cover image On the Run

On the Run

Philip Agee. L. Stuart, $19.95 (400pp) ISBN 978-0-8184-0419-1

Agee notes that someone recently asked him why the CIA hadn't ""done something'' to him. His answer (``Ah, but they have'') is elaborated in painful detail in this autobiography. Agee, a CIA operations officer from 1957 to 1968, resigned in disgust over the agency's connection with political repression in South America and wrote Inside the Company: CIA Diary, an expose that caused an international uproar, the echoes of which still reverberate. Here he recounts how he came to join the CIA, his growing disenchantment, the influence of the Cuban revolution on his decision to write Inside the Company and his anxiety-filled life of harassment and exile ever since. Charges that the agency has attempted to discredit himaccusing him of being a traitor, a drunk, a womanizer, a mental caseare backed up with details. It is an ugly story filled with emotion and suspense, and Agee makes no bones about his continued obsession with exposing questionable CIA activities and personnel. His U.S. passport revoked in 1979, Agee now lives in West Germany. 30,000 first printing; major ad/promo. (July 16)