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    The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
    The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
    The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare

    Written by John Lisle

    Narrated by Pete Cross

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    "In this oddly entertaining audiobook, narrator Pete Cross takes listeners through the many experiments and devices created by the R&D branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WWII... Listeners will be both transfixed and horrified by the decisions weighed, and taken." - AudioFile Magazine

    John Lisle reveals the untold story of the OSS Research and Development Branch—The Dirty Tricks Department—and its role in World War II.

    In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. When he arrived, he was led to a barren room where he waited to meet the man who had summoned him. After a disconcerting amount of time, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the OSS, walked in the door. “You know your Sherlock Holmes, of course,” Donovan said as an introduction. “Professor Moriarty is the man I want for my staff…I think you’re it.”

    Following this life-changing encounter, Lovell became the head of a secret group of scientists who developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. Their inventions included bat bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, and camouflaged explosives. Moreover, they forged documents for undercover agents, plotted the assassination of foreign leaders, and performed truth drug experiments on unsuspecting subjects.

    Based on extensive archival research and personal interviews, The Dirty Tricks Department tells the story of these scheming scientists, explores the moral dilemmas that they faced, and reveals their dark legacy of directly inspiring the most infamous program in CIA history: MKULTRA.

    A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateMar 7, 2023
    ISBN9781250880703
    Author

    John Lisle

    JOHN LISLE has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas, where he is now a professor of the history of science. His first book, The Dirty Tricks Department, tells the story of the scientists who developed secret weapons, documents, and disguises for the OSS during World War II. He has received research and writing awards from the National Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Physics, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His work has been published in Skeptic, Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, and elsewhere.

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    • 5/5
      Great book very informative thank you for writing this