I am of the generation raised when being patriotic was the default: we dutifully recited the Pledge every school day, stood at parades when the flag went by, etc.etc. We were taught that the U.S. was unquestioningly on the “right side” in every conflict, and that we were against tyranny, and definitely always pro-freedom and democracy, while the “other side” was oppressive, authoritarian, and they were the “bad guys.” Scott Anderson, historian and author of Lawrence In Arabia, turns his focus to the Cold War era and the development of the espionage industry under the CIA in The Quiet Americans.

After WWII, the USSR was busy around the world working to expand their influence, and the US response was run by the new CIA office. There were four men whose spy efforts were part of this activity around the world. Frank Wisner was from a wealthy Southern family, Peter Sichel was a German Jew who had escaped the Nazis, Michael Burke was a former football star, and Ed Lansdale was an ad executive (think “Mad Men”) before he became a spy. Together, these four were in charge of operations such as directing wars against “Communist insurgents” in Southeast Asia, plotting various coups, and planning ways to outwit the KGB in Berlin.

Despite the portrayal of the spies on the “good” team as the heroes in sy stories, the U.S basically gave up any pretense of being morally superior as they moved from being defenders of freedom to being just sad characters ruined by the work they had done. Possibly if the leadership in Washington had been less ideologically rigid and had maintained ideals that made the country so well respected following theWar, things might have gone better for these four. But the messes they got into prompted two to quite the CIA, one to become a stereotypical “bad guy” while still on “our side,” and one just gave up and killed himself.

In the mid to late 60s, I was in college studying history as I watched the war in Vietnam prompt millions to react in various ways, but it was clear that the days of blindly trusting the government to be on the side of good/freedom/right were OVER. A professor used the analogy that the U.S. was like a bigt, dumb, lumbering football player who only wants to win the game, make the score, or stop the opposition, and that player goes stumbling around the globe, just making things worse. My own reaction to the disillusionment was to quit school and marry a Navy man in the summer of 1968. I had hoped this book would help me regain some of the optimism about our country’s future as we wobble toward an election battling COVID and wildfires, with a lunatic in charge.

Five stars because Anderson is such an incredibly good writer and historian. He makes the reader care about the four individuals who are the focus of the larger story of the development of the CIA, and tells the story of the men and their work beautifully. Thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review. Subtitled “Four CIA Spies at the dawn of the Cold War — A Tragedy in Three Acts,” it will definitely be an eye opener for anyone interested in espionage in general or the CIA in particular.