Death of The Perfect Spy

The untold story of the most valuable Russian informant -- and how he was betrayed by Aldrich Ames

They called him by fanciful code names -- Top Hat, Bourbon, Donald, Roam -- and on the days when his latest cache of secrets would arrive at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, a CIA officer says, "it was like Christmas." There was something for everyone. The names of four U.S. military officers working as spies for the Soviet Union. Hard evidence of Beijing's deepening animus toward Moscow, which President Nixon exploited to forge his 1972 opening to China. Technical data on Soviet-made antitank missiles, which allowed U.S. forces, years later, to defeat those weapons when they were employed by Iraq during...

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