Den Of Spies (the Untold Story Of Reagan, Carter And The Treason That Stole The White House)

Argo meets Spotlight, as New York Times bestselling author Craig Unger reveals his thirty-year investigation into the secret collusion between Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign and Iran, raising urgent questions about what happens when foreign meddling in elections goes unpunished

Argo meets Spotlight, as New York Times bestselling author Craig Unger reveals his thirty-year investigation into the secret collusion between Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign and Iran, raising urgent questions about what happens when foreign meddling in elections goes unpunished

In April 1991, the New York Times ran an op-ed alleging that Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign had conspired with the Iranian government to delay the release of 52 American hostages until after the 1980 election. The Iranian hostage crisis was President Jimmy Carter’s largest political vulnerability, and his lack of success freeing them ultimately sealed his fate at the ballot box. In return for keeping Americans in captivity until Reagan assumed the oath of office, the Republicans had secretly funneled arms to Iran. Treasonous and illegal, the operation—planned and executed by Reagan’s campaign manager Bill Casey—amounted to a shadow foreign policy run by private citizens that ensured Reagan’s victory.

Investigative journalist Craig Unger was one of the first reporters covering the October Surprise—initially for Esquire and then Newsweek—and while attempting to unravel the mystery, he was fired, sued, and ostracized by the Washington press corps, as a counter narrative took hold: The October Surprise was a hoax. Now Unger finally reveals the definitive story and sharing startling truths about what really happened in 1980. The result is a real-life political thriller filled with double agents, CIA operatives, slippery politicians, KGB documents, wealthy Republicans, and dogged journalists. Timely and provocative, with powerful echoes of Trump-era political scandals, Den of Spies demonstrates the stakes of allowing the politics of the moment to obscure the writing of our history.

Craig Unger is the New York Times bestselling author of five books on the Republican Party’s assault on democracy. The former editor in chief of Boston Magazine, he was also a contributing editor for Vanity Fair where he covered national security and foreign affairs. His work has appeared in many other publications including New York Magazine, The New Yorker, Esquire, The Guardian, The New York Times, Washington Post, and The New Republic. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The shocking new true story behind the Iran hostage crisis and the political treason that won Reagan the US presidential election

The shocking new true story behind the Iran hostage crisis and the political treason that won Reagan the US presidential election

• 30 col plates (16pp)

· ACCOMPLISHED AND RENOWNED AUTHOR: In the last twenty years, Craig Unger has written some of the most explosive and respected books on the American Right’s threat to democracy. He has appeared on numerous media outlets, earning him fans and followers throughout the Left. This book has powerful shades of his previous investigations, but it also has a personal narrative of perseverance unlike anything he’s done before. The result is riveting.
· HISTORY WITH MODERN FLOURISH: This story is naturally embedded with ideas that feel eerily familiar in the