{"product_id":"9781849839297-dead-drop-pa","title":"Dead Drop","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTheTrue Story of Oleg Penkovsky and the Cold War's Most Dangerous Operation\u003cbr\u003eThe astonishing true Cold War story of how the CIA, MI6 and a Soviet agent saved the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe astonishing true story of how the CIA, MI6 and a Soviet defector saved the world in 1962, as told in the new film, \u003ci\u003eThe Courier\u003c\/i\u003e, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In August 1960, a Soviet colonel called \u003cb\u003eOleg Penkovsky\u003c\/b\u003e tried to make contact with the West. His first attempt was to approach two young American students in Moscow. He handed them a bulky envelope and pleaded with them to deliver it to the American embassy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e MI6 and the CIA came to believe Penkovsky was genuine and so the two agencies decided to run the operation jointly. It ran right through \u003cb\u003ethe Berlin crisis\u003c\/b\u003e - in an astonishing near-miss, Penkovsky learned that the Wall was going to be built four days before it happened but was unable to contact his handlers - and the \u003cb\u003eCuban Missile Crisis\u003c\/b\u003e, in which rocket manuals Penkovsky had handed over were crucial in determining what \u003cb\u003ePresident Khrushchev\u003c\/b\u003e was doing, and helped \u003cb\u003ePresident John F. Kennedy\u003c\/b\u003e and his team end the crisis and \u003cb\u003eavert a nuclear war\u003c\/b\u003e. Penkovsky, codenamed HERO, is widely seen as \u003cb\u003ethe most important spy of the Cold War\u003c\/b\u003e, and the CIA-MI6 joint operation to run him has never been bettered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But had the KGB already 'turned' Penkovsky and were the Russians making sure he saw the information they wanted him to see? If so, it may even have been possible that the whole Cuban Missile Crisis might have been a Russian deception operation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThrilling, evocative and hugely controversial, \u003ci\u003eDead Drop\u003c\/i\u003e blows apart some of the myths about one of the Cold War's most well-known operations as the world stood on the brink of nuclear destruction.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40502113468513,"sku":"9781849839297","price":6.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_31849411.jpg?v=1734636500","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781849839297-dead-drop-pa","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}