The Book of Honor; Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA

Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 2000. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. viii, [2], 390 pages. Author's Note. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Ted Gup (born September 14, 1950) is a Professor for the Journalism Department in the Emerson College and a writer known for his work on government secrecy. He is the author of three books, including The Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA, which told the stories of previously unnamed CIA officers killed in the line of duty. Gup has been a prolific writer regarding doomsday scenarios and facilities to provide for continuity of government and the preservation of important assets of civilization, including the Mount Weather facility, as well as intelligence issues. He was also a 1980 recipient of the George Polk award in journalism. In the entrance of the CIA headquarters looms a huge marble wall into which seventy-one stars are carved-each representing an agent who has died in the line of duty. Official CIA records only name thirty-five of them, however. Undeterred by claims that revealing the identities of these "nameless stars" might compromise national security, Ted Gup sorted through thousands of documents and interviewed over 400 CIA officers in his attempt to bring their long-hidden stories to light. The result of this extraordinary work of investigation is a surprising glimpse at the real lives of secret agents, and an unprecedented history of the most compelling-and controversial-department of the US government.