A Covert Action
Reagan, the CIA, and the Cold War Struggle in Poland
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Yen
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By:
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Seth G. Jones
About this listen
In this gripping narrative history, Seth G. Jones reveals the CIA's involvement in a landmark victory for democracy during the Cold War.
In 1983, while Soviet- backed Polish prime minister Wojciech Jaruzelski worked to crush a budding opposition movement through martial law, the CIA launched a sophisticated intelligence campaign supporting dissident groups - particularly trade union-turned-political force Solidarity. With President Ronald Reagan's support, American funds bankrolled clandestine newspapers, broadcasting, and information warfare. This initiative, code-named QRHELPFUL, proved vital in establishing a free and democratic Poland.
Long overlooked by CIA historians and Reagan biographers, the story features an extraordinary cast of characters - including spymaster Bill Casey, CIA officer Richard Malzahn, Solidary leader Lech Walesa, and Pope John Paul II. Based on in-depth interviews and recently declassified evidence, A Covert Action celebrates a decisive victory over tyranny for US intelligence behind the Iron Curtain, one that prefigured the Soviet collapse.
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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.
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Indispensable for understanding the US China relationship
- By D. Keith on 03-12-17
By: John Pomfret
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Overthrow
- America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals.
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Looking at the dark side
- By Stanley on 08-02-06
By: Stephen Kinzer
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War on Peace
- The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
- By: Ronan Farrow
- Narrated by: Ronan Farrow
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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American diplomacy is under siege. Offices across the State Department sit empty while abroad, the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We're becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing account ranging from Washington, DC, to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea in the years since 9/11, acclaimed journalist and former diplomat Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history.
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Well Timed and Authoritative:
- By JC on 04-24-18
By: Ronan Farrow
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Directorate S
- The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 28 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Resuming the narrative of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, best-selling author Steve Coll tells for the first time the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11.
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Slow At Times But Always Horrifying And Engaging
- By Gillian on 02-20-18
By: Steve Coll
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The Last Empire
- The Final Days of the Soviet Union
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
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- Unabridged
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On Christmas, 1991, President George H. W. Bush addressed the nation to declare an American victory in the Cold War: Earlier that day Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned as the first and last Soviet president. The enshrining of that narrative, one in which the end of the Cold War was linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the triumph of democratic values over communism, took center stage in American public discourse immediately after Bush's speech and has persisted for decades. As Serhii Plokhy reveals, the collapse of the Soviet Union was anything but the handiwork of the US.
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Full of Holes; Horrid Narrator
- By Donald on 03-02-23
By: Serhii Plokhy
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Berlin 1961
- Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
- By: Frederick Kempe
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
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A former Wall Street Journal editor and the current president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, Frederick Kempe draws on recently released documents and personal interviews to re-create the powder keg that was 1961 Berlin. In Cold War Berlin, the United States and the Soviet Union stand nose to nose, with the possibility of nuclear war just one misstep away.
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I am scared in retrospect
- By theenglishmajor on 06-26-11
By: Frederick Kempe
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Stalin, Volume I
- Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928
- By: Stephen Kotkin
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
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Volume One of Stalin begins and ends in January 1928 as Stalin boards a train bound for Siberia, about to embark upon the greatest gamble of his political life. He is now the ruler of the largest country in the world, but a poor and backward one, far behind the great capitalist countries in industrial and military power, encircled on all sides. In Siberia, Stalin conceives of the largest program of social reengineering ever attempted.
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Excellent Book But First Time Listener Beware
- By Nostromo on 03-23-15
By: Stephen Kotkin
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The Last Days of Stalin
- By: Joshua Rubenstein
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Joshua Rubenstein's riveting account takes us back to the second half of 1952, when no one could foresee an end to Joseph Stalin's murderous regime. He was poised to challenge the newly elected US president Dwight Eisenhower with armed force and was also broadening a vicious campaign against Soviet Jews. Stalin's sudden collapse and death in March 1953 was as dramatic and mysterious as his life. It is no overstatement to say that his passing marked a major turning point in the 20th century.
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JUST A LITTLE TOO DULL
- By Count B on 08-06-16
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Asia's Reckoning
- China, Japan, and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century
- By: Richard Mcgregor
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
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Richard McGregor's Asia's Reckoning is a compelling account of the widening geopolitical cracks in a region that has flourished under an American security umbrella for more than half a century. The toxic rivalry between China and Japan, two Asian giants consumed with endless history wars and ruled by entrenched political dynasties, is threatening to upend the peace underwritten by Pax Americana since World War II.
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Good info to learn, but...
- By Neal on 02-24-18
By: Richard Mcgregor
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Descent into Chaos
- The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
- By: Ahmed Rashid
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
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Rashid examines Central Asia, and the corridors of power in Washington and Europe, to see how the promised nation building in the region has progressed. His conclusions are devastating.
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Useful!
- By John Robert BEHRMAN on 02-24-09
By: Ahmed Rashid
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Hard Choices
- By: Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Narrated by: Kathleen Chalfant, Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Length: 26 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Hillary Rodham Clinton's inside account of the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America's 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future. In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the United States Senate. To her surprise, her former rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed.
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Senior Stateswoman in need of Editor
- By Cynthia on 07-20-14
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What listeners say about A Covert Action
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- jennifer
- 10-26-19
Excellent
Great book on a little known affair that shook the world. looking forward to more by this author
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-09-19
Engaging summary of martial law 1981
The book is a super brief history of the last decade of communism in Poland 1980-1989. Minor errors: the biggest demonstration of the martial law period was in August 1982 in Wrocław. Nearly 100 000 demonstants fought ZOMO there. Also sen. Stokłosa in 1989 joined the Upper Chamber (Senate), not the Lower one (Sejm).
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- Doris
- 06-01-19
More Poland than Reagan
There was actually very little about Reagan in this book. It was mostly about the struggle in Poland for freedom from the USSR's repression. I found it very interesting, and I learned a lot about a moment in history to which I paid too little attention at the time. I recommend the book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Chris Cembrzynski
- 02-15-19
A passionate true story
This is a very good book. I have really liked its structure which is well balanced between necessary detail and overall picture of the Polish society struggle with the communist regime, culminating in the 80ies decade. I was witness of these events, despite being still a child and teenager upon that time. Children in Poland were all too much aware of what was going on these days not to remember today. The book convincingly reconstructs the atmosphere and tensions of the period. It has also added a new perspective to my recollection of this part of history, which is how all the main characters in this theatre, either good or evil, might have played indispensable roles in order to make Poland and the rest of the block repossess its freedom and independence from the Soviets. Tempered but persistent involvement of the US administration was critical contribution too, much owed to the president Reagan strong personality and honest and unconditional sense of justice.
This is a passionate and teaching story, generally, not only for those specifically interested in Eastern Europe history.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Tim Beaugard
- 10-01-23
Highly recommend
I enjoyed learning about a period of time that is glossed over. It was also neat to learn about the president of my youth.
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- RedM
- 01-11-24
quite good
I was a 9 yo kid living in Poland when the Martial Law was enacted in 1981...I remember the struggle before my parents immigrated to the US in 89. As an adult, it was good to lear more of what was happening behind the scenes. Regan will always have a warm spot in my heart, even though I didn't agree with his politics...he always will be a hero to the Pols for finally stepping away from the Yalta agreement of 1945 that basically "sold" Poland to the Soviet Union.
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