Editing Spy fiction (section)

=====American=====
During the war [[E. Howard Hunt]] wrote his first spy novel, ''East of Farewell'' (1943). In 1949 he joined the recently created CIA and continued to write spy fiction for many years. [[Paul Linebarger]], a China specialist for the CIA, published ''[[Atomsk (novel)|Atomsk]]'', the first novel of the Cold War, in 1949. During the 1950s, most of American spy stories were not about the CIA, instead being about agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who tracked down and arrested Soviet spies. The popular American image of the FBI was as "coolly efficient super-cop" who always successful in performing his duties.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=205}} The FBI director, [[J.E. Hoover]], had long cultivated the American press and Hollywood to promote a favorable image of the FBI.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=268}} In 1955, [[Edward S. Aarons]] began publishing the Sam Durell CIA "Assignment" series, which began with ''Assignment to Disaster'' (1955). [[Donald Hamilton]] published ''[[Death of a Citizen]]'' (1960) and ''[[The Wrecking Crew (novel)|The Wrecking Crew]]'' (1960), beginning the series featuring [[Matt Helm]], a CIA assassin and counter-intelligence agent.

Major General [[Edward Lansdale]], a charismatic intelligence officer who was widely credited with having masterminded the defeat of the Communist Huk rebellion in the Philippines inspired several fictional versions of himself.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=336}} Besides for ''The Quiet American'', he appeared as Colonel Edwin Barnum in ''[[The Ugly American (film)|The Ugly American]]'' (1958) by [[William J. Lederer]] and [[Eugene Burdick]] and as Colonel Lionel Teryman in the novel ''La Mal Jaune'' (1965) by the French writer [[Jean Lartéguy]].{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=336}} ''The Ugly American'' was written as a rebuttal to ''The Quiet American'' under which the idealistic Colonel Barnum operating in the fictional Vietnam-like Southeast Asian nation of Sarkhan shows the way to defeat Communist guerillas by understanding local people in just the same way that Lansdale with his understanding and sympathy for ordinary Filipinos was credited with defeating the Communist Huk guerrillas.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=336}} ''The Ugly American'' was greatly influenced by the modernization theory, which held Communism was something alike to a childhood disease as the modernization theory held that as Third World nations modernized that this created social-economic tensions which a ruthless minority of Communists exploited to seize power; what was required from the United States were experts who knew the local concerns in order to defeat the Communists until the modernization process was completed.

The [[Nick Carter-Killmaster]] series of spy novels, initiated by [[Michael Avallone]] and Valerie Moolman, but authored anonymously, ran to over 260 separate books between 1964 and the early 1990s and invariably pitted American, Soviet and Chinese spies against each other. With the proliferation of male protagonists in the spy fiction genre, writers and book packagers also started bringing out spy fiction with a female as the protagonist. One notable spy series is ''[[The Baroness (novels)|The Baroness]]'', featuring a sexy female superspy, with the novels being more action-oriented, in the mould of Nick Carter-Killmaster.

Other important American authors who became active in spy fiction during this period include [[Ross Thomas (author)|Ross Thomas]], ''The Cold War Swap'' (1966). ''[[The Scarlatti Inheritance]]'' (1971) by [[Robert Ludlum]] is usually considered the first American modern (glamour and dirt) spy thriller weighing action and reflection. [[Richard Helms]], the director-general of the CIA from 1966 to 1973 loathed le Carré's morally grey spy novels, which he felt damaged the image of the CIA, and encouraged Hunt to write spy novels as a rebuttal.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=337-338}} Helms had hopes that Hunt might write an "American James Bond" novel, which would be adopted by Hollywood and do for the image of the CIA what Fleming's Bond novels did for the image of MI6.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=338}} In the 1970s, former CIA man [[Charles McCarry]] began the Paul Christopher series with ''[[The Miernik Dossier]]'' (1973) and ''[[The Tears of Autumn]]'' (1978), which were well written, with believable tradecraft. McCarry was a former CIA agent who worked as an editor for ''National Geographic'' and his hero Christopher likewise is an American spy who works for a thinly disguised version of the CIA while posing as a journalist.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=337}} Writing under the pen name [[Trevanian]], Roger Whitaker published a series of brutal spy novels starting with ''[[The Eiger Sanction (novel)|The Eiger Sanction]]'' (1972) featuring an amoral art collector/CIA assassin who ostensibly kills for the United States, but in fact kills for money.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=337}} Whitaker followed up ''The Eiger Sanction'' with ''The Loo Sanction'' (1973) and [[Shibumi (novel)|''Shibumi'']] (1979).{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=337}}  Starting in 1976 with his novel ''Saving the Queen'', the conservative American journalist and former CIA agent [[William F. Buckley]] published the first of his Blackford Oakes novels featuring a CIA agent whose politics were the same as the author's.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=337}} Blackford Oakes was portrayed as a "sort of an American James Bond" who ruthlessly dispatches villainous KGB agents with much aplomb.{{sfn|Polmar|Allen|1998|p=337}}

The first American techno-thriller was ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]'' (1984) by [[Tom Clancy]]. It introduced CIA deskman (analyst) [[Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy)|Jack Ryan]] as a field agent; he reprised the role in the sequel ''[[The Cardinal of the Kremlin]]'' (1987).

Other important American authors who became active in spy fiction during this period include [[Robert Littell (author)|Robert Littell]], ''The Defection of A. J. Lewinter'' (1973); [[James Grady (author)|James Grady]], ''[[Six Days of the Condor]]'' (1974); [[William F. Buckley Jr.]], ''[[Saving the Queen]]'' (1976); [[Nelson DeMille]], ''[[The Talbot Odyssey]]'' (1984); [[W. E. B. Griffin]], the ''[[Men at War (series)|Men at War]]'' series (1984–); [[Stephen Coonts]], ''[[Flight of the Intruder (novel)|Flight of the Intruder]]'' (1986); Canadian-American author [[David Morrell]], ''The League of Night and Fog'' (1987); [[David Hagberg]], ''Without Honor'' (1989); Noel Hynd, ''False Flags'' (1990); and Richard Ferguson, ''Oiorpata'' (1990).