Cassidy's Run: The Secret Spy War Over Nerve Gas

by David Wise

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Cassidy's Runis the riveting story of one of the best-kept secrets of the Cold War—an espionage operation mounted by Washington against the Soviet Union that ran for twenty-three years. At the highest levels of the government, its code name was Operation shocker. Lured by a double agent working for the United States, ten Russian spies, including a professor at the University of Minnesota, his wife, and a classic "sleeper" spy in New York City, were sent by Moscow to penetrate America's show more secrets. Two FBI agents were killed, and secret formulas were passed to the Russians in a dangerous ploy that could have spurred Moscow to create the world's most powerful nerve gas. Cassidy's Runtells this extraordinary true story for the first time, following a trail that leads from Washington to Moscow, with detours to Florida, Minnesota, and Mexico. Based on documents secret until now and scores of interviews in the United States and Russia, the book reveals that:  ¸         more than 4,500 pages of classified documents, including U.S. nerve gas formulas, were passed to the Soviet Union in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars  ¸         an "Armageddon code," a telephone call to a number in New York City, was to alert the sleeper spy to an impending nuclear attack—a warning he would transmit to the Soviets by radio signal from atop a rock in Central Park  ¸         two FBI agents were killed when their plane crashed during surveillance of one of the Soviet spies as he headed for the Canadian border  ¸         secret "drops" for microdots were set up by Moscow from New York to Florida to Washington More than a cloak-and-dagger tale,Cassidy's Runis the spellbinding story of one ordinary man, Sergeant Joe Cassidy, not trained as a spy, who suddenly found himself the FBI's secret weapon in a dangerous clandestine war. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CASSIDY'S RUN "Cassidy's Run shows, once again, that few writers know the ins and outs of the spy game like David Wise. . . his research is meticulous in this true story of espionage that reads like a thriller." —Dan Rather "The Master hsa done it again. David Wise, the best observer and chronicler of spies there is, has told another gripping story. This one comes from the cold war combat over nerve gas and is spookier than ever because it's all true." —Jim Lehrer show less

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18+ Works 1,250 Members
David Wise was born in Manhattan, New York on May 10, 1930. While attending Columbia College, he worked as a campus stringer for The New York Herald Tribune. He joined the Herald Tribune's staff in 1951 and later moved to Washington, where he covered politics and the Kennedy White House. He was named Washington bureau chief in 1963 and served in show more that role until the paper closed in 1966. He wrote several books with Thomas B. Ross including The U-2 Affair and The Invisible Government. His other nonfiction books included The Seven Million Dollar Spy and The Politics of Lying: Government Deception, Secrecy, and Power, which won a George Polk Award. He also wrote three spy novels including The Children's Game. He contributed to numerous magazines including Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, The New Republic, and Smithsonian. He was also an intelligence and national security commentator on CNN for six years. He died from pancreatic cancer on October 8, 2018 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Classifications

Genres
Nonfiction, History, Politics and Government
DDC/MDS
327.1247Society, Government, and CulturePolitical scienceInternational Relations: SpiesForeign policy and specific topics in international relationsEspionage and subversionIntelligence Gathering - Europe
LCC
E839.8 .W55History of the United StatesUnited StatesLater twentieth century, 1961-2000Political historyUn-American activities
BISAC

Statistics

Members
48
Popularity
623,745
Rating
(5.00)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
5
ASINs
1