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Lead book review

A war of words: circulating forbidden literature behind the Iron Curtain

For decades, the CIA smuggled works by George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Czeslaw Milosz and many others into the Soviet bloc in a battle for hearts, minds and intellects

8 March 2025

9:00 AM

8 March 2025

9:00 AM

The CIA Book Club: The Best Kept Secret of the Cold War Charlie English

Harper Collins, pp.384, 25

If James Bond, now in American hands, re-emerges refreshed as an agent of the CIA, then it will be a homecoming of sorts, given that his creator played a role in drawing up the blueprint for America’s first foreign intelligence service. In May 1941, Commander Ian Fleming sat down in Washington with Colonel William (‘Wild Bill’) Donovan to sketch out an agency modelled on British naval intelligence.

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