Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton

For those who consider Wm Buckley as just the arch-conservative, this read is a must. This is one of the best renditions of the uncovering of the mole in US intelligence that has been written. Buckley's research and great writing on a super historical topic make this entertaining, relevant and educational all in one piece. Unlike his Bradford Oakes series (which I recommend for the fiction/spy buff) Buckley is very careful in his use of actual historical characters to re-tell the story from the JJ Angleton's point of view without too much emtion or drama that isn't in the recorded history. Journalists could learn a lot from this as the story tells itself well without the editorials.

ONE OF THE KEY QUESTIONS THAT THE BOOK SHOULD ANSWER IS WHY MR. ANGLETON WAS NEVER TAPPED TO JOIN SKULL AND BONES AND HOW THIS DEFIES THE ROMANTICIZED MYTH THAT ALL, OR MOST, OF THE CIA FOUNDING MEMBERS' PEDIGREE CAN BE TRACED BACK TO THE ORDER. FURTHER, WHY WOULDN'T HE BE TAPPED. WAS IT HIS HALF BREED STATUS? EXPLORING THIS PARTICULAR ISSUE WOULD HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY ADDED TO THE BOOK, BUT THEN, THE AUTHOR IS A MEMBER OF THE ORDER SO, THERE IT IS.

William Buckley has in his later years developed a surprising talent for fiction, and he couldn't have picked a more intriguing subject to focus it on with this book than James Angleton. How does one portray a man like Angleton? The spy novel genre, as epitomized by writers like John Le Carre, tends towards heavily convoluted plots, language, and characterizations in the effort to force the literary vehicle itself into a representation of the dark and twisted ethos of espionage. And one might have expected Angleton, as the quintessential cold-war spymaster, to have inspired just such a brooding study. However, Buckley will have none of that with his book, and taking the opposite tack, he crafts his novel with the same crisp lucidity that animates his political commentary. Employing spare sentence structure, sprightly characterization and fast-paced narrative, he draws a portrait of Angleton that has nothing sinister or even particularly mysterious about it. The legendary CIA counterintelligence chief emerges from this as entirely human - flawed and quirky, but brilliant, loyal to friends and motivated by a sincere patriotism. Underlying the story, however, is a kind of sad commentary by Buckley on the tragic nature of espionage as a profession. Much like a good cop corrupted by the violence of a high-crime neighborhood, Angleton by the end of his career seems helpless against the pressures driving him into a paranoid pathology. Frustrated by his failures to detect genuine traitors in his own ranks, Angleton becomes suspicious of everyone and begins voicing reckless accusations. This being historical fiction, of course, we all know how the story ends. When the CIA comes under hostile scrutiny during the post-Watergate period, Angleton has few friends left able or willing to defend him from his detractors, and he is sacked from the Agency he had devoted his life to. In what must have been the bitterest of ironies for him, attacks on his own loyalty are among the charges that doom him. Buckley touches on all this only very lightly at the end of this short work, but the simple brushstrokes paint a poignant picture. Spytime is a very good book and I recommend it.

Ms. Jane Adams is off the mark on Spytime-in fact, I'm not sure we read the same book. The novel's well-written-as we expect: this is Buckley, after all, good at everything but sex descriptions (he writes of a woman's "malleable vulva"! , memorable phrasing, but, gosh!); it's nicely paced, an absorbing fictional portrait. Angleton's obsession with Kim Philby is not, as Ms. Adams has it, "the engine that drives Spytime." Rather the book starts at the moment of undoing which marks the end of Angleton's career, and which comes because his superiors feel a need to sacrifice someone to the Church Committee. The Fifth Man is on Angleton's mind at that moment-he believes he knows who it is. We then get a flashback tour of Angleton's career in counter-espionage, an important reminder of the Soviets' use of disinformation and misinformation against the US, and of the moves and counter-moves of the Cold War. Angleton's belief in the identity of the Fifth Man was a surprise to me, and I think it will be to most readers. What Buckley does in this book, as in its predecessor Redhunter, is to tell the story of a flawed hero in an extraordinary time. These are not adventure stories like Day of the Jackal or Red Storm Rising, or the Blackford Oakes novels, but they are adventure stories nonetheless: unusual novels of the real people who helped shape and guide our country's life during the most dangerous period in history. If some of the excitement seems gone from these tellings, it's only because we think we know how the story ended. This is not a great book, nor one of Buckley's best (my list includes Unmaking of a Mayor; Cruising Speed; Stained Glass; Airborne, etc.--books which broke new ground); but it's an important book, a chronicle of a time unlike any other in history, and a very satisfying read. The oddest thing about it, given its grave subject matter, is that it's also a fun, fast read-I read it in a day-that lingers in the mind afterward. The only thing I wished when I put it down was that there was an epilogue, to tell me what happened to the people afterward. My CD edition of the Britannica doesn't give the rest of the story-perhaps Buckley can put that into the paperback edition. I highly recommend it.

Mr. Buckley writes at a level of consistent excellence that few other Authors achieve even once. Often criticized for the use of words many find arcane, if they have a decent vocabulary of their own, or too long for those who articulate poorly, Mr. Buckley's writing and his spoken thoughts may require a bit more effort, but you are well rewarded for it. As with many petty complaints it is an issue of size, his lexicon is infinite to most, while the detractor's are brief, short, diminutive.With a dictionary at hand "Spytime" is one of the better works of fiction Mr. Buckley has written. The same title in the hands of others would lead the reader on some chaotic hunt, a race against the clock to save the world yet again from a sort of super weapon, mechanical or biologic. The hero would of course find the vital clue by holding the last piece of writing of a German Corporal up to a mirror, having absconded with the relic from the mantle of Saddam, and enter, speak, sign, or write in the sand the solution to mankind's continued survival. Lest you think I jest check out the "Political Thriller" area of your bookstore.Mr. Buckley resorts to history and the people who made it, in this case James Jesus Angleton, to deliver thought provoking historical fiction that does not require 007 toys, or pages of empty-headed sexual gymnastics to engage the reader. Mr. Buckley writes for your mind not your Libido, and by so doing demonstrates his hope that there are still readers who appreciate the fine craft of writing as opposed to the scribblers who have been published to fill ever-expanding book superstores.All the elements are here and they are part of a whole, not some gee-whiz look behind the door contrivance after 300 pages of rubbish.Philby, MacLean, Burgess, and Kennedy times two, Castro, Mussolini, Khrushchev, Churchill, President Truman to President Carter, and all Presidents in between, are a sampling of those who play a role in this book. Too many, too much, too confusing?, not for a moment.Mr. Buckley presents the reader with a story, and while a bit of thought enhances the experience, and some knowledge of History is required, to pass this book by for lesser fare is to do yourself an injustice.Many reviewers lament plots that cannot keep themselves in sequence, suffer from historical dementia, lack or need an editor, and someone who can spell. Those people need not worry with this work.This book asks for your time and rewards that most valuable commodity most generously.