Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed

In a brutally frank account of CIA traitor Aldrich Ames's career, Grimes, a 26-year veteran of the CIA's Clandestine Service, and Vertefeuille, a long-time CIA counterintelligence officer, pull back the curtain on the hunt for an American who spent years working for the KGB without being discovered. The now-retired authors focus on the CIA's crucial Soviet and East European (SE) Division, where efforts to recruit Soviet and East European officials snagged the U.S.'s highest-ranking Soviet spy, General Dmitriy Fedorovich Polyakov, who spent nearly two decades undetected. Ames's treason did particular damage to the SE Division, leading to Polyakov's execution and to the exposure of several other key U.S. agents. Espionage buffs will love the details taken from previously classified CIA files, as well as a penetrating view of him as an "All-American boy" and spy. Well-researched and written in a clear, no-frills style, this fascinating Cold War saga will allow any American without a security clearance to better understand how Aldrich Ames could have become one of the most damaging moles in U.S. intelligence history. (Nov.)