On Sale: Aug 29, 2000
Page Count: 736 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN-13: 9780465010035

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The Sword and the Shield is based on one of the most extraordinary intelligence coups of recent times: a secret archive of top-level KGB documents smuggled out of the Soviet Union which the FBI has described, after close examination, as the “most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source.” Its presence in the West represents a catastrophic hemorrhage of the KGB’s secrets and reveals for the first time the full extent of its worldwide network. Vasili Mitrokhin, a secret dissident who worked in the KGB archive, smuggled out copies of its most highly classified files every day for twelve years. In 1992, a U.S. ally succeeded in exfiltrating the KGB officer and his entire archive out of Moscow. The archive covers the entire period from the Bolshevik Revolution to the 1980s and includes revelations concerning almost every country in the world. But the KGB’s main target, of course, was the United States. Though there is top-secret material on almost every country in the world, the United States is at the top of the list. As well as containing many fascinating revelations, this is a major contribution to the secret history of the twentieth century. Among the topics and revelations explored are: The KGB’s covert operations in the United States and throughout the West, some of which remain dangerous today. KGB files on Oswald and the JFK assassination that Boris Yeltsin almost certainly has no intention of showing President Clinton. The KGB’s attempts to discredit civil rights leader in the 1960s, including its infiltration of the inner circle of a key leader. The KGB’s use of radio intercept posts in New York and Washington, D.C., in the 1970s to intercept high-level U.S. government communications. The KGB’s attempts to steal technological secrets from major U.S. aerospace and technology corporations. KGB covert operations against former President Ronald Reagan, which began five years before he became president. KGB spies who successfully posed as U.S. citizens under a series of ingenious disguises, including several who attained access to the upper echelons of New York society.

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A New York Times Bestseller
"Deliciously erudite."
New York Times
"The Sword and the Shield will stand as an indispensable reference work on Soviet espionage for years to come."
Washington Post
"A sweeping, densely documented history of the KGB...Thanks to Comrade Mitrokhin, the KGB and most of those who spied for it have been stripped naked."
New York Times Book Review
"Stranger than fiction...Afficionados of espionage will be rummaging through this enormously detailed book for years."
New Republic
"This book is asounding...Every page brims with the plots for a dozen movens and Robert Ludlum thrillers. Thanks to what they have done, no history of the last half of the Cold War can be written the same way again."
Los Angeles Times Book Review
"The most important book ever written on the subject...A monumental volume."
Washington Times

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Christopher Andrew

About the Author

Christopher Andrew is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Cambridge University. In addition to The Sword and the Shield, his previous books include Her Majesty’s Secret Service, KGB, and For the President’s Eyes Only. He lives in Cambridge, England.

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Christopher Andrew

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