This is the tale of one operations officer in America’s espionage service. It begins with the story about his imprisonment in a Japanese internment camp with his parents in the Philippines during World War II, and how that led him to serve his country at the height of the Cold War. Howard Phillips Hart served most of his 25 year career in South Asia and the Middle East. He was involved in the Iranian Revolution; planned, started, and led the CIA’s massive covert action programs against the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan; and directed CIA support for the ill-fated 1980 attempt to rescue the American Embassy hostages in Iran. Mr. Hart was the Founding Director of the CIA’s Crime and Counter-narcotics Center.
