Title: Disciples

Author: Douglas Waller

Allen Dulles ran the OSS’s most successful spy operation against the Axis. Bill Casey organized dangerous missions to penetrate Nazi Germany. Bill Colby led OSS commando raids behind the lines in occupied France and Norway. Richard Helms mounted risky intelligence programs against the Russians in the ruins of Berlin.

Later they were among the most famous and controversial directors the CIA has ever had. Dulles launched the calamitous operation to land CIA-trained, anti-Castro guerrillas at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs. Helms was convicted of lying to Congress about the CIA’s effort to oust President Salvador Allende in Chile. Colby would become a pariah among the agency’s old hands for releasing to Congress what became known as the “Family Jewels” report on CIA misdeeds during the 1950’s, 1960’s and early 1970’s. Casey would nearly bring down the CIA–and Ronald Regan’s presidency–from the scheme to secretly supply Nicaragua’s contras with money raked off from the sale of arms to Iran for American hostage in Beirut.

Mining thousands of once-secret World War II documents and interviewing scores, Waller has written a worthy companion to Wild Bill Donovan, and given us a riveting spy story full of intrigue and historical insight.