The world of Cold War espionage brings to mind images of secret conversations, shadowy document hand-offs, and late 20th-century technology, along with perhaps a certain besuited agent suavely asking for a martini at a bar somewhere. But the reality of being a Cold War spy isn't quite like that. Moreover, the most dangerous double agent in CIA history, the one who may well have caused the most deaths and wreaked the greatest havoc, was no James Bond. Instead, he was a man named Aldrich Ames.

Far from dazzling the agency, Ames took a muddled course through the CIA beginning in the 1960s, with occasional glowing evaluations marred by problems with alcohol abuse, financial worries, personal upsets, and lackluster performance. Though Ames did rise through the ranks and began to work with So

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