Surprise, Kill, Vanish

The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins

By: Annie Jacobsen

Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen

Surprise...your target. Kill...your enemy. Vanish...without a trace.

From Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen, the untold story of the CIA's secret paramilitary units.

When diplomacy fails and war is unwise, the president calls on the CIA's Special Activities Division, a highly classified branch of the CIA and the most effective black-operations force in the world. Originally known as the president's guerrilla warfare corps, SAD conducts risky and ruthless operations that have evolved over time to defend America from its enemies. Almost every American president since World War II has asked the CIA to conduct sabotage, subversion, and yes, assassination.

With unprecedented access to 42 men and women who proudly and secretly worked on CIA covert operations from the dawn of the Cold War to the present day, along with declassified documents and deep historical research, Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen unveils—like never before—a complex world of individuals working in treacherous environments populated with killers, connivers, and saboteurs. Despite Hollywood notions of off-book operations and external secret hires, covert action is actually one piece in a colossal foreign policy machine.

Written with the pacing of a thriller, Surprise, Kill, Vanish brings to vivid life the sheer pandemonium and chaos, as well as the unforgettable human will to survive and the intellectual challenge of not giving up hope that define paramilitary and intelligence work. Jacobsen's exclusive interviews—with members of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service (equivalent to the Pentagon's generals), its counterterrorism chiefs, targeting officers, and Special Activities Division's Ground Branch operators who conduct today's close-quarters killing operations around the world—reveal, for the first time, the enormity of this shocking, controversial, and morally complex terrain. Is the CIA's paramilitary army America's weaponized strength or a liability to its principled standing in the world?

Every operation reported in this audiobook, however unsettling, is legal.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Annie Jacobsen (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Jacobsen here presents a tour de force exploring the CIA's paramilitary activities...this excellent work feels like uncovering the tip of the iceberg. VERDICT: Highly recommended for those seeking a better understanding of American foreign policy in action."—Jacob Sherman, Library Journal

"A behind-the-scenes look at the most shadowy corners of the American intelligence community...Well-sourced and well-paced, this book is full of surprises."—Kirkus

"Having already demonstrated her remarkable aptitude for unearthing government secrets in books like Area 51 (2011) and The Pentagon's Brain (2015), Jacobsen pulls back the curtain on the history of covert warfare and state sanctioned assassinations from WWII to the present...Jacobsen's work revealing a poorly understood but essential slice of warfare history belongs in every library collection."—Booklist

Book shines covering Macvsog

Great history of CIA Shenanigans starting in the late 1940's. Really begins to shine with her coverage of Vietnam special operations as well as the operations in the Middle East in the 1980's. CIA is treated fairly despite their many failures.

Informative, Thrilling and Suspenseful

This was one of the best books I have listened to that was captivating from the get go all the way to the end. Annie wrote this book as if a following characters in a fictional book and sometimes a couple of accounts at a time and how they crossed. This was beautifully written to provide instruction, first-hand accounts to substantiate with no supposition.

Great book

Annie's monotone voice would put me to sleep if it wasn't for the reviting content and indepth discussions of covert operations. I was hoping she would go deeper into operations of recent past, but those are still classified. I would love to meet Billy Waugh. Phenomenal research work though!!! Hence her consulting services on the tv series Jack Ryan.

Accurate and interesting

Having served a glimpse of the life, Jacobsen accurately portrays the evolution of American espionage from WWII to the present. Narrating the life of long-serving soldier and spy Billy Waugh through the conflicts was an amazing touch.

Good enough, but lacks focus

Great effort. Great information, but feels more like a documentary than a book of history. Overall, still an excellent book. The reading by the author was fascinating.
Annie Jacobson, your hard work is appreciated.

historically required reading to understanding CIA

It is a logical assumption that the stories recorded here are only 2% of what really happened.

if this is true our intelligence agencies are a group of unchecked scary, armed to the teeth solders who would kill whoever they wanted with no oversight

very scary

Enamoring history; yet lacks linear direction

Annie Jacobsen writes fascinating accounts of CIA operators, Green Berets, US Secret Service and other clandestine covert operations. Starting with her performance, Annie is a fantastic narrator, she has suave, eloquence, and calculous. I absolutely adore her voice and that is a strong aspect to this book's appeal. Regarding the story, I loved listening to Billy Waugh and Lew Merletti's separate journeys. Furthermore, she goes era by era, starting with World War Two through Afghanistan in 2016. She brings great information to each conflict, and provides insight often missing from a classroom setting. However, she has such attention to detail, that macro-scale details are cited incorrectly, or misprinted. Three examples of incorrect information I noted were that: John F. Kennedy was not a Lieutenant Colonel in WW2, he was a Lieutenant, "SCI" does not stand for Secret Compartmented Information, it stands for Sensitive Compartmentalized Information, and she mentioned Congress declaring war on Vietnam - which Congress did not do, and hasn't done since WW2. Overall, Annie is insightful and a wonderful narrator, however, her non-linear story telling jumping between stories, regions, or operations even 10 to 20 minutes and misinformation make it hard for me to give it anything higher than a 4/5.

Amazing book

Got a recommendation from a friend and I’m not usually one for nonfiction history books but my goodness this is good.

A thorough overview of the history of the CIA 'Action Arm'

Well written, well read, and highly informative and interesting. It spans the roots and origins of the CIA up through the last few years of the Afghanistan war.

The timeline of CIA events

The author should have picked a better reader but otherwise the book was well written and kept me interested throughout. I feel the specific stories shared were not that widely known