Don Whitehead (1908–1981)

This was an interesting book. The history of the FBI is well-told and while Whitehead is focused on a decidedly pro-FBI bias, he's not so biased that the story rings false. The various cases he includes as examples are well chosen and almost as interesting as a Criminal Minds plot. And the way the intelligence portion of the US government has changed over the years is particularly interesting. It is easy to get the impression that the current agencies have always been and will always be in place with their current jurisdictions, but clearly they have changed a lot over the years.
This book was written during the Cold War, and was published in the late 50's, when the Red Scare had not yet cooled and given way to more clear thinking and sense, so the last few chapters on the horrific dangers of communism (and I suspect that Whitehead did not really understand the socioeconomic theory of communism at all, just the Russian and Chinese Communist party activities) make sense, even if it is hard to imagine being that scared of communism now. But, substitute 'Islam' for 'communism' in his concluding chapters and they read like the phobic nonsense behind recent anti-Islamic sentiments.… (altro)