Many books, fiction and nonfiction alike, purport to probe the inner workings of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Many attempt to create spine-tingling suspense or allege that America's civilian spy operation has run amok and been infested with rogues and criminals. Not that The Craft We Chose lacks suspense, harrowing encounters, or its own share of villains, but this book is different; it is a straightforward, honest, surprisingly captivating memoir by one of the CIA's most well-known and honored career officers. For more than three decades, Richard L. Holm worked in the agency's Directorate of Operations now the National Clandestine Service the component directly responsible for collecting human intelligence. His assignments took him to seven countries on three continents, and his travels added many more destinations. At almost every turn Holm encountered his share of dangerous characters and situations, including one that nearly ended his life before he turned 30. The Craft We Chose is more than a chronicle of those episodes. It also reveals Holm's private life, his roots and family, his courtship and marriage, and his four daughters, whom he affectionately calls his platoon.

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A career CIA officer, Dick Holm served in America's 'secret war' in Laos, then in 1965 was transferred to the Congo where he was injured in a plane crash and suffered appalling burns. This near-death experience had a profound effect on him, and after two painful years of recuperation he went to Hong Kong to run agents into China, then returned to CIA Headquarters as Chief of the Counter Terrorism Centre. In this role he played a key part in tracking down Carlos the Jackal, and when he was posted to Paris as Station Chief he participated in his arrest in the Sudan. Holm's work in Paris proved highly controversial when a French source became a double agent and compromised the CIA station, resulting in Holm's expulsion from France and his forced resignation from the Bureau. Two months later he was invited back to receive an official Medal of Commendation. Working under thirteen different heads of the CIA in theatres of operations across the world, Dick Holm's memoir is the eventful life of one of the CIA's most celebrated officers and diplomats.

This major collection contains all of Doris Lessing’s short fiction, other than the stories set in Africa, from the beginning of her career until now. Set in London, Paris, the south of France, the English countryside, these thirty-five stories reflect the themes that have always characterized Lessing’s work: the bedrock realities of marriage and other relationships between men and women; the crisis of the individual whose very psyche is threatened by a society unattuned to its own most dangerous qualities; the fate of women.

This first of the three volume series highlights the intricate relationship in the handloom industry between its culture and the various areas of sustainability. While there have been major disruptions in this age old industry, this volume presents the luxury and the entrepreneurship aspects to keep the industry moving ahead. The book contains seventeen chapters written by leading experts in the areas and discusses means to revive some of the cultures that are on the verge of closing/shutting down.

If we are to understand why the Xenonites cameto earth with such fury, we must understandwhat drove a Sheek Wanderer to the stars.Further, we must understand how the nation ofAtakala became so great a power, yet layundiscovered until the twenty-first century.Thus, we at Yzarc Industries have gathered the facts concerning these remarkable events, presenting them to the reader in this second of seven histories.In this book, you will meet the characters whoreally mattered in ages past, including:An unlucky amnesiac who wakes up six feet under.A disgruntled barbarian who loves to sack and pillage.A Hake laborer searching for lasting friendship and simple answers to the tough questions of life.A walking scarecrow who thinks he has those very same answers.A green chair that has a mind of its own.This novel picks up where the first left off, guiding the reader in a not quite historical, but both entertaining and moving tour of our galaxy.

You may be told perhaps that there is no good to be obtained from tales of fighting and bloodshed—that there is no moral to be drawn from such histories. Believe it not. War has its lessons as well as Peace. You will learn from tales like this that determination and enthusiasm can accomplish marvels, that true courage is generally accompanied by magnanimity and gentleness, and that if not in itself the very highest of virtues, it is the parent of almost all the others, since but few of them can be practiced without it. The courage of our forefathers has created the greatest empire in the world around a small and in itself insignificant island; if this empire is ever lost, it will be by the cowardice of their descendants. At no period of her history did England stand so high in the eyes of Europe as in the time whose events are recorded in this volume. A chivalrous king and an even more chivalrous prince had infected the whole people with their martial spirit, and the result was that their armies were for a time invincible, and the most astonishing successes were gained against numbers which would appear overwhelming. The victories of Cressy and Poitiers may be to some extent accounted for by superior generalship and discipline on the part of the conquerors; but this will not account for the great naval victory over the Spanish fleet off the coast of Sussex, a victory even more surprising and won against greater odds than was that gained in the same waters centuries later over the Spanish Armada. The historical facts of the story are all drawn from Froissart and other contemporary historians, as collated and compared by Mr. James in his carefully written history. They may therefore be relied upon as accurate in every important particular.