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A "splendidly written, impeccably researched, and perfectly fascinating" look at clandestine operations from colonial times to the Cuban Missile Crisis (The Washington Post Book World).
We've always depended on intelligence gathering to drive foreign policy in peacetime and command decision in war—but that work has often taken place in the shadows. Honorable Treachery fills in these details in our national history, dramatically recounting every important intelligence operation from our nation's birth into the early 1960s.
Among numerous other stories, the book recounts how in 1795, President Washington mounted a covert operation to ransom American hostages in the Middle East; how in 1897, Kaiser Wilhelm II's plans for an invasion of the United States were stopped by the director of the US Office of Naval Intelligence; and how President Woodrow Wilson created a secret agency called the Inquiry to compile intelligence for the peace negotiations at the end of World War I.
From a Pulitzer Prize finalist who himself worked for the CIA, Honorable Treachery puts America's use of covert intelligence into a broader historical context, providing a unique insight into the secret workings of our country.
"O'Toole offers fascinating information generally unrecorded in traditional diplomatic and military histories." —Library Journal
Praise for Honorable Treachery
“Honorable Treachery is a splendidly written, impeccably researched, and perfectly fascinating history of American involvement in the black arts from the days of George Washington to the Cuban missile crisis.” —The Washington Post Book World
“This very readable book will certainly be a valuable departure point for anybody interested in delving deeper into espionage, American-style.” —Associated Press
“O’Toole presents an exhaustive, highly detailed account of the evolution of America’s intelligence operations from the American Revolution through the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, emphasizing their pivotal role in helping to determine the outcome of their conflicts and crises great and small. O’Toole’s treatment of the subject is objective, thorough, and exceptionally interesting throughout.” —Sea Power
“G.J.A. O’Toole has rummaged deep in the dark closets of secret intelligence to come up with the best-documented and most comprehensive history of American intelligence yet written . . . The result is a unique historical overview of American intelligence that is essential reading for anyone that is interested in its past, present or future.” —International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence
“This book is the most comprehensive description of all kinds of detailed intelligence activities from the American Revolution to World War II and the Cold War era.” —Dr. Ray S. Cline, Former Deputy Director for Intelligence, CIA
“Honorable Treachery is an entertaining and informative look at the 200-year history of American intelligence, espionage, and covert action. O’Toole, a former CIA employee, is a splendid writer with a wonderful skill for storytelling.” —Military History
George O’Toole (1937-2001) worked for the CIA from 1966 to 1969. He was the author of several award-winning books, including the Encyclopedia of American Intelligence and Espionage; Honorable Treachery, The Spanish War, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist; and the novels The Cosgrove Report and An Agent on the Other Side. He died at the age of 64 in Mount Vernon, New York.