Only Dan Freeman, secretly a black nationalist, successfully completes the training of his recruitment class, he earned the highest grades and best marks for athleticism. Consequent to Senator Hennington's investigation, which assured a comfortable re-election, the CIA is required, for political reasons, to recruit Black Americans for training as case officers. His wife suggests that he accuse the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of racial discrimination, because the Agency has no black officers. The story begins with Senator Hennington, a white, liberal senator who is facing a tight re-election vote, and so is looking for ways to win the Negro vote. The Spook Who Sat by the Door is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the Chicago of Mayor Richard J. It was subsequently translated into several languages, including French, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Finnish, Swedish, and German. Having been much rejected by mainstream publishers, Greenlee's spy novel first was published by Allison & Busby in the UK in March 1969, after the author met Ghanaian-born editor Margaret Busby in London the previous year, and by the Richard W. The author, Sam Greenlee, was told by Aubrey Lewis (1935–2001), one of the first black FBI agents recruited to the Bureau in 1962, that The Spook Who Sat by the Door was required reading at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. As described by The New Yorker, the title "alludes to the conspicuous deployment of the agency's one black officer to display its phony integration". The novel has been described as "part thriller, part satire and part social commentary". FX apparently agreed with me, though they seem to have kiboshed the project last year.The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1969), by Sam Greenlee, is the fictional story of Dan Freeman, the first black CIA officer, and of the CIA's history of training persons and political groups who later used their specialised training in gathering intelligence, political subversion, and guerrilla warfare against the CIA. I definitely think The Spook Who Sat By The Door is ripe for a full-budget TV adaptation by Netflix or similar. The judo chop isn't a thing, though, Mr Greenlee, as far as I know. Having read the book, I'm quite impressed at what I assume is the authentic detail and ambience, as well as the passion and reasoned political argument in the writing. Also not surprisingly, the film was removed from cinemas in the US fairly rapidly but remains a classic - I read about it in a recent Guardian article. ![]() It was apparently required reading for FBI training and was made into a film of the same name in 1973. Not surprisingly, the book was rejected by every US publishing house and was eventually published by Allison & Busby in London (and only because he met Margaret Busby by accident). He left in 1965, and so the main divergence from Freeman (apart from the USIA vs the CIA) is what he did afterwards, which was move to Greece and become a writer. He was awarded a medal for bravery during the 14 July Revolution in Baghdad. The writer, Sam Greenlee, was a black man from Chicago who served in the US Army in Korea (1952-4) and then joined the United States Intelligence Agency (USIA) in 1957. He then recruits and trains gang members there to become an armed resistance group fighting for black rights and ultimately the overthrow of the white supremacist order. ![]() Anyone else read or remember this? I've just read it and thoroughly enjoyed it.įor those who haven't read it or seen the film, it's a 1969 fictional novel about Dan Freeman, a black veteran who deliberately joins the CIA in order to learn about espionage and infiltration, and then quits to appear to become a social worker in Chicago.
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