DAVID WISE
David Wise has been described as “America’s premier writer on espionage” by the Washington Post Book World. His latest book, Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War with China (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011) was published in June 2011 and listed by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the Top Ten political books on the Spring list. His book, Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America (Random House, 2002) received high praise from reviewers as the best account of the case. An earlier book, Nightmover: How Aldrich Ames Sold the CIA to the KGB for $4.6 Million (HarperCollins, 1995) was cited by The New York Times Book Review as "the most authoritative" account and was excerpted in TIME magazine.
Mr. Wise is the coauthor of The Invisible Government, the book about the Central Intelligence Agency that became the number-one best seller in the United States and has been widely credited with bringing about a reappraisal of the role of the CIA in a democratic society. He is also the author of Cassidy's Run: The Secret Spy War Over Nerve Gas, (Random House 2000), Molehunt: The Secret Search for Traitors that Shattered the CIA (Random House, 1992), The Spy Who Got Away (Random House, l988), a book about the CIA's first defector to the Soviet Union, The American Police State (Random House, 1976), and The Politics of Lying (Random House, 1973). With Thomas B. Ross, he is coauthor of The Espionage Establishment (Random House, 1967), The Invisible Government (Random House, 1964), and The U-2 Affair (Random House, 1962). Mr. Wise is also the author of three espionage novels, The Samarkand Dimension (Doubleday, 1987), The Children's Game (St. Martin's/Marek, 1983), and Spectrum (Viking, 1981), all published to enthusiastic reviews.
Mr. Wise commented on intelligence issues for the Cable News Network (CNN) for six years, and has appeared on all of the major television networks. He is the former chief of the Washington bureau of the New York Herald Tribune. A native New Yorker and graduate of Columbia College, he joined the Herald Tribune in 1951, served as the newspaper's White House correspondent during the Kennedy administration, and as chief of the Washington Bureau from 1963-1966. In 1970-71 he was a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. During 1977-79, he lectured in political science at the University of California at Santa Barbara. With Milton C. Cummings, Jr., he is the coauthor of Democracy Under Pressure: An Introduction to the American Political System (Wadsworth, 10th edition, 2006 Election Update, 2007), for more than three decades a leading college textbook in American government and politics. He has also contributed articles on government and politics to Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, the New Republic, Esquire, and other national magazines. In 1969 he received the page One Award of the Newspaper Guild of New York for best magazine writing. In 1974 he received the George Polk Memorial Award for The Politics of Lying. He is a member of the Gridiron Club. He is married and lives in Washington, D.C.