Robert Ames was a CIA agent that was killed during a car bombing and is now lost in history. But his work is still having positive repercussions today. Author Kai Bird book The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames seeks to remedy that. Bird remembers Ames as a young boy when he saw him play basketball and active in the neighborhood compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. This book follows Ames as he failed the Foreign Service exam and was recruited by the CIA. It tells how his favorable affability helped him befriend sources that helped the USA intelligence. In an age of drones and technology nothing beats on the ground recon. Bird makes the argument how those guilty of the 1983 Embassy and Beirut Marine Barrack bombings went unpunished and were brought to the US and relocated there. This was a seminal event and that it was the start of terrorism that lead up to the events of 9-11 and the threats today. His sources come from former CIA operatives and the CIA did not cooperate. Most of the archives are still classified and Bird had to dig deep to find the truth.A fascinated peek behind the world of the CIA and the recognition of an unsung hero. This book is a fascinating tale. Bird says it is good for any young person who would like to have a career in gathering intelligence. Asked if he feared being targeted and followed by the CIA, he does not worry about this and knows that his book was a story that needed to be documented. As to his next work, Bird may write a book on Reagan. I think that this book must be evaluated from 2 point-of-views. The first POV is the story, the second POV are the historical informations written in this book. Robert Ames lived really an interesting life. He was not a kind of "Action Jackson" spy. He was the opposite of it. But I guess that's exactly what a real spy should be - invisibile - nobody knows you are a spy, nobody would even guess you are a spy. Maybe because Ames was exactly that kind of spy is the narrating of his story quite boring. What is definitely not boring is the historical backround of the relations in the Near East area. For me that's the most added value of this book. You would see how the relations have developed till now. And also why the relations are how they are. Only because of the historical backround I gave 3 stars.
Some of it was hard going but enlightening story of the Middle East conflict.
—anhu1230
Fascinating insight into the real world of spy craft!
—camialv
Very interesting, especially in today's world.
—DacidEffect
Simply stated; a wonderful read. R
—njayy
