Limelight

Rumours are spreading through the Bolivian jungle: Che Guevara is back. For Washington, the possibility is explosive. The world’s most famous revolutionary may be trying to ignite another insurgency in the Americas — and the CIA cannot afford to let his legend grow. But before they can act, they need proof. Is it really Che? Or another fighter hiding behind the myth? As the A...

Richard Helms has finally reached the top of the CIA. Now he has to prove the Agency deserves to be heard. In Vietnam, the Pentagon insists America is winning. The CIA’s own intelligence tells a darker story: the enemy is larger, stronger and more resilient than Washington wants to believe. LBJ demands evidence, and Helms must stand behind an estimate that challenges everythi...

Soviet nuclear power is growing, and LBJ wants answers. Inside the CIA, Eloise Page and Richard Helms are trying to bring the Agency into a new age of intelligence: satellites, signals, analysis and serious tradecraft. But Admiral Raborn needs a triumph of his own — something bold enough to impress the President and prove he belongs in the job. His solution is one of the stra...

1965. Richard Helms is the obvious choice to lead the CIA. Experienced, respected and trusted inside the Agency, he appears to be next in line. LBJ has other ideas and instead appoints Admiral William “Red” Raborn — a fellow Texan with almost no intelligence experience.

On his first day, a coup erupts in the Dominican Republic, and Raborn is thrown into a crisis he bar...

1964. At the Pentagon, America’s future in Vietnam is played out in two rooms. The war game is meant to test whether bombing North Vietnam can force a communist retreat. But the simulation points to a devastating conclusion - whatever America does, the North will keep fighting, the Viet Cong will keep being supplied, and the war cannot be won on Washington’s terms.

The ...