The Craft of Intelligence: America's Legendary Spy Master on the Fundamentals of Intelligence Gathering for a Free World

Contrary to previous reviews, Allen does provide some great insights into the world of intelligence collection and analysis. However, keep in mind that Allen was also a CIA Director. This means he's not tapping phones himself, any more than a mining executive swings a pick axe, and so he's not going to tell you how that is done. It's also correct that we no longer live in Allen Dulle's world. Allen died in 1969, a world where the Soviets were at their most intimidating, Communism was a genuine global threat and the Cold War was a desperate battle of economics, politics, covert and overt violence, intelligence penetration and, of course, ideology. Please keep this in mind when you buy and read this book. The book has some interesting insights into what intelligence meant at the time. It was the laborious penetration of the clandestine parts of a clandestine society. It was the penetration of soviet satellite nations. It was also the defence against clandestine penetration. This book doesn't disclose national secrets, but I was surprised by the level of insight that Dulles provides into the intelligence world he led and managed at the time. Problems including the difficulties of penetration soviet society, the methods of blackmail that soviets would use against westerners, his opinion of the fundamentally untrustworthiness of the soviets (I got the impression they would not abide a gentleman's agreement), and many stories illustrating how soviets attempted to penetrate western targets (like embassies) while also showing how many soviets would defect and collaborate with the west. I also don't want to give anything way, but his section on Homo Sovieticus was both very funny and chilling at the same time. Lastly, he talks about issues of secrecy in a nation like the US, where the US will publish reams of congressional hearings, budgets, data about military advances in trade journals, and so on. Meanwhile, virtually everything was classified secret in soviet society. Of course, he believes it should be more difficult for the Soviets to collect details about American politics, but he also seemed a bit resigned to this level of wide publication as being a feature of what it is to be American. To those who imagine that the world of intelligence involves somehow doing things that aren't common sense, this book will be disappointing. Allen Dulles talks about practical problems and practical observations about intelligence work at the time of writing.

This is the must have read for researchers of (or anyone that has an interest in) the CIA during the Cold War, the information is a bit dated, but it enlightens the reader with little know fundamental details of the CIA during that period in history. Mr Dulles writes a book that is informative and anecdotal as well, I found the book a real page turner and was hard to put down, one of the best books that I have read on the CIA to date..

While Allen Dulles played a pivotal role in the US intelligence service, especially as head of the CIA, his book is not a tell-all revelation of the inner workings of a spy agency. It is however a great history of the cold war told from the perspective of a spymaster. He slips in some lingo like "dead letter box", but does not really get into the nitty gritty. He covers most of the already public spy stories. If you are studying the period of history from WWII to 1965 this book is a great read with an important perspective.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I’ve just got around to reading this, but there you have it. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had read it years ago (I remember most of the tales he uses as examples from the old “Ballantine Espionage/Intelligence Library” paperbacks I read as a teenager in the late ‘70s), but it was still a good read. Part as advertised by the title, a large part advocacy for the Agency, part defensive, and part recruiting pitch, (all in the context of the early ‘60s) Dulles blended it all together quite well, with an enjoyable writing style that avoids intel jargon and tells the story in a way that can be absorbed by anybody. But is really is written through the monochromatic lens of bipolar competition through which too many international issues were viewed at the time, and some of the assertions in the latter half of the book are almost embarrassing in themselves, given knowledge of what has been brought out into the open over the five decades since it was originally published. Yet I do think that a book like this is really needed today, fully up-to-date, that presents intelligence tradecraft, challenges, the role of intelligence in government, and privacy challenges in the modern context all in a way that’s readable by the average Joe.

This book clarifies the roles played by the intel element which is normally not widely kinown about in society at large.. It informs readers about the overall activities, an overview, not specifics.It is most informative and educational. It gives the reader a proof that the state remains constantly preocupied with the people and country's safety and security. It is good for USA people to know how the govt strives to stay well informed in terms of its constituents wellbeing. The book is also quite entertaining as it informs about a should know matter for everyone in the country.It is in effect a rare luxury allowing us to learn about these inteli crafts.

If you are looking at this book, you need to read it... with a thick filter.

If you're interested in the world of intelligence-gathering, specifically that of the CIA in its early years, then this makes for a great read. Dulles includes many anecdotes and firsthand details regarding an array of aspects on the subject of intelligence, which all help to better explain just what defined this organization in its nascent years. The author also touches on foreign intelligence organizations, chiefly those of the Soviet Union, and how they influenced the outcomes of various events in history. This book makes for a solid read for those keen to learn more about intelligence-gathering and its implications on government policy, foreign relations, and the course of history in the early Cold War. A very well written book!

This is a book that a serious student of the Cold War, Espionage, or the CIA needs to have on his or her shelve. This is a well written study of the basics of intelligence and a lot of the history of the business. Unfortunately, I am not a serious student of any of those subjects. I found a lot of the material to be dated, having been written during the period immediately after JFK's assentation, and before our involvement in Viet-Nam. The book would be a lot better if it had been updated, A great deal of the material is well out of date, there is way too much information about the USSR in the early '60's, before and just after Khrushchev was over thrown. The information about the PRC is also very very dated. If this book was updated, I would rate it 5 stars. Like I said, this is a great history book, and a very good insight into one of the strongest spy minds of the 20th Century. Dulles was one of the people that started the CIA and the OSS.