The Quiet Americans

The Quiet Americans is not a book about American Exceptionalism, it is a book about four extremely talented people who, through necessity or patriotism, find their way to the front of the Cold War. It details the challenges they encountered and how they responded. What\’s more is the individual flaws each man, as they are all men, faced in the closing years of the second world war and the opening of the Cold. Most of all, it is an epitaph for one of the most dedicated and ultimately tragic figures of America\’s early espionage history. It goes from bright opportunity and singular goals to uncoordinated madness with no goal in sight. An important thing to note is the author himself is a front row observer of many of the effects detailed in the book, especially those felt in the middle east, southeast Asia, and South America. He grew up in the shadow of the Vietnam war, and his early days in journalism saw the atrocities inflicted by the dictatorships in South America, and thus is not nor can he be unbias in his assessment. This is very apparent in the last few chapters of the book, and his closing assessments on the activities therein described. The narration is well done and portrays the story in a way that is neither distracting or forgettable. The structure of the book is fairly linear, though details the after effects of certain events that the author does not return to, as they fall outside the book\’s scope. It can be considered a mini biography of each man described in this way. I recommend you read this book.

Can\’t call this a book about spys. It\’s a political book. Very boring and slow.

A simply elegant and amazing book. It has a personal feel while sharing the lack of appreciation for people when it comes to governments in general. Our over fascination in statistics and good versus evil prevents our governments from making a true difference. Well worth reading to get a glimpse into the real machinations of America\’s migration pre-WWII to today.

Great real life spy stories well told. Author has standard biased progressive views of history re FDR, Truman, Joe McCarthy, Cold War, Vietnam etc. But there’s enough in here to explain the origin and problems of the Deep State.

I got this book because Robertson Dean narrated only one other book that I know of and I love that book; Delta Force by retired CSM Eric Haney. Unlike that book, however, this book seems to slog on with many more details and many less personally inspiring feats of accomplishment about the people it talks about. In other words it\’s just quite boring.

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