Spies and Spooks: The (Mis)Adventures of the CIA

The Imperfectly Perfect Spook: E. Howard Hunt
Dulles' onetime personal assistant, Hunt was a key figure in the CIA — planning the Bay of Pigs misadventure and devising the coup that overthrew Guatemala's President Arbenz. He also wrote pseudonymous spy novels and was obsessed with national security. In 1970 he retired from the CIA out of frustration over policy and began working for the Nixon White House as one of its chief "plumbers," going after leakers. He was arrested and convicted for the Watergate burglary that eventually led to Nixon's resignation as President. Hunt would spend 33 bitter months in prison, complaining about how fellow conspirators were barely punished. He saw plots everywhere.

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