Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History

by Strobe Talbott, Leona P. Schecter, Jerrold L. Schecter

Release Date: May, 2002

Edition: Hardcover

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Poor sourcing, poor research

In the interests of honesty and fairness, I will state at the outset that my evaluation of this book is based solely on the several pages of the book devoted to the Vietnam War, since that is my one and only area of expertise. The information the Schecters' provide in other sections of the book on Soviet operations and agents in the West may be outstanding and exactly on target for all I know, but in light of what is contained in the pages devoted to Vietnam, I fear that is not the case. The entire section on Vietnam consisted of what are clearly anecdotal stories and rumors from Soviet sources. The only sourcing provided in the endnotes for any of the information in these pages is "confidential source," which is meaningless. The first anecdote in the section, about a Soviet missile officer who shot down three U.S. jets with one missile on 24 July 1965, captured and interrogated the pilots, and personally murdered one of them, is ludicrous. Both Soviet and Vietnamese records (publicly available) state clearly that Soviet missile personnel manned the launch sites that fired that day, which was the first day that surface-to-air missiles were used during the Vietnam War. However, if the Schecters had done even the most rudimentary research, they would have found that only ONE U.S. aircraft was shot down by surface-to-air missiles on 24 July 1965 day (the other two U.S. aircraft lost that day were hit over Laos, hundreds of miles from the surface-to-air missile sites), and that only two (not three) aircrewmen were lost that day. The fact that the Schecters did not even check the U.S. loss records, which are public and available on the internet and in books as well as in government archives, does not say much for their diligence, and it certainly calls into question just how reliable the rest of the information presented in this book really is.

Hidden agendas and secrets of the Cold War

Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History by historians Jerrold and Leona Schecter is an informed and informative examination of the hidden agendas and secrets of the Cold War, and an impressive study of the pervasive influence that Soviet intelligence operations exacted upon American politics, economics, and more, ranging from Pearl Harbor through Star Wars. An intriguing, compelling, articulate analysis, Sacred Secrets is highly recommended reading for students of Soviet and U.S. Cold War political history, international studies, cryptography, and intelligence operations.