
Shadow Warrior
William Egan Colby and the CIA
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $23.40
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Michael Puttonen
-
By:
-
Randall B. Woods
About this listen
As a World War II commando, a Cold War spy, and CIA director under Presidents Nixon and Ford, William Egan Colby played a critical role in some of the most pivotal events of the twentieth century. A quintessential member of the greatest generation, Colby embodied the moral and strategic ambiguities of the postwar world, and confronted many of the dilemmas about power and secrecy that America still grapples with today.
In Shadow Warrior, eminent historian Randall B. Woods riveting biography of Colby, he reveals that this crusader for global democracy was also drawn to the darker side of American power. Colby joined the U.S. Army in 1941, just as America entered World War II, serving with distinction in France and Norway. At the end of the war he transitioned into America's first peacetime intelligence agency: the CIA. Fresh from fighting fascism, Colby zealously redirected his efforts against international communism. He insisted on the importance of fighting communism on the ground, doggedly applying guerilla tactics for counterinsurgency, sabotage, surveillance, and information-gathering - the new battlefields of the Cold War. Over time, these strategies became increasingly ruthless; as head of the CIA's Far East Division, Colby oversaw an endless succession of assassination attempts, coups, secret wars in Laos and Cambodia, and the Phoenix Program, in which 20,000 civilian supporters of the Vietcong were killed. Colby ultimately came clean about many of the CIA's illegal activities, making public a set of internal reports known as the "family jewels." Ostracized from the intelligence community, he died under suspicious circumstances - a murky ending to a life lived in the shadows.
Drawing on multiple new sources, including interviews with members of Colby's family, Woods has crafted a gripping biography of one of the most fascinating and controversial figures of the twentieth century.
©2013 Randall B. Woods (P)2013 Post Hypnotic PressListeners also enjoyed...
-
Directorate S
- The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 28 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Resuming the narrative of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, best-selling author Steve Coll tells for the first time the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11.
-
-
Slow At Times But Always Horrifying And Engaging
- By Gillian on 02-20-18
By: Steve Coll
-
First Casualty
- The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11
- By: Toby Harnden
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This dramatic true story reveals the secret mission of the eight members of the CIA’s Team Alpha, the first Americans to be dropped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan after 9/11.
-
-
Deeply researched
- By Jason G on 09-08-21
By: Toby Harnden
-
Legacy of Ashes
- The History of the CIA
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.
-
-
Flawed but Important
- By Michael on 07-18-08
By: Tim Weiner
-
Watergate
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy, Garrett M. Graff
- Length: 25 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Wills enters six words into the log book of the Watergate office complex that will change the course of history: 1:47 AM Found tape on doors; call police. The subsequent arrests of five men seeking to bug and burgle the Democratic National Committee offices—three of them Cuban exiles, two of them former intelligence operatives—quickly unravels a web of scandal that ultimately ends a presidency and forever alters views of moral authority and leadership.
-
-
Elucidating
- By J.B. on 02-23-22
By: Garrett M. Graff
-
The Devil's Chessboard
- Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
- By: David Talbot
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An explosive, headline-making portrait of Allen Dulles, the man who transformed the CIA into the most powerful - and secretive - colossus in Washington, from the founder of Salon.com and author of the New York Times best seller Brothers.
-
-
Disturbing. Makes you question the company line.
- By KTS on 02-06-16
By: David Talbot
-
The Main Enemy
- The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
- By: Milton Bearden, James Risen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.
-
-
A masterpiece of espionage history
- By kucherv on 08-21-18
By: Milton Bearden, and others
-
Directorate S
- The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 28 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Resuming the narrative of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, best-selling author Steve Coll tells for the first time the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11.
-
-
Slow At Times But Always Horrifying And Engaging
- By Gillian on 02-20-18
By: Steve Coll
-
First Casualty
- The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11
- By: Toby Harnden
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This dramatic true story reveals the secret mission of the eight members of the CIA’s Team Alpha, the first Americans to be dropped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan after 9/11.
-
-
Deeply researched
- By Jason G on 09-08-21
By: Toby Harnden
-
Legacy of Ashes
- The History of the CIA
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.
-
-
Flawed but Important
- By Michael on 07-18-08
By: Tim Weiner
-
Watergate
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy, Garrett M. Graff
- Length: 25 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Wills enters six words into the log book of the Watergate office complex that will change the course of history: 1:47 AM Found tape on doors; call police. The subsequent arrests of five men seeking to bug and burgle the Democratic National Committee offices—three of them Cuban exiles, two of them former intelligence operatives—quickly unravels a web of scandal that ultimately ends a presidency and forever alters views of moral authority and leadership.
-
-
Elucidating
- By J.B. on 02-23-22
By: Garrett M. Graff
-
The Devil's Chessboard
- Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
- By: David Talbot
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An explosive, headline-making portrait of Allen Dulles, the man who transformed the CIA into the most powerful - and secretive - colossus in Washington, from the founder of Salon.com and author of the New York Times best seller Brothers.
-
-
Disturbing. Makes you question the company line.
- By KTS on 02-06-16
By: David Talbot
-
The Main Enemy
- The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
- By: Milton Bearden, James Risen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.
-
-
A masterpiece of espionage history
- By kucherv on 08-21-18
By: Milton Bearden, and others
-
A Spy Among Friends
- Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who was Kim Philby? Those closest to him—like his fellow MI6 officer and best friend since childhood, Nicholas Elliot, and the CIA’s head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton—knew him as a loyal confidant and an unshakeable patriot. Philby was a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Together with Elliott and Angleton he stood on the front lines of the Cold War, holding Communism at bay. But he was secretly betraying them both: He was working for the Russians the entire time.
-
-
The narrator is incorrectly identified.
- By Greenlake DD on 07-30-14
By: Ben Macintyre
-
The Fourth Man
- The Hunt for a KGB Spy at the Top of the CIA and the Rise of Putin's Russia
- By: Robert Baer
- Narrated by: Robert Baer, Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of the Cold War, American intelligence caught three high-profile Russian spies: Aldrich Ames, Edward Lee Howard, and Robert Hanssen. However, rumors have long swirled of another mole, one perhaps more damaging than all the others combined. Perhaps the greatest traitor in American history, perhaps a Russian ruse to tear the CIA apart, or perhaps nothing more than a bogeyman, he is often referred to as the Fourth Man.
-
-
A Who Done it without The Who Did it
- By Amazon Customer on 05-25-22
By: Robert Baer
-
Scorpions' Dance
- The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate
- By: Jefferson Morley
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scorpions' Dance by intelligence expert and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley reveals the Watergate scandal in a completely new light: as the culmination of a concealed, deadly power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms. After the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, Nixon was desperate to shut down the FBI's investigation. He sought Helms' support and asked that the CIA intervene—knowing that most of the Watergate burglars were retired CIA agents, contractors, or long-term assets. The two now circled each other like scorpions.
-
-
Excellent and detailed history
- By Matt on 02-25-23
By: Jefferson Morley
-
The Pentagon's Brain
- An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times best seller Area 51. No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain".
-
-
Scientia Est Potentia/Knowledge is Power
- By Cynthia on 10-08-15
By: Annie Jacobsen
-
The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam
- By: Douglas Valentine
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A shocking expos of the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam, with a new introduction by the author. In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, America’s Central Intelligence Agency secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the “Viet Cong.”
-
-
An Answer To My Unanswered Questions
- By JustBill on 08-27-19
-
Black Ops
- The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior
- By: Ric Prado
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled their war-torn home for the hope of a better life in America. Fifty years later, the Cuban refugee retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as the CIA equivalent of a two-star general. Black Ops is the story of Ric’s legendary career that spanned two eras, the Cold War and the Age of Terrorism.
-
-
Impressive and Inspiring!
- By medardo on 03-12-22
By: Ric Prado
-
Empire of the Summer Moon
- Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
-
-
Difficult to endure narrator
- By fowler on 12-21-19
By: S. C. Gwynne
-
Boyd
- The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
- By: Robert Coram
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest US fighter pilot ever - the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than 40 seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft - the F-15 and F-16. Still, others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story.
-
-
Stick With It if You Want a Rare Gem
- By Michael Richards on 08-30-16
By: Robert Coram
-
Ghost Wars
- The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 26 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan. With the publication of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll became not only a Pulitzer Prize winner, but also the expert on the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of Bin Laden, and the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill Bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998.
-
-
An Exceptional Accomplishment
- By Joe on 11-08-13
By: Steve Coll
-
The Ghost
- The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton
- By: Jefferson Morley
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Ghost, investigative reporter Jefferson Morley tells Angleton's dramatic story, from his friendship with the poet Ezra Pound through the underground gay milieu of mid-century Washington to the Kennedy assassination to the Watergate scandal. From the agency's MKULTRA mind-control experiments to the wars of the Mideast, Angleton wielded far more power than anyone knew.
-
-
Flawed Superpatriot
- By Bubblehog on 11-23-17
By: Jefferson Morley
-
The Last Honest Man
- The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy
- By: James Risen, Thomas Risen - contributor
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community.
-
-
why do so many books have a liberal bias?
- By Doug Altrichter on 08-20-23
By: James Risen, and others
-
The Splendid and the Vile
- A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: John Lee, Erik Larson
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally - and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless."
-
-
John Lee’s narration is a struggle
- By Leslie Rathjens on 03-05-20
By: Erik Larson
What listeners say about Shadow Warrior
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 04-20-16
an American must-read
we trust government to do the right thing always, can we? read, and judge for yourself
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matthew Brown
- 05-21-15
Shadow warrior.
I expected more detail on specific missions. Also it's hard to tell fact from fiction. Even so still a little interesting to review post world war 2 history through this career CIA administrators eyes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elaine
- 09-22-21
Who murdered William Colby ?
Fascinating life! Who could've done it? And WHY? The narrator is perfect! What an amazing man!!! Im fascinated by the CIA and the eccentric spies who worked there.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 02-14-17
The Counterinsurgent
Colby led an interesting and unparalleled life and this work does a great job of giving that story a voice. Just when I was tiring of the narrator's voice, he began mimicking Nixon and Kissinger to great effect. A must read for any person interested in the Jedburgs, the other side of the Vietnam conflict, or the strategic levels of counterinsurgency.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kenneth Barnett
- 10-01-18
great cold war history
Well delivered and informative. A lot of detailed description. Let's you sink into that period of history and cold war era.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cynthia C.
- 06-20-23
Fascinating. I want to read more, about Colby’s life and his death.
Colby’s name was familiar to me, but not his life. I wish the book had continued to present more theories about who murdered him.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Blake Dahl
- 03-27-17
Should have been more exciting
the book was good but should have been way more exciting given that it was about William Colby a legend. the book wasn't so much about his escapades and time work at the CIA so much as it was a book about his personal life and the politics that followed him around
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Erikusan
- 02-04-21
Interesting when it stays on topic...
The areas about Colby are a fascinating window into the life and times of a member of the intelligence community during several tumultuous eras of world history. However, the majority of Part 2 becomes a whole-scope timeline of the Vietnam War, offering lots of context but next-to-nothing about the book's subject - William Egan Colby himself. It's interesting to hear the history of the Hmong and the internal struggles of anti-colonialist and communist forces, but if you're here for Colby's involvement, you'll wish the audiobook came with chapter titles in the table of contents. ...or at least I did. Your mileage may vary.
For a more interesting, flavorful, and focused look into a prominent CIA officer's covert action experiences in Africa and Vietnam (and crucially Laos), I highly recommend Richard Holm's "The Craft We Chose." Years later, his stories still stick with me like snake oil on a severe burn.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Denise
- 02-18-21
Disappointing
I knew things were going to be bad once the droning narration began. Add to that the tedious minutia of every month in the life of the young William Colby, and I stopped after Chapter 2. I skipped to the other chapters but nothing seemed to change. Sad.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful