Disciples

The World War II Missions of the CIA Directors Who Fought for Wild Bill Donovan

By: Douglas Waller

Narrated by: George Newbern

The author of the critically acclaimed best seller Wild Bill Donovan tells the story of four OSS warriors of World War II. All four later led the CIA.

They are the most famous and controversial directors the CIA has ever had - Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey. Disciples is the story of these dynamic agents and their daring espionage and sabotage in wartime Europe under OSS Director Bill Donovan.

Allen Dulles ran the OSS' most successful spy operation against the Axis. Bill Casey organized dangerous missions to penetrate Nazi Germany. Bill Colby led OSS commando raids behind the lines in occupied France and Norway. Richard Helms mounted risky intelligence programs against the Russians in the ruin of Berlin after the German surrender.

Four very different men, they later led (or misled) the successor CIA. Dulles launched the calamitous operation to land CIA-trained, anti-Castro guerrillas at Cuba's Bay of Pigs. Helms was convicted of lying to Congress over the CIA's role in the coup that ousted Chile's president. Colby would become a pariah for releasing to Congress what became known as the "Family Jewels" report on CIA misdeeds during the 1950s, '60s and early '70s. Casey would nearly bring down the CIA - and Ronald Reagan's presidency - from a scheme that secretly supplied Nicaragua's contras with money raked off from the sale of arms to Iran for American hostages in Beirut.

Mining thousands of once-secret World War II documents and interviewing scores of family members and CIA colleagues, Waller has written a brilliant successor to Wild Bill Donovan.

©2015 Douglas Waller (P)2015 Simon & Schuster

Another good history

A good history of the CIA, from the OSS era through the Bay of Pigs.

A great history and “the rest of the story”

A great history and “the rest of the story” for those who enjoyed the authors first work on Donovan. Even without knowledge or exposure to the first book - as a stand alone - this work gives the reader the make up of these men who saw Donovan as a mentor and how that executed in WW2. Casey is my favorite but Colby’s work as a jedburg team leader confounds me to the leader he was briefly at the CIA.

Still - a great story and scope of these men who led the CIA for decades following WW2.

Good book, terrible performance

What didn’t you like about George Newbern’s performance?

If he said M-16 instead of MI-6 one more time I was going to lose it. There was a slew of mispronounced words and the variance of his reading varied greatly from chapter to chapter.

Do you think Disciples needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No, it was a follow up already.

Boring at First, but don’t miss it.

It irritated me to listen about who married who, where they went to college, and calling them The Best Of American Families. I think 90+% of American Families during WW2 were The Best of American Families. But after the society part and who they went to parties with, it turned out good. The WW2 part was very interesting and I think you’ll like it.

One of the best books!

One of the best books on the beginning of the modern United States intelligence service and the men who by different paths came to lead the CIA.

It is a must read for those who are interested in intelligence and history.