Bøger af Ann Hagedorn

Se infiltró en EstadosUnidos. Engañó a Oppenhiemer. Extrajo el secreto máspeligroso de todos los tiempos.Aunque nació en Iowa en 1913, George Koval vivió por ocho años en la URSS, lugar en el que se crio bajo el yugo de la ideología soviética. Sus cualidades lo convertían en el candidato ideal para el Ejército Rojo: una afición al beisbol, una doble nacionalidad y una mente brillante.Con el comienzo de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, la inteligencia rusa lo reclutó con el objetivo de que se infiltrara en el Proyecto Manhattan, el programa supersecreto estadounidense para la creación de armas nucleares.Su paso por la Universidad de Columbia, unas cuantas mentiras en su expediente y una buena nota en la Prueba de Clasificación del Ejército de Estados Unidos le valieron un lugar como matemático en dicho proyecto. Fue así que, ágil, silencioso y aparentemente inofensivo, Delmar (el nombre en código de Koval) extrajo el secreto más peligroso de todos los tiempos para dárselo a Moscú la bomba atómica.Una vez cumplida la misión de filtrar la investigación del físico Robert Oppenheimer, el «padre de la bomba atómica», Koval abandonó la vida que construyó por años. Nunca imaginó que sus actos ocasionarían la carrera armamentista entre Estados Unidos y Rusia, la cual pondría en riesgo al mundo entero durante la Guerra Fría.

The urgent truth about the privatization of America’s national security that exposes where this industry came from, how it operates, where it’s heading—and why we should be concerned: “A brisk, disturbing account” (Kirkus Reviews).Thirty years ago there were no private military and security companies (PMSCs); there were only mercenaries. Now the PMSCs are a bona-fide industry, an indispensable part of American foreign and military policy. PMSCs, such as the former Blackwater, assist US forces in combat operations and replace them after the military withdraws from combat zones; they guard our embassies; they play key roles in US counterterrorism strategies; and Homeland Security depends on them. Their services include maritime security, police training, drone operations, cyber security, and intelligence analysis (as Edward Snowden has famously revealed). Even the United Nations employs them. When did this happen? The turning point came when the US found itself in a prolonged war with Iraq, but without adequate forces. So the Bush Administration turned to the PMSCs to fill the gap. Private contractors and subcontractors eventually exceeded the traditional troops. The industry has never scaled back. PMSCs are an industry as essential as they are ubiquitous. Ann Hagedorn penetrates the mystery surrounding them, and her account will inspire a national dialogue about a little-known international industry on which our security rests. “The strength of The Invisible Soldiers is the impressive depth of Hagedorn’s reporting: copious interviews, generous use of sources, and a compelling narrative…The Invisible Soldiers also reports on the people behind these private companies, some of whom are seemingly the stuff of fiction” (Los Angeles Times).

Written with the sweep of an epic novel and grounded in extensive research into contemporary documents, Savage Peace is a striking portrait of American democracy under stress. It is the surprising story of America in the year 1919. In the aftermath of an unprecedented worldwide war and a flu pandemic, Americans began the year full of hope, expecting to reap the benefits of peace. But instead, the fear of terrorism filled their days. Bolshevism was the new menace, and the federal government, utilizing a vast network of domestic spies, began to watch anyone deemed suspicious. A young lawyer named J. Edgar Hoover headed a brand-new intelligence division of the Bureau of Investigation (later to become the FBI). Bombs exploded on the doorstep of the attorney general''s home in Washington, D.C., and thirty-six parcels containing bombs were discovered at post offices across the country. Poet and journalist Carl Sandburg, recently returned from abroad with a trunk full of Bolshevik literature, was detained in New York, his trunk seized. A twenty-one-year-old Russian girl living in New York was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for protesting U.S. intervention in Arctic Russia, where thousands of American soldiers remained after the Armistice, ostensibly to guard supplies but in reality to join a British force meant to be a warning to the new Bolshevik government. In 1919, wartime legislation intended to curb criticism of the government was extended and even strengthened. Labor strife was a daily occurrence. And decorated African-American soldiers, returning home to claim the democracy for which they had risked their lives, were badly disappointed. Lynchings continued, race riots would erupt in twenty-six cities before the year ended, and secret agents from the government''s "Negro Subversion" unit routinely shadowed outspoken African-Americans. Adding a vivid human drama to the greater historical narrative, Savage Peace brings 1919 alive through the people who played a major role in making the year so remarkable. Among them are William Monroe Trotter, who tried to put democracy for African-Americans on the agenda at the Paris peace talks; Supreme Court associate justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who struggled to find a balance between free speech and legitimate government restrictions for reasons of national security, producing a memorable decision for the future of free speech in America; and journalist Ray Stannard Baker, confidant of President Woodrow Wilson, who watched carefully as Wilson''s idealism crumbled and wrote the best accounts we have of the president''s frustration and disappointment. Weaving together the stories of a panoramic cast of characters, from Albert Einstein to Helen Keller, Ann Hagedorn brilliantly illuminates America at a pivotal moment.