on the road scratching the country’s surface.
-
-
Great narration, okay story
- By Anonymous User on 02-26-24
By: Ben Aitken
-
Beyond the Wall
- A History of East Germany
- By: Katja Hoyer
- Narrated by: Sam Peter Jackson
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1990, a country disappeared. When the Iron Curtain fell, East Germany ceased to be. For over forty years, from the ruin of the Second World War to the cusp of a new millennium, the German Democratic Republic presented a radically different Germany than what had come before and what exists today. Socialist solidarity, secret police, central planning, barbed wire: this was a Germany forged on the fault lines of ideology and geopolitics. Acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer sets aside the usual Cold War caricatures of the GDR to offer a kaleidoscopic new vision of this vanished country.
-
-
Well written and accurate
- By Jane on 11-05-23
By: Katja Hoyer
-
Poland 1939
- The Outbreak of World War II
- By: Roger Moorhouse
- Narrated by: Roger Moorhouse
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Americans, World War II began in December of 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor; but for Poland, the war began on September 1, 1939, when Hitler's soldiers invaded, followed later that month by Stalin's Red Army. The conflict that followed saw the debut of many of the features that would come to define the later war-blitzkrieg, the targeting of civilians, ethnic cleansing, and indiscriminate aerial bombing-yet it is routinely overlooked by historians.
-
-
Always Overlooked
- By C. G. Telcontar on 05-27-21
By: Roger Moorhouse
-
Code over Country
- The Tragedy and Corruption of SEAL Team Six
- By: Matthew Cole
- Narrated by: Braden Wright
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Investigative journalist Matthew Cole tells the story of the most lauded unit, SEAL Team 6, revealing a troubling pattern of war crimes and the deep moral rot beneath authorized narratives. From their origins in World War II, the SEALs have trained to be specialized killers with short missions. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan became the endless War on Terror, their violence spiraled out of control. Code Over Country details the high-level decisions that unleashed the SEALs’ carnage and the coverups that prevented their crimes from coming to light.
-
-
chip on the author's shoulder
- By Ted on 03-07-22
By: Matthew Cole
Related to this topic
-
The Compatriots
- The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad
- By: Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogan
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The history of Russian espionage is soaked in blood, from a spontaneous pistol shot that killed a secret policeman in Romania in 1924 to the attempt to poison an exiled KGB colonel in Salisbury, England, in 2017. Russian émigrés have found themselves continually at the center of the mayhem. Russians began leaving the country in big numbers in the late 19th century, fleeing pogroms, tsarist secret police persecution, and the Revolution, then Stalin and the KGB - and creating the third-largest diaspora in the world.
-
-
Great book. Extremely detailed history of the USSR
- By M. Gordon on 03-03-20
By: Andrei Soldatov, and others
-
The Quiet Americans
- Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War - a Tragedy in Three Acts
- By: Scott Anderson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Scott Anderson
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of World War II, the United States was considered the victor over tyranny and a champion of freedom. But it was clear—to some—that the Soviet Union was already seeking to expand and foment revolution around the world, and the American government’s strategy in response relied on the secret efforts of a newly formed CIA. Chronicling their fascinating lives, Scott Anderson follows the exploits of four spies. Despite their ambitions, time and again their efforts went awry, thwarted by ham-fisted politicking and ideological rigidity at the highest levels of the government.
-
-
A Tragedy for One
- By Amazon Customer on 09-23-20
By: Scott Anderson
-
American Spy
- Wry Reflections on My Life in the CIA
- By: H. K. Roy
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This candid and darkly witty memoir recounts an exhilarating life - and a few close brushes with death. With remarkable sangfroid and a humorist's eye for absurdity, H. K. Roy describes his many strange and risky exploits in his long career with the CIA. Whether he was pursuing Soviet and Cuban spies, running "denied area" operations in Eastern Europe, hunting Bosnian War criminals, or providing actionable intelligence to US government and coalition forces in Iraq, Roy usually found himself at the right place at the right time.
-
-
To political
- By Amazon Customer on 11-29-19
By: H. K. Roy
-
Dirty Wars
- The World Is a Battlefield
- By: Jeremy Scahill
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 24 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen, Somalia, and beyond, Scahill speaks to the CIA agents, mercenaries, and elite Special Operations Forces operators who populate the dark side of American war-fighting. He goes deep into al Qaeda-held territory in Yemen and walks the streets of Mogadishu with CIA-backed warlords. We also meet the survivors of US night raids and drone strikes - including families of US citizens targeted for assassination by their own government - who reveal the human consequences of the dirty wars the United States struggles to keep hidden.
-
-
Non political BUT very anti-violence
- By aaron on 05-11-13
By: Jeremy Scahill
-
Shadow State
- Murder, Mayhem, and Russia's Remaking of the West
- By: Luke Harding
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moscow’s support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election has grown into the biggest political scandal of modern times. Its American players are well-known. In Shadow State, award-winning journalist and best-selling author Luke Harding reveals the Russians behind the story: the spies, hackers, and internet trolls. Harding charts how the Kremlin has updated Communist-era methods of influence and propaganda for the age of Facebook and Twitter, and considers the compelling question of our age: what exactly does Vladimir Putin have on President Trump?
-
-
The reader is mispronouncing words!
- By Jonathan on 07-20-20
By: Luke Harding
-
Ghost Wars
- The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 26 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan. With the publication of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll became not only a Pulitzer Prize winner, but also the expert on the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of Bin Laden, and the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill Bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998.
-
-
An Exceptional Accomplishment
- By Joe on 11-08-13
By: Steve Coll
-
The Compatriots
- The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad
- By: Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogan
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The history of Russian espionage is soaked in blood, from a spontaneous pistol shot that killed a secret policeman in Romania in 1924 to the attempt to poison an exiled KGB colonel in Salisbury, England, in 2017. Russian émigrés have found themselves continually at the center of the mayhem. Russians began leaving the country in big numbers in the late 19th century, fleeing pogroms, tsarist secret police persecution, and the Revolution, then Stalin and the KGB - and creating the third-largest diaspora in the world.
-
-
Great book. Extremely detailed history of the USSR
- By M. Gordon on 03-03-20
By: Andrei Soldatov, and others
-
The Quiet Americans
- Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War - a Tragedy in Three Acts
- By: Scott Anderson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Scott Anderson
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of World War II, the United States was considered the victor over tyranny and a champion of freedom. But it was clear—to some—that the Soviet Union was already seeking to expand and foment revolution around the world, and the American government’s strategy in response relied on the secret efforts of a newly formed CIA. Chronicling their fascinating lives, Scott Anderson follows the exploits of four spies. Despite their ambitions, time and again their efforts went awry, thwarted by ham-fisted politicking and ideological rigidity at the highest levels of the government.
-
-
A Tragedy for One
- By Amazon Customer on 09-23-20
By: Scott Anderson
-
American Spy
- Wry Reflections on My Life in the CIA
- By: H. K. Roy
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This candid and darkly witty memoir recounts an exhilarating life - and a few close brushes with death. With remarkable sangfroid and a humorist's eye for absurdity, H. K. Roy describes his many strange and risky exploits in his long career with the CIA. Whether he was pursuing Soviet and Cuban spies, running "denied area" operations in Eastern Europe, hunting Bosnian War criminals, or providing actionable intelligence to US government and coalition forces in Iraq, Roy usually found himself at the right place at the right time.
-
-
To political
- By Amazon Customer on 11-29-19
By: H. K. Roy
-
Dirty Wars
- The World Is a Battlefield
- By: Jeremy Scahill
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 24 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen, Somalia, and beyond, Scahill speaks to the CIA agents, mercenaries, and elite Special Operations Forces operators who populate the dark side of American war-fighting. He goes deep into al Qaeda-held territory in Yemen and walks the streets of Mogadishu with CIA-backed warlords. We also meet the survivors of US night raids and drone strikes - including families of US citizens targeted for assassination by their own government - who reveal the human consequences of the dirty wars the United States struggles to keep hidden.
-
-
Non political BUT very anti-violence
- By aaron on 05-11-13
By: Jeremy Scahill
-
Shadow State
- Murder, Mayhem, and Russia's Remaking of the West
- By: Luke Harding
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moscow’s support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election has grown into the biggest political scandal of modern times. Its American players are well-known. In Shadow State, award-winning journalist and best-selling author Luke Harding reveals the Russians behind the story: the spies, hackers, and internet trolls. Harding charts how the Kremlin has updated Communist-era methods of influence and propaganda for the age of Facebook and Twitter, and considers the compelling question of our age: what exactly does Vladimir Putin have on President Trump?
-
-
The reader is mispronouncing words!
- By Jonathan on 07-20-20
By: Luke Harding
-
Ghost Wars
- The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 26 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan. With the publication of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll became not only a Pulitzer Prize winner, but also the expert on the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of Bin Laden, and the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill Bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998.
-
-
An Exceptional Accomplishment
- By Joe on 11-08-13
By: Steve Coll
-
Betrayal in Berlin
- The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation
- By: Steve Vogel
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Fascinating Book
- By Toni Bowes on 01-11-20
By: Steve Vogel
-
To Start a War
- How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq
- By: Robert Draper
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even now, after more than 15 years, it is hard to see the invasion of Iraq through the cool, considered gaze of history. For too many people, the damage is still too palpable, and still unfolding. Most of the major players in that decision are still with us, and few of them are not haunted by it, in one way or another. Perhaps it's that combination, the passage of the years and the still unresolved trauma, that explains why so many protagonists opened up so fully for the first time to Robert Draper.
-
-
If you’ve grown weary of the current GOP administration’s incompetence...
- By Marynelle on 09-04-20
By: Robert Draper
-
The Rebel and the Kingdom
- The True Story of the Secret Mission to Overthrow the North Korean Regime
- By: Bradley Hope
- Narrated by: Lee Osorio
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 2000s, Adrian Hong was a soft-spoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world. After reading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea, he realized he had found a cause so pressing that he was ready to devote his life to it. Hong journeyed to China, outwitting Chinese security services as he helped ferry asylum-seeking North Korean escapees to safety. The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of a man who turns his back on the status quo—to instead live boldly by his principles.
-
-
Phenomenal true story
- By NYCdogmomma on 11-13-22
By: Bradley Hope
-
The Black Banners (Declassified)
- How Torture Derailed the War on Terror After 9/11
- By: Ali H. Soufan
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Widely heralded on publication as a “must-read” (Military Review) and “important window on America’s battle with al-Qaeda” (Washington Post), Ali Soufan’s revelatory account of the war on terror as seen from its front lines changed the way we understand al-Qaeda and how the United States prosecuted the war — and led to hard questions being asked of our leaders.
-
-
Magnificent !
- By JJ on 09-21-20
By: Ali H. Soufan
-
White Malice
- The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa
- By: Susan Williams
- Narrated by: Chanté McCormick
- Length: 21 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In White Malice, Susan Williams unearths the covert operations pursued by the CIA from Ghana to the Congo to the UN in an effort to frustrate and deny Africa’s new generation of nationalist leaders. This dramatically upends the conventional belief that the African nations failed to establish effective, democratic states on their own accord. As the old European powers moved out, the US moved in.
-
-
A very good read.
- By Amazon Customer on 11-20-22
By: Susan Williams
-
The Longest War
- America and Al-Qaeda Since 9/11
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Longest War, Peter Bergen offers a comprehensive history of this war and its evolution, from the strategies devised in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to the fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond. Weaving together internal documents from al-Qaeda and the U.S. offices of counterterrorism, first-person interviews with top-level jihadists and senior Washington officials, along with his own experiences on the ground in the Middle East, Bergen balances the accounts of each side.
-
-
More Bush bashing..yes, but still worth reading.
- By Dennis on 01-18-11
By: Peter L. Bergen
-
Russians Among Us
- Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies
- By: Gordon Corera
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With intrigue that rivals the best le Carre novels, Russians Among Us tells the urgent story of Russia’s espionage efforts against the United States and the West from the end of the Cold War to the present.
-
-
Should be required reading for every citizen
- By Amazon Customer on 02-27-20
By: Gordon Corera
-
Good Hunting
- An American Spymaster's Story
- By: Jack Devine
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story is the spellbinding memoir of Devine's time in the CIA, where he served for more than 30 years, rising to become the acting deputy director of operations, responsible for all of the agency's spying operations. This is a story of intrigue and high-stakes maneuvering - all the more gripping when the fate of our geopolitical order hangs in the balance. But this audiobook also sounds a warning to our nation's decision makers.
-
-
Fascinating, An education on spying
- By Anthony on 12-13-15
By: Jack Devine
-
Legacy of Ashes
- The History of the CIA
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.
-
-
Flawed but Important
- By Michael on 07-18-08
By: Tim Weiner
-
The Afghanistan Papers
- A Secret History of the War
- By: Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: Defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off-course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives.
-
-
Eye-Opening Book
- By David J Ray on 09-01-21
By: Craig Whitlock, and others
-
The Folly and the Glory
- America, Russia, and Political Warfare: 1945-2020
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Tim Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, an urgent and gripping account of the 75-year battle between the US and Russia that led to the election and impeachment of an American president.
-
-
Worst Narration Ever
- By Amy on 02-15-21
By: Tim Weiner
-
American Cipher
- Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan
- By: Matt Farwell, Michael Ames
- Narrated by: Christopher Ryan Grant
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The explosive narrative of the life, captivity, and trial of Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier who was abducted by the Taliban and whose story has served as a symbol for America's foundering war in Afghanistan.
-
-
An epic he had written in his imagination...
- By Darwin8u on 03-18-19
By: Matt Farwell, and others
What listeners say about From Warsaw with Love
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- zephyr99
- 07-08-23
Superb - All Americans should know about its recent and colonial history if strayegic partnership with the USA
I enjoy historical non fiction books, and found From Warsaw with Love full of information and facts that surprised and enlightened me. A must read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jale Robertson
- 12-09-21
Great book
Really enjoyed this book. Narrator is wonderful. Can’t wait to read more books by John Pomfret.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- wacek szymkowiak
- 07-23-24
Fascinating and well researched
I’m a Pole and I had lived throughout this era, I actually knew some people mentioned in the book. I had no idea about behind the scene intrigues and circumstances. Thank you for opening my eyes. I’m recommending it to many of my closest friends.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kasia
- 11-19-21
Fascinating
Great book, growing up in Poland there was so much kept from us, propaganda, omission and straight lies. It was great to revisit the history from this perspective, I never knew how intertwined our spy services were. I highly recommend this story, it doesn't matter whether you are familiar with it or will you be learning about it for the first time, it is very well explained, easy to follow and well written.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- matt r
- 07-04-22
Great story and good listen
The story and book were both great until in the last chapter the author reveals himself to be a foaming at the mouth liberal and begins ranting against conservative politics/politicians.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Margaret S. Johns
- 11-17-21
A Fantastic Story
As I read/listened to the book, I found myself wishing that my Father was alive to read the book. He was from a prominent Krakow family, and had served in WWII. In the IS he was an academic and Aerospace executive. This book reads like the spy novel it is. Incredibly well researched. Astounding in the tales it tells.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Derek A Proudian
- 10-31-21
Spy Thriller++
Spy thriller as history? History as spy thriller? Either way Pomfret’s magnificent book “From Warsaw with Love” channels a satisfying blend of Ian Fleming and Bob Woodward to create a page turner that educates while it entertains. This meticulously researched story about pre-and-post-Cold-War Polish espionage - and its critical role in Poland’s perilous navigation from the Soviet to the American sphere of influence - does not disappoint.
The book covers a time period in Poland from 1977 to 2020, – from Brezhnev-era espionage in the late 1970s and the rise of Solidarity in Poland in the mid-1980s, through the epochal events in Eastern Europe of 1989, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Poland’s role in the American response, through the Clinton years, 9/11, and the disastrous second Iraq war, up to the present day ascendancy of right-wing ethno-nationalism in Poland, Russia and the USA. The heart of tale takes place during the pivotal years immediately before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, centering on the gripping rescue mission led by Polish spy Gromoslaw Czempinski (a real world James Bond) to extricate from Iraq six US officers with key military intelligence during the early days of Operation Desert Storm.
But “From Warsaw with Love” is much more than an edge-of-your-seat spy-vs-spy yarn – it recapitulates a key period of recent history from the realpolitik vantage point of the international intelligence community – deftly weaving together multiple stories of the spies and spy agencies in both the USA and Poland as they traverse the chaotic geopolitical vacuum created by the evaporation of the USSR, and the end of the Cold War stasis that had defined geopolitics for over forty years. What emerges is a picture not only of the collapse of the Soviet Union, but also the collapse of American statecraft absent a well-defined mission.
Donald Corren adroitly narrates this very human spy story that will keep you compulsively listening long into the wee hours of the morning.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!