The CIA Book Club by Charlie English

After the end of WWII Russia exercised its influence on surrounding Eastern European countries to become the USSR.  The US waged a decades long "cold war" to try to undermine communist influence and power of the USSR. One area they targeted especially was Poland because in some ways the Polish people had resisted the iron grip of the USSR more than other countries. They did this by supporting those who published and distributed printed materials that were banned by the communist regime. This book chronicles the efforts of the CIA to get books and printing materials into Poland and follows the lives of key Polish operatives that championed freedom of the press at great personal risk. The author suggests that even though the cost of supporting clandestine printing and distributing efforts in Poland was much less costly than some of the USA's more overt Cold War anti-communist efforts, it was key to the eventual downfall of the USSR and liberation of Poland. 

This is a new nonfiction that has been getting a lot of attention.  It was interesting for me to read it because much of the action of the account happens in the 1980's, and I remember some of the events, especially those related to Lech Walesa.  I remember the controversy about him in the US, some saying he was a hero, and other that he was just a terrorist. This book really opened my mind about the kinds of propaganda campaigns the CIA conducts in other countries, and how they do it through intermediaries so as to not appear to be doing it. It made me wonder what kinds of similar efforts they are conducting now.  The book is interesting, and the reader does a good job, but it is information dense and slogged a little in the middle.  It was hard for me to keep track of all the players the author mentions, especially because the Polish names sound so foreign to me. Still, it is great, as a librarian, to have confirmed to me once again the power of the printed word and the importance of the freedom to read. (2025, 384 p)