Synopses & Reviews
The episode of the opportunistic valet of Britain's ambassador to neutral Turkey during World War II--dubbed "Cicero" for the eloquence of the top-secret material he appropriated from his employer Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen and sold to the Nazis--is a staple of intelligence lore. Yet this remarkable and sometimes comical story has often been recounted with little regard for the actual facts, most prominently in the popular film Five Fingers. Now, historian and former intelligence officer Richard Wires presents the first full and objective account of the Cicero spy episode, offering closure to past discrepancies and credible solutions to remaining mysteries. Copiously documented, The Cicero Spy Affair provides readers with the true chronology of events and places them in an international context. It is a story set in the hotbed of intrigue that was wartime Turkey, replete with a dramatic car chase, a series of colorful mistresses ever loyal to their lover the spy, and an old-school British ambassador whose documents are photographed at night as he plays the piano in the drawing room and/or slips into a sleeping pill-induced slumber.
Review
...this account of the Cicero spy affair is a very good read by all standards.The Historian
Review
Wartime spying is one of the most intriguing areas in the Historiography of World War II, and Wires has given us the best account yet of the remarkable espionage career of Elyesa Bazna, a valet who in 1943-44 microfilmed dozens of top-secret papers belonging to the unsuspecting British Ambassador to Turkey....This is a great tale, all the more so because it is true. Recommended for general collections and those strong in World War II studies.Library Journal
Review
A thrilling plunge into the world of the legendary WWII spy code-name "Cicero," a shadowy figure whose mysteries have challenged the best efforts of expert intelligence officers, historians, and journalists....A great true spy adventure full of dramatic suspense. Wires has done exhaustive research in discovering what is known today, despite the web of lies and false clues of a master spy operating in the guise of a faithful servant.Kirkus Reviews
Review
Wires is superb, with research as definitive as a field riddled with intentionally misleading sources will permit, with analysis that asks all of the right and important questions, and with lively, cool prose that retains the drama inherent in the story without a hint of exaggeration. This book, which appears in David Kahn's series, Perspectives on Intelligence History, is a model for the field...Time and again Wires presents the evidence, weighs it with care, and gives us his own considered conclusions. Wires no doubt is helped in his balancing act by having degreed in European history and in law, and having served in southern Germany in the Counter-Intelligence Corps, as well as having lived in London, but his best ally is a sturdy commonsense. The result is an astute, sensible, very readable book that is unlikely ever to be overtaken by the work of others...a fine book: were that there were more like it in this crowded and often murky field.Albion
Review
The story of the most famous spy of the century--Cicero--has long been haunted by mysteries. Was he a double agent? What role did the long-legged secretary play? What effect did his intelligence have? Now Richard Wires, exploiting fresh scholarly sources, exhausting every aspect, and examining them with a critical eye, takes us to the heart of the Cicero affair--once and for all.David Kahn, author of Hitler's Spies
Review
[T]his book is far more than just an overview-reaching some conclusions previously unreached....The Cicero Spy Affair is scholarly research presented in exciting and concise fashion. You won't be able to read it without learning something. Or learning a lot. You'll find it hard to put down.The Star Press
Review
This is a briliantly researched and reconstructed piece of history. Both the text itself and the notes let us into details and side issues, such as the example of Moyzisch's assistant secretary who turned out to be a spy for the Americans. There is a detailed analysis of the complex Turkish situation. The dramatis personae are well characterized as to personality and motivation. The shadow war of intelligence in World War II is crowded with spies on all sides and there is a rich literature published especially in England about the subject. This book deserves a place of honour among them. It clarifies for the first time the story of the so-called "spy of the century," "the highest paid spy," the man codenamed, unknown to him at the time, Cicero.International Social Science Review
Review
A comprehensively thorough yet absorbingly readable account of a major episode in World War II espionage. Richard Wires provides a delectable feast for scholars, practitioners, and spy buffs alike: vast research treated with expert feel, cogent judgment, intriguing presentation. So close to definitive that it may never be superseded.H.Bradford Westerfield, Yale University
Table of Contents
The "Notorious" Case
Turkey and the Powers
The Volunteer Spy
Selling the Secrets
Germany's Intelligence Labyrinth
Questions and Doubts in Berlin
Operation Bernhard
Cicero's Outstanding Period
The Contest for Turkey
Searching for an Agent
Cicero's Last Achievements
An American Spy
Denouement and Aftermath
The Affair in Retrospect
Filmography
Selected Bibliography
Index