'SAS Italian Job' by Damien Lewis, is a riveting tale of how a formidable force of partisans from various countries, under the leadership of SAS and SOE, sabotaged Nazi strongholds and killed formidable Nazi forces in Northern Italy.

The mission was essential for the Allied forces to continue their progress toward Berlin. Two British officers were parachuted behind enemy lines to establish a partisan force.

They did it with great success and managed to gather and control a rogue bunch of freedom fighters, even communists. A truly fascinating and inspiring leadership was the reason this was possible. They united the men.

Ingenious war tactics, bagpipes, bravery, brotherhood, leadership, sacrifice are just some of the words that comes to mind when I think of this story. These men wanted to help their brothers in arms more than themselves.

An exciting and well told story. Definitely not the last Damien Lewis book I'll listen to.

Edward T. Haslam's book is about a secret period with strange people in New Oreleans post World War II. Mary was one of the best cancer researchers in the world, but suddenly she was found dead - supposedly murdered.

Edward was raised in New Orleans and his father was a medical doctor who worked on a local hospital, which gave him early access to people within the medical research field. Ed's father knew Mary before she died. This leads him on a journey of finding out what happened to her.

What he exposes is the stuff nightmares are made of. At a local hospital, the one where his dad is working, doctors are doing biological experiments on monkeys - Mary being one of the leading doctors. It's all "hush hush" and intelligence agencies and other shady connections are involved. One of the big revelations in the book is Lee Harvey Oswald's connection to the experiments in New Orleans in 1963 shortly before the murder of JFK. Another big revelation is the scientific experiments with cancer, and the revelation that cancer is caused by a virus seemingly coming from a monkey experiment. The Polio vaccines distributed in the US pas WWII was allegedly containing a cancer-virus. Somehow or another dr. Mary's murder happens in the middle of this mess.

When the story is told the author tries to make sense of his revelations. He even speculates as what might have really happened on the day of the murder and why. Is it true? Is it connected to the murder of President John F. Kennedy?

I'm not sure but I recommend you give it a listen. Please let me know what you think.

Apparently, the story of Bohdan Stashynsky was an inspiration for a James Bond movie, 'The Man with the Golden Gun', starring Roger Moore. You can surely understand it when you read Serhii Plokhy's story of his life.

We are in the early era of the Cold War. Paranoia is on the rise on both sides, and mutual trust at near zero. The USSR wants to eliminate their political opponents abroad, and this is where Stashynsky becomes relevant. Stashynsky was a highly trained undercover assassin for the KGB. We know about him because he defected to The West in 1961 and told everything he knew to the Allied Intelligence agencies.

His targets were leading Ukranian anti-communists. The most notorious was Stepan Bandera, a fierce nationalist and hater of everything USSR. He is still relevant in Ukraine today. 

The method of assassination of both people was extraordinary and enlightened the West to the methods the USSR used to eradicate political enemies. The title provides you with a hint.

What Serhii does to well in this book is to get the reader inside the head of the undercover assassin. Stashynsky was under tremendous pressure. KGB is famous for using the family of their agents as leverage when they are abroad, and they the agents are kept under surveillance around the clock.

'The Man with the Poison Gun' is a great spy story, and I am looking forward to reading more books by the author.

Bonus: Here is a link to a Q & A session with the author Serhii Plokhy about his book.

Giles Milton has chosen an interesting theme for this book. What happened during the beginning of the Cold War with a special focus - rightly so - on Berlin. He does a fine job of changing perspective to the different parties involved, but in the end it's a story from the Allied perspective with people from the UK and USA as the main protagonists with USSR as the obvious antagonists.

We take off at the ending of WW2 when the race for Berlin sets in. The Russians are far ahead, but the Allied forces are confident they will make it. To the horror of the Berliners the Russians get there first, and rape and pillage the city with impunity.

When the British and Americans arrived, there was nothing left for them, so they had to start from scratch. The Russian soldiers had stripped Berlin for everything of value and sent the parts to Russia. The Russians also won the battle for territory in Berlin and secured the best parts. Basically, the Allied forces were walled in which became a factor later on during the tensions of the Berlin Blockade. 

To Rule Berlin, a kind of 'Quadrumvirate' was set up consisting of a leader from each of the four Allied countries occupying Berlin: USSR, USA, UK, and France. It quickly went haywire. They didn't trust each other, and suspicion and paranoia started to grow. Underground and unofficial actions against each other started to take place, and infiltrations were already well underway. PR campaigns started to spew out propaganda, and pieces were moving on the chessboard. Soon it was all done in public and the Cold War was underway exemplified by the Berlin Blockade.

The book is about one of the most interesting cities in one of the most interesting periods of modern times - and the people who was part of shaping the future. Recommended.

Smedley Butler was a fascinating person. A war hero turned pacifist. Who was he and why did he change in such a drastic way?

Jonathan M. Katz has done a wonderful job of answering these questions in a well written story. To do that he follows the trail of Butler's military career and meet some of the people affected by his military interventions. In between the stories from his travels, Katz unfolds the story of Butler's life. Things get intimate with the use of his letters. 

By following Butler's footsteps, Katz experience the aftermath of Butler's interventions. Butler wanted to fight for freedom and Honor but was used as a chess piece by big corporations and politicians. He started to feel like an oppressor rather than a liberator, and in the light of the aftermath, that is what he was. A pawn in a large game of chess.

You will meet people in The Philippines, Panama, Haiti, and China and listen to their point of view. I'm sure the insights of these people will make a remark on most Americans if they read the book. Most of these people has a deep love for the American experiment, but has also felt betrayed by their lies and conspiracies. They also have an educated insight into what American geopolitics are doing to the world and its people. The same insights that Smedley Butler realized and acted on.

I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.

Gary Webb was ridiculed, harassed, threatened, and finally killed because of his work on this book. He is a true American Hero in my opinion.

'Dark Alliance' is the story of how Gary Webb uncovered the CIA smuggling cocaine into the US and started the crack cocaine epidemic, to fund the Nicaraguan Contras fight against the Sandinistas without the approval of the US Congress.

Gary Webb was getting some unusual leads, and by kick-ass investigative work, he started unraveling the story of the decade - what we know today as the Iran-Contra affair, which involved the White House administration under Reagan in the 1980's. 

The amount of hypocrisy and cunning by the Reagan couple starting the so-called 'War on Drugs', while at the same time being the biggest kingpins in the US, makes me feel sick.

The book is extremely well researched and well written. It was an enjoyable reading experience, although the topic and exposed information is nefarious.

'Last witnesses' is an absolute masterpiece. I have never read anything like it, and I wept several times during the audiobook experience.

Svetlana Alexievich has interviewed people who were kids during WW2 about their memories and experiences during the war. The locations are known today as Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, The Baltics and parts of Russia.

It is a collection of stories about their experiences. These are kids' memories. Short stories of approximately 5 - 10 mins length each. 

You will learn about the absolute horrors of war and learn about the worst shades of human nature. Exploitation, starvation, rape, kidnapping, and murder. You will also learn about compassion, heartbreak, warmth, love, loss, hope, and despair. 

You will learn about the strength of women and kids - and a few men - who helped strangers even though they themselves had nothing.

You will learn how kids become orphans.

I will recommend this book to anyone. It is such an important work.

Candice Millard can write! This book was surprisingly good - especially the first half - considering I had no idea who James Garfield was.

You are being introduced to seemingly odd characters and some remarkable events in the beginning of the book, which all makes sense later on. Candice Millards description of the time leading up to - and including - the moment when Graham Bell made sound come through a wire for the first time in front of a public audience, is just so well written and very dramatic. At the same conference Joseph Lister tried to convince the American surgeons that disinfection was a life safer - literally. Though to no avail. He was on his way to change the world, and perhaps Garfield would have lived longer if the knowledge was believed to be true at the conference.

Then she turns her attention to Garfield and his upbringing. It was poor and without a father. His mother and older brother dedicated themselves to hard labor, so Garfield could get an education. He decided to get other experiences before finally going back to getting his higher education. Garfield was always modest and well-liked by his surroundings, and that is perhaps what made him President. According to Millard he didn't really want to post.

The assassination is described in detail, and so is the rest of Garfield's life.

Great book, and the audiobook experience was top notch as well.

John Perkins was one of them - an ECM: Economic Hit Man. Representing US foreign interests, he worked for large US corporations to convince third-world countries to 'cooperate' with US corporate interests. 

According to Perkins, the ECM are the first stage in a 'multi-stage rocket setup' with three stages.

The first stage is the Economic Hit Men. By any mean possible they try to corrupt the country's leaders. In case they are unsuccessful, the next stage is set in motion.

The second stage is the Jackals. They will try to assassinate the leader, or at least overthrow him by supporting his rivals, or staging a coup 'd'État. If they are unsuccessful the third and final stage is set in motion

The third and final stage is - you guessed it - military invasion.

Perkins tell the story on how he was persuaded into the work as a young man and provides various examples of his work. The recruiters know exactly what buttons to push based on each individual psychological profile. In Perkins case it was about money, wealth and helping the third-world countries. 

Slowly it occurred to Perkins that the job did not deliver what was promised, and at last he made a decision to write this book. 

David E. Stannard's book about the horrors of the American conquest is a story of America (North, Middle and South) you do not hear too often in the West. In the name of King, Country and the Holy God the colonizers pillaged and murdered men, women and children. Many nations and tribes were eradicated.

The book shows the readers aspects of both the Spanish and British conquests. In God's name these civilized people slaughtered the savages with great certainty in their right to do so.

Their cunning lies of peace-offers made the slaughter of Native American tribes easy, as most of the tribes were peaceful, and welcomed these strangers with peace and humility.

The book gives you a sense of what was lost because of the American conquest. Unimaginable wildlife, natural wealth beyond measure and a melting pot of indigenous tribes has been eradicated, and it is in some ways still taking place.

By reading this book you start to understand why some people do not want to celebrate Columbus and his buddies. They were the type of people you would never let near your kids.

Giles Milton has written an entertaining story of how sabotage became an invaluable part of Churchills strategies to win the 2nd World War. It's full of characters that might as well have been written by the Monty Python crew.

Cecil Clarke might have been the inspiration for Q in the Bond series. The genius of Clarke was to make use of material readily available during wartime to make weapons of sabotage. Not an easy undertaking.

William Fairbairn was a British soldier and police officer, who was a master in lethal hand-to-hand combat. His buddy, Eric Sykes, always mentioned to his students, that you finish them off by kicking them in the balls.

These guys - and a few other special people - trained the British Special Force, and engineered many weapons and methods of sabotage that helped the Allied forces defeat Germany. 

Churchill loved them and so do I.

'Stay Behind' organizations were organized by the Allied Forces in Europe after WW2. When NATO was established, they took over control and the concept has likely been expanded to the rest of the globe.

Very little is known about Stay Behind, and Operation Gladio was one of the first looks behind the curtain. Stay Behind consists of decision makers - government and private - and military/police assets working secretly underground. Very, very few people know about the organization, even people working with or employing these people are not aware of their real job.

The countries that were invaded by Germany during WW2 did not have a prepared underground organization to take action in case of a military invasion as it happened. That made military intelligence and sabotage very difficult, and it was the same case later behind the Iron Curtain. Stay Behind was created to be ready in case of a communist invasion of a Western European country.

Whatever it was in the beginning, it might have taken another form later - hijacked perhaps by the military industrial complex. Paul Wiliamson describes how various criminal organizations, the Vatican, corrupt politicians, the military and intelligence agencies, and shady banks are involved in large operations of money laundering and psychological warfare. It's not just an Italian affair, the trails are global.

The story of Oleg Gordievsky is the best spy story I know of - perhaps because he fell in love in Copenhagen, which is part of my Scandinavian brotherhood. It was not a woman that seduced Oleg, no, it was life itself. Everything was so different from behind the Iron Curtain, and people were friendly and seemed happy. There were no long lines to get a bit of bread and flour, they had what they needed and more. Oleg couldn't believe how clean the streets were compared to Moscow.

Oleg's first job abroad was at the Russian embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, officially as a diplomat. Unofficially as a KGB agent. Part of his job was to familiarize himself with the country in which he was living. The Danish intelligence agency had him under surveillance and noticed his interest in pornography, and that he had a general interest in things forbidden in the USSR. He was a probable candidate for a double agent.

Danish intelligence needed help, and The British Intelligence was selected as a right fit to approach Gordievsky. They were successful and Gordievsky is known as one of the top double agents working for the West during the Cold War era.

It was not easy being a double agent, and Oleg spent many years as a double undercover agent in various countries. You get an intimate relation to his emotions, and the weight he was carrying on his shoulders. In case he got caught his family would have been killed.

Oleg got a taste of freedom, and it was a taste he could not forget. 

The atrocities of King Leopold of Belgium are described in this book with a particular scope on Congo. You might have seen his name on a 'Most evil people' top 10 list on YouTube, and, according to this book, he is certainly a candidate. According to Wikipedia, the book title comes from a poem about King Leopold:

The hand-cutting was done by Leopold's soldiers to keep track of the people they had arrested or killed. Some kind of sadist dog tag. They had piles and piles of hands lying around for petty crimes or just basic accusations.

He was inspired by the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley's travels in Africa, and used Stanley to help him conquer the Free State of Congo. 

King Leopold used the vast natural riches and the enslaved people to work for free, to amass enormous wealth which was transferred to Belgium. The money was used to build extravagant architecture and for the Royal family's leisure. 

While these atrocities went on King Leopold masterfully manipulated the public in Europe to think he was helping the African savages. His crimes have been largely unknown for a century. 

You often hear the fantastic stories of Stanley's travels, but what he participated in is genocide and state-robbery on large scale. He was well rewarded for his participance and should be remembered for it.

This book is a masterpiece everyone interested in history should read.

The Quiet Americans by Scott Anderson focuses on the OSS during WW2 and the creation of the CIA during the early cold war era, by narrowing in on some of the most impactful people and events during its creation.

You will be taken to Berlin where Stay Behind operations start to take place but are thwarted each time by the KGB and their comrades. Many people are parachuted to their certain death, and it will haunt some of the operators to their own death. You'll also get insight into what the CIA were doing in Vietnam.

You will encounter many familiar people and events in this book if you are an espionage history nerd. It's a story of the creation of the CIA, and the power games that goes on behind the curtains. Time and again people's lives are put at risk with very low chances of success. When orders arrived from Washington, they were usually against the recommendations of the operators who had to send people into the arms of the KGB. 

The four CIA spies were very talented and ambitious, and it seems they tried to do the best for the US and their allies. People with emotions and empathy, which were also the people who - in the end - lost the power battles. Dulles became CIA Director rather than Wisner, and we know how the story goes when he came into power.