"Compulsively readable laugh out loud history." Mary RoachBomb-carrying bats. Poisoned flower arrangements. Cigars laced with mind-altering drugs. Listening devices implanted into specially-trained cats. A torpedo-proof aircraft carrier made out of ice and sawdust. And a CIA plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon ... just because. In Nuking the Moon, Vince Houghton, Historian and Curator at the International Spy Museum, collects the most inspired, implausible and downright bizarre military intelligence schemes that never quite made it off the drawing board. From the grandly ambitious to the truly devious, they illuminate a new side of warfare, revealing how a combination of desperation and innovation led not only to daring missions and brilliant technological advances, but to countless plans and experiments that failed spectacularly. Alternatively terrifying and hilarious, and combining archival research with newly-conducted interviews, these twenty-six chapters reveal not only what might have happened, but also what each one tells us about the history and people around it. If 'military intelligence' makes you think of James Bond and ingenious exploding gadgets ... get ready for the true story.
Vince Houghton Boeken
Vince Houghton duikt in de complexe wereld van spionage en de geschiedenis van inlichtingen. Zijn werk belicht de verborgen verhalen en complexe motivaties die de wereldgebeurtenissen hebben gevormd. Door middel van meeslepende verhalen en een diepgaand begrip van het onderwerp, brengt hij het fascinerende rijk van geheime operaties en hun impact op internationale betrekkingen tot leven.




The Nuclear Spies
- 248bladzijden
- 9 uur lezen
Why did the US intelligence services fail so spectacularly to know about the Soviet Union's nuclear capabilities following World War II? As Vince Houghton, historian and curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, shows us, that disastrous failure came just a few years after the Manhattan Project's intelligence team had...
Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board
- 320bladzijden
- 12 uur lezen
Exploring a range of covert operations that were ultimately abandoned, the book reveals intriguing missions and schemes from the world of espionage. The historian from the International Spy Museum delves into the reasons behind these decisions, highlighting the factors of danger, cost, and timing that led to their cancellation. With a focus on the audacious and sometimes outrageous nature of these plans, readers gain insight into the complexities of intelligence work and the thin line between success and failure in the shadows of history.
Secret operations, corruption, crime, and a city teeming with spies: why Miami was as crucial to winning the Cold War as Washington DC or Moscow.