{"product_id":"2940169123524","title":"King of Spies: The Dark Reign of America's Spymaster in Korea","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the\u003ci\u003e New York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eEscape from Camp 14\u003c\/i\u003e, the shocking, gripping account of the most powerful American spy you've never heard of, whose role at the center of the Korean Waramp;mdash;which gave rise to the North Korean regimeamp;mdash;is essential to understanding the most intractable foreign policy conflict of our time.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In 1946, master sergeant Donald Nichols was repairing jeeps on the sleepy island of Guam when he caught the eye of recruiters from the army's Counter Intelligence Corps. After just three months' training, he was sent to Korea, then a backwater beneath the radar of MacArthur's Pacific Command. Though he lacked the pedigree of most U.S. spiesamp;mdash;Nichols was a 7th grade dropoutamp;mdash;he quickly metamorphosed from army mechanic to black ops phenomenon. He insinuated himself into the affections of America's chosen puppet in South Korea, President Syngman Rhee, and became a pivotal player in the Korean War, warning months in advance about the North Korean invasion, breaking enemy codes, and identifying most of the targets destroyed by American bombs in North Korea. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But Nichols's triumphs had a dark side. Immersed in a world of torture and beheadings, he became a spymaster with his own secret base, his own covert army, and his own rules. He recruited agents from refugee camps and prisons, sending many to their deaths on reckless missions. His closeness to Rhee meant that he witnessedamp;mdash;and did nothing to stop or even reportamp;mdash;the slaughter of tens of thousands of South Korean civilians in anticommunist purges. Nichols's clandestine reign lasted for an astounding eleven years. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In this riveting book, Blaine Harden traces Nichols's unlikely rise and tragic ruin, from his birth in an operatically dysfunctional family in New Jersey to his sordid postwar decline, which began when the U.S. military sacked him in Korea, sent him to an air force psych ward in Florida, and subjected himamp;mdash;against his willamp;mdash;to months of electroshock therapy. But \u003ci\u003eKing of Spies\u003c\/i\u003e is not just the story of one American spy: with napalmed villages and severed heads, high-level lies and long-running cover-ups, it reminds us that the darkest sins of the Vietnam Waramp;mdash;and many other conflicts that followedamp;mdash;were first committed in Korea.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47097758384368,"sku":"2940169123524","price":17.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169123524_p0.jpg?v=1763761418","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169123524","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}