SPYCRAFT 101

Today Justin sits down with Peter Merlin. Peter is an author, historian, and college instructor. He received his Bachelor's of Science degree in Aeronautical Studies from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and has just completed his Master's degree in Aviation Management from Southern Illinois University. He's been a freelance writer and researcher for more than 30 years and has worked as a historian and archivist at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. He currently teaches several courses in aviation management at the school of aviation at Southern Illinois university. Peter has been researching and writing about Area 51 for many years, and his latest book represents the culmination of all his work to date. He has documented Area 51 from the beginning, when it was little more than a dry lake bed, through its growth as a CIA facility for development and testing of cutting edge aircraft and aviation technology.

Connect with Peter:
thexhunters.com
dreamlandresort.com
Check out the book, Dreamland, here.

https://a.co/d/fNR2b6K

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

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This week Justin replays one of his personal favorite episodes, number 26, when author and former special forces officer Greg Walker shared the little-known story of a David Baez, a green beret defector. Baez was a Nicaraguan national whose father was killed by U.S.-backed President Samosa after voicing his displeasure with inequalities that had risen under Samosa's rule. After immigrating the U.S. and joining the Army (and then Special Forces), Baez found himself in El Salvador watching the country he served try to re-institute the rule of a dynasty that had done personal harm to his own family. Baez defected to Nicaragua in support of Sandinista revolutionary forces--despite the danger it posed to his American brothers in arms.

Connect with Greg:
LinkedIn: Gregory Walker
Check out Part 1 of Greg's series on Baez, A defector in place: The strange and terrible saga of a Green Beret Sandinista, here.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/defector-place-strange-terrible-saga-green-beret-part-greg-walker/

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Today Justin sits down with repeat guest Tim Tate. Tim has worked as a documentary filmmaker and an investigative journalist for more than 40 years, and in that time has published 19 books and produced 80 documentaries. Some of the topics he's covered in the past include China's slave labor gulags, the worst child murderer in British history, and the orphans left behind after the Vietnam War. Today he discusses the topic of his latest book. It's the story of Peter Wright, MI5 senior counterintelligence officer who came to suspect in the 1960s that the agency's director, Roger Hollis, was himself a Soviet spy.

Check out Tim's first appearance on episode 30, A Counterintelligence Agent Turned Romanov Heir, here.

Connect with Tim:
timtate.co.uk
Twitter: @TimTateBooks
Check out To Catch a Spy here.

https://a.co/d/7TlKCyw

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

This week's guest is Dr. Lewis Sage-Passant. Lewis is a former British military intelligence officer and holds a PhD in Intelligence Studies. He's currently the global head of intelligence for one of Europe's most valuable companies, where he helps the firm navigate geopolitical, security, and industrial espionage risks. He also teaches courses in intelligence studies as an adjunct professor at Sciences Po Paris. His work has appeared in many publications and media organizations, including BBC, France 24, CNBC, The Harvard Business Review, GQ, and more. Today, he discusses hew new book exploring how private corporations use intelligence to understand, navigate, and sometimes shape the world around them.

Connect with Lewis:
encyclopediageopolitica.com
Linkedln: Lewis Sage-Passant, PhD
Twitter/X: @LSagePassant
Check out the book, Beyond States and Spies, now available in the UK or December 31 preorder in the US, here on Amazon or here with Edinburgh University Press.

https://a.co/d/6U1kNDh

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-beyond-states-and-spies.html

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

This week, Justin welcomes back Patrick K. O'Donnell. Patrick is a combat historian who has covered the war in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004, where he was armed and participated in the battle alongside the U.S. Marines. He's an expert on special operations units and irregular warfare. He's published 13 books so far on combat history, covering stories from the American Revolution, World War II, The Global War on Terror and more. He's also the author of The Brenner Assignment, which informed episode number 90 of the podcast with Jack Chappell, the son of OSS officer Howard Chappell, who was one of the primary subjects of Patrick's book.

You may remember Patrick from episode number 146  earlier this year. This is the first time an author has returned to the show to discuss the same book once again, and that's because The Unvanquished is so full of incredible stories that we barely scratched the surface the first time around.

Check out Patrick's first appearance on the podcast, Civil War Special Operations Units.

Connect with Patrick:
patrickkodonnell.com
Twitter/X: @combathistorian
The Unvanquished is available here.

https://www.amazon.com/Unvanquished-Lincolns-Special-Americas-Operations/dp/080216286X

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Today Justin talks with Norman Ohler. Norman is a best selling novelist, a journalist, and a screenwriter. He's written three novels, which comprise the City Trilogy, and while working in the West Bank in 2004, he interviewed Yasser Arafat in what turned out to be the final interview of his life before he passed away in November of that year. He's also the author of the non fiction book Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany, published in English in 2016. In this episode he discusses his newest book, Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age, which was published earlier this year. Norman built on his previous research here to cover post-war efforts to control narcotics in occupied Germany and the rise of psychedelic drugs, both within the populace and as potential tools for interrogation and mind control by the world's intelligence agencies.

Connect with Norman:
normanohler.com
IG: @normanohler
Check out Tripped here.

https://amzn.to/3Nshgw5

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

This week Justin sits down with Craig Unger. Craig is a journalist and the author of eight books. He's a graduate of Harvard University, where he worked as an editor for The Harvard Crimson. He's written articles which have appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Esquire, and other publications. He also served as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, where he covered national security and foreign affairs for more than 15 years. He's here today to discuss his newest book, Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House, which is available now. It's the story of the October Surprise, a long-rumored secret campaign to delay the release of American hostages in Iran until after Ronald Reagan successfully won the 1980 presidential election.

Connect with Craig:
craigunger.com
Twittwer/X: @craigunger
Check out Den of Spies here.

https://a.co/d/29SpRog

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

This week Justin talks with Caleb Daniels. Caleb is a lifelong fan of the James Bond films and novels, as well as a firearms enthusiast from Kansas City, Missouri. For seven years, he worked in the firearms industry. In 2020, he started the website and social media pages titled Commando Bond, which are a passion project of his to bridge the gap between pop culture and the world of firearms by analyzing how to live like James Bond from his daily carry to his wardrobe and lifestyle.Todya he discusses his book, Licensed Troubleshooter: The Guns of James Bond, which is available for pre order now from Headstamp Publishing. Caleb has spent years researching all the firearms that appeared in the Bond books and films, and is now finally sharing that research with us.

Connect with Caleb:
IG: @CommandoBond
YouTube: @CommandBond
YouTube: @Steel-and-Style
Check out presale for the book, Licensed Troubleshooter, here.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/licensed-troubleshooter?ref=1oee53

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Today Justin sits down with Vladimir McMillin. Vlad was born in Moscow and worked for 20 years for the TASS Russian news agency as a sports reporter. He immigrated to the United States in 1990 and has lived here since then. At a very young age, Vlad realized that there was something different about his family, because they were the only family named McMillin in all of Russia. Vlad's father was James McMillan, a former U.S. Army NCO stationed at the American Embassy in Moscow in the late 1940s. At the end of his tour, rather than come home, he decided to defect to remain in Moscow with his new wife. Vlad was born two years later. He's here to discuss the story of his father's service at the U.S. Embassy, his shocking decision to defect, and how he created a new family and built a life for himself in the Soviet Union. It's also the story of just what it cost him to never be able to go home again.

Connect with Vlad:
Facebook: Vladimir McMillin

Check out the book, Stationed in Moscow ... for Good, here.

https://a.co/d/2uQbuxs

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

Today Justin talks with Dr. Paul McGarr. Paul is a researcher, lecturer, and author who has focused particularly on security and intelligence interventions by the U.S. and U.K. governments into the global south. He's published more than two dozen articles in professional journals over the past 15 years and teaches several courses on intelligence and diplomacy at King's College London. He is also a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society.  He's here to discuss the story of the often overlooked history of intelligence, espionage, and covert operations which took place in India during the Cold War, as well as how those events shaped India's place in the world today.

Connect with Paul:
[email protected]
Twitter/X: @Paul_McGarr
LinkedIn: Paul McGarr
Check out the book, Spying in South Asia, here.

https://a.co/d/9AFbtZA

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show