“An intriguing and little-known Cold War moment” (The Observer): the astonishing true story of the CIA’s secret program to smuggle millions of books through the Iron Curtain “A fascinating account of a world-changing covert operation and a first-rate contribution to the history of the CIA.”—Tim Weiner,Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of Legacy of Ashes For nearly five decades after the Second World Warthe Iron Curtain divided Europeforming the longest and most heavily guarded border on earth. No physical combat would take place along this frontier: the risk of nuclear annihilation was too high for that. Insteadthe war was fought psychologically. It was a battle for heartsmindsand intellects. Few understood this more clearly than George Mindenhead of a covert intelligence operation known as the “CIA book program” which aimed to undermine Soviet censorship and inspire revolt by offering different visions of thought and culture. From its Manhattan headquartersMinden’s “book club” secretly sent ten million banned titles into the East. Volumes were smuggled aboard trucks and yachtsdropped from balloonshidden aboard trainsand stowed in travelers’ luggage. Nowhere were the books welcomed more warmly than in Polandwhere the texts would circulate covertly among circles of like-minded readersquietly making the case against Soviet communism. Such was the demand for Minden’s books that dissidents began to reproduce these works in the underground. By the late 1980sillicit literature was so pervasive in Poland that censorship broke down: the Iron Curtain soon followed. Charlie English narrates this tale of Cold War spycraftsmugglingand secret printing operations for the first timehighlighting the work of a handful of extraordinary people who fought for intellectual freedom—people like Mirosław Chojeckiwho suffered beatingsimprisonmentand exile in pursuit of his clandestine mission. The CIA Book Club is a story about the power of the printed word as a means of resistance and liberation. Booksit showscan set you free.