"The biggest surprise in Waller’s lively biography of Frank Wisner…is how stunningly naïve U.S. covert and martial operations have been at times. As Waller shows, Wisner’s tenure provides one of the harsher lessons of the world of espionage: What appears to be a success at the time may not prove so over the long run." — The New York Times
“Was the earlier, swashbuckling CIA a more successful enterprise than its present, decidedly less picturesque incarnation? In The Determined Spy Douglas Waller, a historian and journalist, investigates that question by chronicling, in considerable detail, the ‘turbulent’ life of Frank Gardiner Wisner.” —Wall Street Journal
"Waller offers us a picture of a postwar America that felt it had the power, and the right, to craft the rest of the world to its liking." —The Nation
“’The Determined Spy’ is a serious book, a study of American covert power and its lasting effects on those who attempted to wield it, as well as on the world at large.” —The Guardian
"During WWII, Frank Wisner worked for the OSS and stayed in the intelligence community as a founding member of the CIA, where he was the head of the clandestine service... Douglas Waller’s sweeping biography offers rich historical context and a nuanced portrait of the man and the agency." —Arlington Magazine
"The most powerful people in Washington, D.C. are oftentimes not the ones you hear about. In this fascinating and deeply researched biography of the CIA bigwif Frank Wisner, Douglas Waller uncovers a trove of mid-century secrets that help explain the world we’re living in today, and how a man who most people have never known about shaped it. Devour the book and then join us in daydreaming about casting the inevitable biopic." —Town & Country
“Douglas Waller’s ‘The Determined Spy’ is not only an excellent history of the early CIA’s covert action operations but also a human drama of a central figure in that history plagued by a crippling mental disorder… The comprehensive biography of Wisner and history of the OSS and early CIA covert action are woven into a compelling narrative, richly supported by Waller’s exhaustive research and spiced with anecdotes from a wealth of sources.”—Cipher Brief (Four Trench Coats)
"A sprawling and detailed biography of Frank Wisner, a CIA pioneer who played a pivotal role in shaping the United States’ clandestine operations during the Cold War. The text’s originality lies in its detailed portrayal of the rise and fall of Wisner’s brilliant career plus his personal struggles with mental illness, providing a nuanced exploration of his contributions to espionage and psychological warfare... An excellent biographical history for anyone interested in Cold War history and the CIA’s formative years and those who appreciate the complexities of espionage and its human cost." —Library Journal
“In this sweeping, immersive, and full-bodied study, journalist Waller, who authored a 2011, biography of OSS founder Wild Bill Donovan, turns to another central figure in American spycraft, Frank Wisner.” —Booklist (Starred Review)
"In this fascinating and deeply researched biography of the CIA bigwif Frank Wisner, Douglas Waller uncovers a trove of mid-century secrets that help explain the world we’re living in today, and how a man who most people have never known about shaped it." —Town & Country
"A revealing look at the early history of a spy agency with a decidedly checkered past." —Kirkus
“In The Determined Spy, Douglas Waller does an admirable job of piecing together long hidden and very forbidden secrets, among them development of the notorious MKUltra mind-bending drugs intended to create human robots. For more than a decade, during the coldest days of the spy war with Moscow, Frank Wisner ran the CIA’s most secret department as deputy director of plans. For spy-readers, Waller’s new book is a wonderful follow-on to his earlier book on the founder of the OSS, Wild Bill Donovan.” —James Bamford, national bestselling author of The Puzzle Palace, Body of Secrets, and SpyFail
"Secret agents, soaring ideals, coup plots and intelligence disasters — all of it runs through Douglas Waller’s remarkable biography of CIA pioneer Frank Wisner. This is a tale of a shadow warrior at the dawn of the Cold War who fervently fought for freedom then tragically succumbed to personal demons." —David E. Hoffman, national bestselling author of The Billion Dollar Spy
"Unknown to the public, Frank Wisner was one of the most powerful men in the world during the early days of the Cold War. He ran covert actions for the CIA when the spy agency was at the peak of its ambition. That Wisner ended up in a mental hospital and later died by suicide was a fascinating and profound tragedy. A thorough and fair-minded historian, Doug Waller reveals the whole story, in gripping detail, and he tells it brilliantly." —Evan Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of The Very Best Men and The Road to Surrender
“Thanks to an illustrious career of tracking the intelligence world, there are few who write about the CIA with as much authority as Douglas Waller and as much understanding of the human beings involved. In The Determined Spy, he deftly lays out the challenges, the compromises and the controversies of the CIA, but also the heavy personal cost to one of its early and most powerful leaders, Frank Wisner. With sensitivity but also admirable rigor, Waller reveals the story of a flawed man who fought the Cold War in the shadows with everything he had but was consumed by his own demons. A must for students of spying.”—Sonia Purnell, author of Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue
03/21/2025
Waller (Lincoln's Spies: Their Secret War To Save a Nation) offers a sprawling and detailed biography of Frank Wisner, a CIA pioneer who played a pivotal role in shaping the United States' clandestine operations during the Cold War. The text's originality lies in its detailed portrayal of the rise and fall of Wisner's brilliant career plus his personal struggles with mental illness, providing a nuanced exploration of his contributions to espionage and psychological warfare. While illustrations are not a central focus, the 16-page photo insert effectively supports the narrative. The fascinating subject offers insights into the CIA's early years and Wisner's role in shaping its covert operations. This book is an excellent biographical history for anyone interested in Cold War history and the CIA's formative years and those who appreciate the complexities of espionage and its human cost. VERDICT With its richly detailed historical context, this biography will entertain readers seeking a deeper understanding of the Cold War era.—Lawrence Mello
2025-02-15
Comprehensive life of a troubled—and often troubling—founder of the CIA.
Espionage writer Waller’s long narrative begins at the beginning of Frank Wisner’s end: a nervous breakdown culminating in an intervention by three friends in the national security game and a hospitalization for “a complete rest.” Wisner would never quite recover, and he ended his own life after leaving the CIA under duress. Interestingly, Waller notes, the CIA all but expected its field agents to crack up, drink heavily, and require therapy, so it came as no surprise that the agency’s “clandestine service chief was seriously ill.” Wisner had the kind of imagination necessary for his job: He helped set up MKUltra, part of a program comprising scores of top-secret projects, this one involving dosing human subjects with LSD. Recruited into military intelligence during World War II, he saw the work of Soviet intelligence agents up close, which converted him to an implacable anti-communist, fully committed to the Western cause in the Cold War. This commitment played out in part by Wisner’s insistence on hiring former Nazis to spy in the Soviet occupation zone, even as Wisner himself spied on French and British allies, discovering, among other things, that the French were also putting Nazi intelligence veterans to work. After the war Wisner recruited news agencies and film studios to such projects as a conspicuously anti-Stalinist animated version of George Orwell’sAnimal Farm. Students of modern intelligence and its political discontents will find an odd continuity in the CIA’s being the target of a jealous J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, focused especially on rooting out gay agents, while Wisner fell afoul of Joseph McCarthy, even as he was spending his hours organizing such things as an “assassination capability” and executing mischief all over the world.
A revealing look at the early history of a spy agency with a decidedly checkered past.
