Seven Spies Who Changed the World

This book looks afresh at the careers of seven men who - through their activity as spies - changed the history of the world. They are: Sir William Stephenson, the man known as "Intrepid", the Canadian spymaster who co-ordinated British intelligence operations in the USA during World War Two; Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot brought down over the Soviet Union in 1960; Wulf Schmidt, a German agent "turned" by MI5, who played a crucial part in deceiving the Nazis about the D-Day landings; Greville Wynne, the British agent who acted as a courier for Oleg Penkovsky, and whom West reveals as a Walter Mitty character; Dusko Popov, the wartime double agent who gave J.Edgar Hoover advance warning of an imminent Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour; George Blake, the British traitor; and William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, who was kidnapped and tortured to death by pro-Iranian terrorists.