My Library

She was silent for a moment, and then said something like: "OK, I know what to do. I’ve done this kind of thing before." "Thanks." SWANSON called back a day or so later. "They’re upset about the Russians -- that’s all I can find out." "You mean about the girls’ book, PSYCHIC SECRETS BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN?" "Oh, heavens no! Something much bigger. Don’t tell Lucille I told you this." "OK." I like bigger pictures, and I began putting two and two together. Zelda was my closest intimate friend. Swann-to-Zelda over another game of Scrabble: "You know, I think I’m going to end up working for the CIA or something." Zelda-to-Swann: "Your head’s getting too big." Zelda thence appointed herself as permanent deflator of my inflated head. I decided I didn’t know enough about how intelligence agencies actually worked. I knew something, of course, from past on-the-job experience in the Army and at the United Nations. But my knowledge along these lines was taken mostly from mainstream media sources -which in this sense is to say my knowledge was SUPERFICIAL IN THE EXTREME. I did understand that the CIA made asses of itself. But I did not understand, as I later did, that the intelligence agencies of the world made the world go round. I had a general, superficial picture; but knew nothing at all of the details regarding the way the world’s intelligence agencies actually conducted their activities.