Regular price: $18.87

Membership details Membership details
  • A 30-day trial plus your first audiobook, free.
  • 1 credit/month after trial – good for any book, any price.
  • Easy exchanges – swap any book you don’t love.
  • Keep your audiobooks, even if you cancel.
  • After your trial, Audible is just $14.95/month.
OR
In Cart

People who bought this also bought...

The Main Enemy audiobook cover art

  • The Main Enemy

  • The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
  • By: Milton Bearden, James Risen
  • Narrated by: Christopher Lane
  • Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars 35
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars 32
  • Story
    4.5 out of 5 stars 32

A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.

  • 5 out of 5 stars

  • Gripping

  • By philip on 09-07-18
Spycraft audiobook cover art

  • Spycraft

  • The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda
  • By: Robert Wallace, Henry Robert Schelsinger
  • Narrated by: David Drummond
  • Length: 19 hrs and 54 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars 867
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars 508
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars 512

Now, in the first book ever written about this ultrasecretive department, the former director of OTS teams up with an internationally renowned intelligence historian to give listeners an unprecedented look at the devices and operations deemed "inappropriate for public disclosure" by the CIA just two years ago.

  • 5 out of 5 stars

  • Unique, informative history of the CIA

  • By Richard on 07-29-08
Rise and Kill First audiobook cover art

  • Rise and Kill First

  • The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations
  • By: Ronen Bergman
  • Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
  • Length: 25 hrs and 58 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    4.5 out of 5 stars 845
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars 763
  • Story
    4.5 out of 5 stars 763

The news-breaking inside account of Israel's state-sponsored assassination programs, from the man hailed by David Remnick as "arguably [Israel's] best investigative reporter."

  • 5 out of 5 stars

  • Eye Opening

  • By Ari Safari on 02-09-18
Enemies: A History of the FBI audiobook cover art

  • Enemies: A History of the FBI

  • By: Tim Weiner
  • Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
  • Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    4.5 out of 5 stars 543
  • Performance
    4.5 out of 5 stars 464
  • Story
    4.5 out of 5 stars 466

We think of the FBI as America’s police force. But secret intelligence is the Bureau’s first and foremost mission. Enemies is the story of how presidents have used the FBI as the most formidable intelligence force in American history. This is the first definitive history of the FBI’s secret intelligence operations, from an author whose work on the Pentagon and the CIA won him the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

  • 5 out of 5 stars

  • Important gripping history read perfectly

  • By CMcK on 08-06-12
Legacy of Ashes audiobook cover art

  • Legacy of Ashes

  • The History of the CIA
  • By: Tim Weiner
  • Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
  • Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars 3,087
  • Performance
    4.5 out of 5 stars 1,564
  • Story
    4.5 out of 5 stars 1,553

This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.

  • 5 out of 5 stars

  • A Must Read/Listen

  • By Jim on 08-23-07
Ghost Wars audiobook cover art

  • Ghost Wars

  • The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
  • By: Steve Coll
  • Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
  • Length: 26 hrs and 46 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    4.5 out of 5 stars 1,113
  • Performance
    4.5 out of 5 stars 978
  • Story
    4.5 out of 5 stars 974

The explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan. With the publication of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll became not only a Pulitzer Prize winner, but also the expert on the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of Bin Laden, and the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill Bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998.

  • 5 out of 5 stars

  • An Exceptional Accomplishment

  • By Joe on 11-08-13

Publisher's Summary

In 1992 Vasili Mitrokhin defected to England and brought along an extensive archive of military intelligence from the Soviet Union. A career KGB officer who served as chief archivist for its foreign operations, Vasili Mitrokhin became disillusioned with the Soviet system and its constant repression of dissidents at home and abroad. Determined to preserve the truth, he secretly compiled a detailed record of the agency's worldwide espionage network. The Sword and the Shield offers an unprecedented look into the KGB's top-secret activities. It is described by the FBI as "the most complete and extensive intelligence ever achieved from any source."

Supplementing this trove of KGB secrets with extensive research in other archives, published and unpublished, Christopher Andrew has written an extraordinary book which forces you to acknowledge that there was indeed an enemy - and that he was very much in our midst.
Revelations from The Sword and the Shield:

  • The massive role that the KGB played in the Cold War and the state-sanctioned paranoia behind it
  • The KGB's attempts to discredit J. Edgar Hoover, and their eavesdropping activities against Henry Kissinger
  • Details of secret radio and arms caches buried throughout Western Europe and the United States
  • The real identities of the KGB's most senior spies in Britain and the United States
  • The internal repression of dissidents within the Soviet Union, including the KGB's own most capable and best educated officers
    •
    ©1999 Christopher Andrew (P)16 9; 2000 HighBridge Company

    What members say

    Average Customer Ratings

    Overall

    • 4 out of 5 stars
    • 5 Stars
      35
    • 4 Stars
      29
    • 3 Stars
      22
    • 2 Stars
      9
    • 1 Stars
      1

    Performance

    • 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • 5 Stars
      21
    • 4 Stars
      17
    • 3 Stars
      7
    • 2 Stars
      0
    • 1 Stars
      0

    Story

    • 4 out of 5 stars
    • 5 Stars
      24
    • 4 Stars
      11
    • 3 Stars
      6
    • 2 Stars
      2
    • 1 Stars
      1
    Audible.com Reviews
    Amazon Reviews
    Sort by:
    • Overall
      5 out of 5 stars
    • Keyvan
    • los angeles, CA, USA
    • 04-26-10

    Enriching Book Astounishing Reading

    Great narrator, great story, but for those folks who suggested The Company is the same kind of book, I disagree. This book is fact base and everything is real. The Company is fiction and all made up. My only regret is this audiobook is not unabridged.
    In point of fact I think abridge book should be allowed unless the author himself cut it.

    5 of 5 people found this review helpful

    • Overall
      5 out of 5 stars

    Great History - Great Spy Story

    Vasili Mitrokhin was an archivist for the KGB. For several years, he reviewed files as they were moved to a new building. He began to secretly copy information from the files and take it home. Security was surprisingly lax and he became bold. Eventually, he had six crates of notes and quotes. After the fall of the Soviet Union, British intelligence exfiltrated him and his family in exchange for access to his files.

    In this book, he names names. Hundreds of names. For instance, he names an employee of M.W. Kellogg in Houston, whom no one ever suspected of being a Soviet agent. He names key members of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.

    But saying that he names names is understating the importance of this book.

    Beginning in the 1930's and continuing into the late 1980's, he describes Soviet tradecraft and the work of master spys, cutouts, agents, and persons compromised. For instance, the provides the Soviet side of the recuiment and running of the Kim Phily Five, the Alger Hiss matter, the Rosenbergs, etc.

    HE EVEN IDENTIFIES SASHA, a Soviet mole who did much damage (although the CIA's hunt for SASHA may have been even more damaging than Sasha's own work - and the skeptics amoung us question whether there was another Sasha).

    If this were fiction, it would be a pretty good book. As non-fiction, it is a must read for anyone who wants to know what really happened in the cold war and how close we came to losing to the Soviets.

    About 20% of the information in this book is incorporated into Robert Littel's novel, THE COMPANY.

    9 of 10 people found this review helpful

    • Overall
      5 out of 5 stars

    a must follow up to

    For anyone who loved "The Company" by Robert Littell. The sword and the shield is a must read/listen.

    A fine record of the other company.

    2 of 2 people found this review helpful

    • Overall
      3 out of 5 stars
    • Performance
      5 out of 5 stars
    • Story
      3 out of 5 stars

    If you are looking for Cold War and James Bond ...

    ... type stories, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for an accurate history of the KGB, then this is a solid book.

    • Overall
      5 out of 5 stars

    Exposed! The KGB was evil!

    Well. Here's a revelation. The KGB and it's predecessors was an instrument of terror in the hands of paranoid tyrants. The good information that they produced that indicated that the U.S was not interested in empire buiiding was discarded and messengers shot. The survivors then, with new understanding, painted the U.S. and its allies as greedy power hungry hegemonists intent on invading mother Russia and received medals. All of this from the KGB's own archives through the bravery and dedication to truth of one minor file clerk, Vasily Mitroken. This is a first rate read for anyone who survived the Fifties.

    3 of 6 people found this review helpful