Brought to you by authors Wallace and Melton, the same team who brought you “Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs, from Communism to Al-Qaeda “, “The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception” delves into an interesting era in American espionage history. It was 1953, and the flames were just beginning to rise on the Cold War. Looking for any edge, the CIA turned to magician John Mulholland to adapt his techniques of stealth and misdirection to the craft of espionage. He produced two illustrated manuals featuring a range of tricks from placing pills into drinks to stealing documents and avoiding detection. The classified manuals were believed to have been destroyed in 1973, but the authors discovered a copy in 2007 among recently declassified CIA archives. For fans of espionage this is a major coup as basic tradecraft skills go out fashion long before they go out of date.
“The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception” is available from Amazon or your local book seller.