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Shadow Warrior
- William Egan Colby and the CIA
- Narrated by: Michael Puttonen
- Length: 21 hrs and 38 mins
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Publisher's summary
As a World War II commando, a Cold War spy, and CIA director under Presidents Nixon and Ford, William Egan Colby played a critical role in some of the most pivotal events of the twentieth century. A quintessential member of the greatest generation, Colby embodied the moral and strategic ambiguities of the postwar world, and confronted many of the dilemmas about power and secrecy that America still grapples with today.
In Shadow Warrior, eminent historian Randall B. Woods riveting biography of Colby, he reveals that this crusader for global democracy was also drawn to the darker side of American power. Colby joined the U.S. Army in 1941, just as America entered World War II, serving with distinction in France and Norway. At the end of the war he transitioned into America's first peacetime intelligence agency: the CIA. Fresh from fighting fascism, Colby zealously redirected his efforts against international communism. He insisted on the importance of fighting communism on the ground, doggedly applying guerilla tactics for counterinsurgency, sabotage, surveillance, and information-gathering - the new battlefields of the Cold War. Over time, these strategies became increasingly ruthless; as head of the CIA's Far East Division, Colby oversaw an endless succession of assassination attempts, coups, secret wars in Laos and Cambodia, and the Phoenix Program, in which 20,000 civilian supporters of the Vietcong were killed. Colby ultimately came clean about many of the CIA's illegal activities, making public a set of internal reports known as the "family jewels." Ostracized from the intelligence community, he died under suspicious circumstances - a murky ending to a life lived in the shadows.
Drawing on multiple new sources, including interviews with members of Colby's family, Woods has crafted a gripping biography of one of the most fascinating and controversial figures of the twentieth century.
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The Endgame is Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor's most ambitious and news-breaking book to date. A peerless work of investigative journalism and historical recreation ranging from 2003 to 2012, it gives us the first comprehensive, inside account of arguably the most widely reported yet least understood war in American history - from the occupation of Iraq to the withdrawal of American troops.
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Interesting Perspective, but One-Sided
- By Benjamin on 02-09-14
By: Michael R. Gordon, and others
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The Way of the Knife
- The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth
- By: Mark Mazzetti
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Mazzetti examines secret wars over the past decade, tracking key characters from the intelligence and military communities across the world. Among the characters we meet in The Way of the Knife are a young CIA officer dropped into the tribal areas to learn the hard way how the spy games in Pakistan are played; an Air Force test pilot who fired the first drone missile in the Nevada desert; and a chain-smoking Pentagon official who ran an off-the-books spying operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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Excellent critique of covert operations
- By Keefer on 04-27-13
By: Mark Mazzetti
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88 Days to Kandahar
- A CIA Diary
- By: Robert L. Grenier
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In his gripping narrative, we meet General Tommy Franks, who bridles at CIA control of "his" war; General "Jafar Amin", a gruff Pakistani intelligence officer who saves Grenier from committing career suicide; Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's brilliant ambassador to the US, who tries to warn her government of the al-Qaeda threat; "Mark", the CIA operator who guides GulAgha Shirzai to bloody victory over the Taliban.
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Honest conclusion based on practical realities.
- By rehman on 03-30-15
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A World of Trouble
- The White House and the Middle East
- By: Patrick Tyler
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Middle East is the beginning and the end of U.S. foreign policy: events there influence our alliances, make or break presidencies, govern the price of oil, and draw us into war. But it was not always so - and as Patrick Tyler shows in this thrilling chronicle of American misadventures in the region, the story of American presidents' dealings there is one of mixed motives, skulduggery, deceit, and outright foolishness, as well as of policymaking and diplomacy.
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Does't deliver
- By Matthew on 02-10-09
By: Patrick Tyler
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Arik
- The Life of Ariel Sharon
- By: David Landau
- Narrated by: Waler Dixon
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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From the former editor in chief of Haaretz, the first in-depth, comprehensive biography of Ariel Sharon, the most dramatic and imposing Israeli political and military leader of the last forty years. The life of Ariel Sharon spans much of modern Israel’s history. A commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, Sharon participated in the 1948 War of Independence, played decisive roles in the 1956 Suez War and the Six-Day War of 1967, and is credited here with the shift in the outcome of the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
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Larger than Life Hero
- By Eugene Choong on 10-07-24
By: David Landau
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The Longest War
- America and Al-Qaeda Since 9/11
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Longest War, Peter Bergen offers a comprehensive history of this war and its evolution, from the strategies devised in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to the fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond. Weaving together internal documents from al-Qaeda and the U.S. offices of counterterrorism, first-person interviews with top-level jihadists and senior Washington officials, along with his own experiences on the ground in the Middle East, Bergen balances the accounts of each side.
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More Bush bashing..yes, but still worth reading.
- By Dennis on 01-18-11
By: Peter L. Bergen
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Bibi
- By: Anshel Pfeffer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Benjamin Netanyahu is embroiled in numerous scandals, all of his own making, and may soon be ousted from the office he has held longer than any prior Israeli prime minister outside of David Ben Gurion. But Bibi, as he is known by friend and foe alike, is no stranger to controversy. For many in Israel and elsewhere, he is an embarrassment, a threat to democracy, even a precursor to Donald Trump. He nevertheless continues to dominate Israeli public life - and he may yet survive his current crises, the most challenging of his career.
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Very biased.
- By Anonymous User on 10-14-22
By: Anshel Pfeffer
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A Great Place to Have a War
- America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA
- By: Joshua Kurlantzick
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1960 President Eisenhower was focused on Laos, a tiny Southeast Asian nation few Americans had ever heard of. Washington feared the country would fall to Communism, triggering a domino effect in the rest of Southeast Asia. So in January 1961, Eisenhower approved the CIA's Operation Momentum, a plan to create a proxy army of ethnic Hmong to fight Communist forces in Laos. While remaining hidden from the American public and most of Congress, Momentum became the largest CIA paramilitary operation in the history of the United States.
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illuminating read of Laos' relationship with USA
- By Daniel on 12-28-18
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Shadow Strike
- Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power
- By: Yaakov Katz
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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On September 6, 2007, shortly after midnight, Israeli fighters advanced on Deir ez-Zour in Syria. Israel often flew into Syria as a warning to President Bashar al-Assad. But this time, there was no warning and no explanation. This was a covert operation, with one goal: to destroy a nuclear reactor being built by North Korea under a tight veil of secrecy in the Syrian desert. Shadow Strike tells, for the first time, the story of the espionage, military might and psychological warfare behind Israel’s operation to stop one of the greatest known acts of nuclear proliferation.
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Important Book!
- By Gerald J. Vogt on 05-10-19
By: Yaakov Katz
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Red Heat
- Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean
- By: Alex von Tunzelmann
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The Caribbean crises of the Cold War are revealed as never before in this riveting story of clashing ideologies, the rise of the politics of fear, the machinations of superpowers, and the daring of the brazen mavericks who took them on. The superpowers thought they could use Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as puppets, but what neither bargained on was that their puppets would come to life.
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Interesting, not extraordinary.
- By History on 10-24-11
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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
- Unabridged
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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
What listeners say about Shadow Warrior
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-20-16
an American must-read
we trust government to do the right thing always, can we? read, and judge for yourself
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- Matthew Brown
- 05-21-15
Shadow warrior.
I expected more detail on specific missions. Also it's hard to tell fact from fiction. Even so still a little interesting to review post world war 2 history through this career CIA administrators eyes.
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- Elaine
- 09-22-21
Who murdered William Colby ?
Fascinating life! Who could've done it? And WHY? The narrator is perfect! What an amazing man!!! Im fascinated by the CIA and the eccentric spies who worked there.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-14-17
The Counterinsurgent
Colby led an interesting and unparalleled life and this work does a great job of giving that story a voice. Just when I was tiring of the narrator's voice, he began mimicking Nixon and Kissinger to great effect. A must read for any person interested in the Jedburgs, the other side of the Vietnam conflict, or the strategic levels of counterinsurgency.
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- Kenneth Barnett
- 10-01-18
great cold war history
Well delivered and informative. A lot of detailed description. Let's you sink into that period of history and cold war era.
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- Cynthia C.
- 06-20-23
Fascinating. I want to read more, about Colby’s life and his death.
Colby’s name was familiar to me, but not his life. I wish the book had continued to present more theories about who murdered him.
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- Blake Dahl
- 03-27-17
Should have been more exciting
the book was good but should have been way more exciting given that it was about William Colby a legend. the book wasn't so much about his escapades and time work at the CIA so much as it was a book about his personal life and the politics that followed him around
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- Erikusan
- 02-04-21
Interesting when it stays on topic...
The areas about Colby are a fascinating window into the life and times of a member of the intelligence community during several tumultuous eras of world history. However, the majority of Part 2 becomes a whole-scope timeline of the Vietnam War, offering lots of context but next-to-nothing about the book's subject - William Egan Colby himself. It's interesting to hear the history of the Hmong and the internal struggles of anti-colonialist and communist forces, but if you're here for Colby's involvement, you'll wish the audiobook came with chapter titles in the table of contents. ...or at least I did. Your mileage may vary.
For a more interesting, flavorful, and focused look into a prominent CIA officer's covert action experiences in Africa and Vietnam (and crucially Laos), I highly recommend Richard Holm's "The Craft We Chose." Years later, his stories still stick with me like snake oil on a severe burn.
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- Denise
- 02-18-21
Disappointing
I knew things were going to be bad once the droning narration began. Add to that the tedious minutia of every month in the life of the young William Colby, and I stopped after Chapter 2. I skipped to the other chapters but nothing seemed to change. Sad.
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