Spies, Pop Flies, and French Fries: Stories I Told My Favorite Visitors to the CIA Exhibit Center

Entertaining, interesting and educational. The author provides fascinating behind the scenes information not to be found elsewhere. The "Operation Explore More" sections at the end of each chapter provide additional resources for those who wish to learn more. This book is not only a good read, it would be an excellent resource for teachers who want to liven up the classroom.

This book is a must-have! The author has found a previously untapped niche in the history of intelligence. Not only does she tell us about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from behind the scenes, but she also brings to life untold stories of intelligence from the back pages of America's history. If only I wish had read this book when I was a kid, I would have been totally engaged. Instead of the typical dry facts, the detailed descriptions of these characters seem to jump off the pages and get to know you. The author includes stories about intelligence maneuvers during the Civil War, heroism by black cavalrymen known as the Buffalo Solders, a courageous World War II spy named Virginia Hall, Navajo Indians as military code breakers, a baseball player's role in uncovering Nazi Germany's atomic bomb capabilities, and the reason that George Washington is considered America's first Director of Central Intelligence. The book is also richly illustrated with photographs and drawings of these characters and the artifacts described. I got this book after I heard the author being interviewed on National Public Radio, and am delighted with it. This is a fun, informative and a totally different way of understanding American history, especially the history of intelligence. It would be a great book to give to children who are reluctant history students to get them reading about our country's fascinating past.

"Spies, Pop Flies, and French Fries" is a deliciously serendipitous discovery. Whatever could spies have in common with pop flies . . . or, yet more outrageously, with french fries? And then to discover, of all things, that the CIA has a museum -- it does, but you and I are unlikely candidates for invitations to see it -- and that the author herself created and maintained it for several years before her retirement from the agency. Inasmuch as we will probably never see this elite inner sanctum (and, of course, don't even think of it for the entertainment of out-of-town guests), it's a fortunate thing that Ms. McCarthy has given us this eminently readable peek into the impenetrable world of spookdom. With delightful wit and relish she recounts historical highlights of the arcane and mysterious world of intelligence and counterintelligence dating back to the very founding of the country. In a curious and almost perverse way, it's comforting to know that, throughout our history, as the majority of us openly struggled and fought for patriotic principles of the moral, the right and the good, we've always been well-served by a cadre of dedicated secret agents willing -- perhaps even preferring -- to express their patriotism through clandestine and furtive means. And a highly unlikely cast of characters they frequently are. Two in particular caught this reader's fancy. One, a quiet well-bred Southern belle by the name of Virginia Hall, served as an undercover agent in Europe during World War II under the auspices of the Office of Strategic Services. With an outstanding command of languages, and even with a physical handicap (she was nicknamed "The Limping Lady of the O.S.S."), Miss Hall was able to surreptitiously move about behind German lines picking up sensitive information which was then, coded, sent back to Allied headquarters. So effective was she that she was known by the Gestapo as "one of the most dangerous Allied agents in France." A second surprise was Moe Berg -- major league baseball catcher (for the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox), linguist, attorney, scholar, and O. S. S. agent -- who, charged with discovering whether Nazi Germany presented any threat of developing a nuclear weapon -- had it within his power to assassinate German's leading nuclear physicist if he found the threat to be real. P. S. He didn't. So much for the connection between the spies and the pop flies in the title of the book. "French fries," however, is yet another story, which you will discover for yourself. Ms. McCarthy has made an important contribution by presenting this material succinctly and with solid historical documentation behind it. Besides, it's a great read.

This is all I ever need about the "agent." It has the CIA's social and life in details. I could see also the history of the situation so clearly. good job