As his father nears death in his retirement home in Mexico, John H. Richardson begins to unravel a life filled with drama and secrecy. John Sr. was a CIA "chief of station" on some of the hottest assignments of the Cold War, from the back alleys of occupied Vienna to the jungles of the Philippines—and especially Saigon, where he became a pivotal player in the turning point of the Vietnam War: the overthrow of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem. As John Jr. and his sister came of age in exotic postings across the world, they struggled to accommodate themselves to their driven, distant father, and their conflict opens a window on the tumult of the sixties and Vietnam. Through the daily happenings at home and his father's actions, reconstructed from declassified documents as well as extensive interviews with former spies and government officials, Richardson reveals the innermost workings of a family enmeshed in the Cold War—and the deeper war that turns the world of the fathers into the world of the sons. When Esquire writer-at-large Richardson tried to learn more about his late father, who was a top CIA agent working some of the major political hot spots of the past 65 years--Nazi Germany, the Soviet Empire, junta-controlled Greece, Ferdinand Marcos' Philippines, Park Chung Hee's South Korea, and South Vietnam in its final days--he made an unsurprising discovery: "My own father was classified top secret." In the face of that challenge, however, Richardson has pieced together a remarkably full and literate biography of his dad (John H.), drawing on his father's pre- and postagency correspondence, conversations with his father's former colleagues, and published writings and testimony about the CIA. Equally compelling is the story of the author himself, who lived a lavish and exotic life with his parents in most of their postings but rebelled against what his father and the CIA represented. In the stories of father and son, readers will not only find absorbing narratives but will also divine the early signs of America's now highly contentious culture wars. Alan Moores Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “Intriguing . . . a lucid tale of historical detection that will appeal to readers of espionage nonfiction.” - Library Journal An exceptional work ... about a man ... whose family album is pasted into a book of American history. - Baltimore Sun His memoir is written from the gut, but as an Outward Bound adventure. Years of research, sweat, and heart-wrenching reflection have gone into MFTS. ... This is an honest and good book. John Richardson, memoirist, no longer needs to carry John Richardson, spy, on his back: He’s home. - New York Observer A passionately researched and engaging memoir...poignantly distanced. - New York Times Book Review “A beautiful, gracious act of connection with a man who kept his secrets.” - Kirkus Reviews Readers will not only find absorbing narratives but also the early signs of America’s now highly contentious culture wars. - Booklist As his father nears death in his retirement home in Mexico, John H. Richardson begins to unravel a life filled with drama and secrecy. John Sr. was a CIA "chief of station" on some of the hottest assignments of the Cold War, from the back alleys of occupied Vienna to the jungles of the Philippines—and especially Saigon, where he became a pivotal player in the turning point of the Vietnam War: the overthrow of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem. As John Jr. and his sister came of age in exotic postings across the world, they struggled to accommodate themselves to their driven, distant father, and their conflict opens a window on the tumult of the sixties and Vietnam. Through the daily happenings at home and his father's actions, reconstructed from declassified documents as well as extensive interviews with former spies and government officials, Richardson reveals the innermost workings of a family enmeshed in the Cold War—and the deeper war that turns the world of the fathers into the world of the sons. John H. Richardson is a writer-at-large for Esquire and the author of In the Little World and The Viper's Club . His fiction has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and the O. Henry Prize Stories collection. He lives in Katonah, New York. In the 1950s and '60s, the so-called golden age of spying, CIA station chiefs were not so much spies or spy runners as proconsuls. In the "third world," on the front line against communist insurgencies, they often had more influence than the American ambassador and sometimes more real power than the local strongman. With their bags of cash and imperial writ from Washington, their diplomatic covers and ties to the local secret police, they could prop up or bring down governments. They were moral authorities, though sometimes Machiavellian ones, in the long twilight search for benevolent despots who would stand up to the communists and -- one day, it was hoped -