Arkansas Times: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the post 9/11 world
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the post 9/11 world
Posted By Richard Drake on Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 12:54 PM
Every month I go through my books and donate some to various sources - Fayetteville Library bookstore, Goodwill, etc - and a few weeks ago my eye fell upon a Man from U.N.C.L.E. novel I’ve had for decades. That might be fun to read again, I thought.
What I discovered was a book that accurately predicted our world in the 21st Century, even though it was published in 1966.
To be honest, “The Affair of the Gentle Saboteur,” by Brandon Keith, is not all that highly regarded by many fans of the old spy series, because it doesn’t read like an episode of the show.
What it does read like, however, is very much a Cold War novel. Growing up in the military, I tended to enjoy this sort of story in junior high and high school. Though hardly in the John le Carré class, it still offers an interesting view of world politics in the 1960s.
The plot, in a nutshell, involves those nefarious devils of THRUSH (what did that name stand for, anyway?) bringing over a master bomb-maker to target various sites which are regarded as almost sacred by Americans. Fortunately, he is arrested just after he lays his first bomb, at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty.
During interrogation, he is asked why his taskmasters have come up with such a plan. His answer?
“ . . . We believe the time to be ripe to create confusion and terror within the United States itself, to make it an object of world ridicule, and to precipitate the United States into unwise and unfortunate acts - and thus, aside from influencing the uncommitted nations, to cause division and foment discontent between the United States and its allies.”
Unwise and unfortunate acts.
To be honest, “The Affair of the Gentle Saboteur,” by Brandon Keith, is not all that highly regarded by many fans of the old spy series, because it doesn’t read like an episode of the show.
What it does read like, however, is very much a Cold War novel. Growing up in the military, I tended to enjoy this sort of story in junior high and high school. Though hardly in the John le Carré class, it still offers an interesting view of world politics in the 1960s.
The plot, in a nutshell, involves those nefarious devils of THRUSH (what did that name stand for, anyway?) bringing over a master bomb-maker to target various sites which are regarded as almost sacred by Americans. Fortunately, he is arrested just after he lays his first bomb, at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty.
During interrogation, he is asked why his taskmasters have come up with such a plan. His answer?
“ . . . We believe the time to be ripe to create confusion and terror within the United States itself, to make it an object of world ridicule, and to precipitate the United States into unwise and unfortunate acts - and thus, aside from influencing the uncommitted nations, to cause division and foment discontent between the United States and its allies.”
Unwise and unfortunate acts.
Much more about UNCLE:
Amazon.com - http://goo.gl/OD1XKW Amazon Australia - http://goo.gl/ODQYPY Amazon Brazil - http://goo.gl/qYPYg6 Amazon Canada - http://goo.gl/XrC6gc Amazon France- http://goo.gl/IGxkLq Amazon Germany - http://goo.gl/Wtz6WB Amazon India- http://goo.gl/vtNMYo Amazon Italy - http://goo.gl/gPOn6X Amazon Japan- http://goo.gl/Cwqw1s Amazon Mexico - http://goo.gl/xY6ANr Amazon Netherlands- http://goo.gl/y1t4KO Amazon Spain - http://goo.gl/ph9s0Z Amazon UK- http://goo.gl/RDkUxB
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