- Paperback: 928 pages
- Publisher: Free Press; Reprint edition (May 21 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0743217780
- ISBN-13: 978-0743217781
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.7 x 4.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #389,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
MI6, the foreign section of Great Britain's intelligence service, began life early in the 20th century with the charge of keeping tabs on "Red Russia," and, soon thereafter, on Nazi Germany. Less effective during World War II than its American counterpart, the Office of Strategic Services, MI6 came into its own during the cold war, when Britain's spymasters recruited bright young public-school intellectuals to play a modern version of the Great Game against their Soviet counterparts in the KGB and thwart Communist ambitions around the globe.
The Soviets, writes English historian Stephen Dorril, were often a step ahead, helped along by British turncoats like Kim Philby, who provided Stalin with the names of MI6 operatives and later defected. And, like the CIA, the agents of MI6 were obsessed with conjuring elaborate schemes, including plots to assassinate Egyptian leader Gamal Abdul Nasser (with poisoned chocolates) and Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic (by means of a carefully engineered car crash). Busy planning elaborate endings to their enemies' lives, the British spies failed to comprehend important developments as they were happening, from the Belgrade-Moscow split of the late 1940s to the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s.
Such failures, lapses, and scandals have led to repeated calls for dismantling the agency, especially now that the cold war has ended. Even so, Dorril writes, MI6 enjoys a privileged position within the British government and is unlikely to see meaningful reform. Readers who know of British spydom only through the surprisingly accurate James Bond novels of Ian Fleming will find Dorril's densely detailed, often scathingly critical book to be an eye-opener. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Despite the efforts of an outraged British government determined to suppress its publication, this exhaustive study of Her Majesty's secret service appeared in print in the U.K. in March, and was serialized amid great controversy in London's Sunday Times. The fruits of Dorril's 15 years' research into the shadowy MI6 are now presented for the edification of U.S. readers. Dorril (Smear, etc.) goes heavy on revelations and myth busting. In his hands, MI6 is no longer the precision-tuned organization of legend, but appears far more American in its tendency to blunder its way through important missions. In an echo of the CIA's failed efforts in Cuba and elsewhere, MI6 is shown fumbling plans to assassinate troublesome heads of state, including Muammar Khadafy and Slobodan Milosevic. Ever shrewd, however, the British spy agency manages to fund some of its operations with CIA money. Also, Dorril claims, MI6 conducted spy operations for the U.S. in Vietnam as part of a complex, covert deal with Washington to keep British troops out of Southeast Asia. Other assertions are indeed delicious if not entirely persuasive: Nelson Mandela (who denies the charge) is portrayed as a British agent who provided key information on Libyan financing of the IRA. Dense even for an intelligence history, the work is carefully organized to avoid overwhelming the more casual reader, while providing both in-depth research for the serious student and entertainment for the well-informed spy buff. American journalists and readers accustomed to seeing our own country's secrets unmasked via the Freedom of Information Act may wonder what all the fuss is about on the other side of the Atlantic, but will certainly find much to marvel at. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Where the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Major-General Sir Stewart Menzies (pronounced 'Mingiss'), celebrated 'Victory in Europe' (VE) day is not known, but it is more than likely that he was standing at the bar of White's Club in St James's where much of the informal business of intelligence work was still undertaken. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Where the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Major-General Sir Stewart Menzies (pronounced 'Mingiss'), celebrated 'Victory in Europe' (VE) day is not known, but it is more than likely that he was standing at the bar of White's Club in St James's where much of the informal business of intelligence work was still undertaken. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great facts... poor conclusions,
By A Customer
This review is from: MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (Hardcover)
As others have said more eloquently than I. However, it is worth repeating (or at least speaking up about it) the fact that the conclusions reached by the author are the worst kind of historical reconstruction.The Soviet Union is presented as more of a victim of the west rather than a primary cause of what the author would have you believe they were a victim of. According to the author, the Cold War was the fault of the west, we were the bad guys. As most who have even barely studied history know, things are seldom that black and white. The author poses his theory without ever mentioning all the offenses and atrocities commited by the Soviet Union which gave the west good reason to be deeply concerned. If you have read Venona or any other more balanced works, you will see this book for what it is and take the facts for what they are worth and leave the subtle attempt at indoctrination out of the picture.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well written and subtle propaganda.,
By jb ny (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (Hardcover)
I read Stephen Dorril's account with some dismay. Far from a balanced treatment of MI6's impact on the Cold War, Dorril drops one suggestion after another pointing at the West as instigator of the Cold War. Amazingly, Dorrill treats the presence of Philby, McClean and other Soviet spies in MI6 as normal, as if a diversity of views should take precendence over the destructive effect Philby had on MI6/CIA activity and morale.This book portrays the Soviets as "victims" of Western treachery or buffoonery, a thesis that is itself a nice work of propaganda. Nevertheless, Dorril presents events that are factual, albeit framed to suit his goal of painting MI6 as a prime cause of the Cold War. Dorril frequently omits relevant information about similar or related Soviet activity, and selectively quotes protagonists to place them in the worst possible light. He has little to say about Soviet concentration camp atrocities (which spanned two decades) or Russian political intimidation and murder in Eastern Europe after the Second World War -- facts that inconveniently undermine his thesis.
2.0 out of 5 stars
An Historical Abomination,
This review is from: MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (Paperback)
Sometimes, when you do historical research, you have to wade through ponds of excrement. This is one such pond. It's rather like the Stinky Pond at KAF, except the smell permeates much further. And in the Stinky Pond, we could don hip waders and fish for Brown Trout. Which we can also do here. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, in fact. His treatment of the SIS and the British government is highly critical, while he nearly vindicates the Soviets (and just about everybody else), who had been involved in much more morally reprehensible intelligence activities than the SIS ever had been. You name it, it was all the SIS's doing. Anybody who can find a way of blaming the British for the centuries-old conflict in the Balkans should probably find another job outside the domain of writing "history" books. The book is promoted as something that the SIS and British government violently opposed, and that of course fuels the imaginations of every conspiracy theorist and "inside scoop" reporter who just assume that it's because the parties involved have something to hide. Maybe. Or maybe it's actually untrue. In Dorril's case, I'm entirely convinced that it's untrue. The book should be titled "MI6: Inside the Wild Imagination of Stephen Dorril."
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