Details

Edition

First edition.

Description

x, 338 pages, [8] pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages [263]-326) and index.

Contents

Donovan's Dragoons -- Professor Moriarty -- The Sandeman Club -- Division 19 Destruction -- Kill or Be Killed -- Psychological Warfare -- Detachment 101 -- Target Heavy Water -- Pursuit of the Mastodon -- The Heisenberg Uncertainty -- The Documents Division -- The Camouflage Division -- Undercover Missions -- Biological Warfare -- Chemical Warfare -- Truth Drugs -- Lovell's Twilight -- A Legacy of Lessons.

Summary

"John Lisle reveals the untold story of the OSS Research and Development Branch--The Dirty Tricks Department--and its role in World War II. In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. When he arrived, he was led to a barren room where he waited to meet the man who had summoned him. After a disconcerting amount of time, William "Wild Bill" Donovan, the head of the OSS, walked in the door. "You know you're Sherlock Holmes, of course," Donovan said as an introduction. "Professor Moriarty is the man I want for my staff...I think you're it." Following this life-changing encounter, Lovell became the head of a secret group of scientists who developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. Their inventions included bat bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, and camouflaged explosives. Moreover, they forged documents for undercover agents, plotted the assassination of foreign leaders, and performed truth drug experiments on unsuspecting subjects. Based on extensive archival research and personal interviews, The Dirty Tricks Department tells the story of these scheming scientists, explores the moral dilemmas that they faced, and reveals their dark legacy of directly inspiring the most infamous program in CIA history: MKULTRA."-- Provided by publisher.

Subject

United States. Office of Strategic Services. Research and Development Branch -- History.

Lovell, Stanley P. -- Influence.

United States. Office of Strategic Services -- Officials and employees -- Biography.

Intelligence service -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

United States. Central Intelligence Agency -- History -- 20th century.

Espionage, American -- History -- 20th century.

Project MKULTRA.

HISTORY / World.

Project MKULTRA.

United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

United States. Office of Strategic Services.

United States. Office of Strategic Services. Research and Development Branch.

Employees.

Espionage, American.

Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)

Intelligence service.

United States.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Genre/Form

Biographies.

History.

Biographies.

Added Title

Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the masterminds of World War II secret warfare

ISBN

9781250280244 (hardcover)

1250280249 (hardcover)