Cover art for Superspy
Published
Casemate, October 2025
ISBN
9781636245768
Format
Hardcover, 256 pages
Dimensions
22.9cm × 15.2cm

Superspy Hans Tofte, Intelligence Officer for SOE, OSS and CIA

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Due October 1, 2025.
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First English-language biography of a significant figure in the history of 20th-century intelligence-a Dane who worked for SOE, OSS, and the CIA. Dane Hans Tofte's remarkable career spanned covert operations in WWII, the OSS, CIA, and Cold War intelligence.

When World War II broke out, Dane Hans Tofte gave up his promising career in the maritime industry to come first to the aid of his own country, and then to the assistance of several other nations in a time of need He went undercover with the British SOE, aiding Chinese guerrillas in the China Commando Group against the Japanese, then with OSS as a training officer then an operations officer, engaged in paramilitary operations supporting the Yugoslav partisans, investigating the credible threat of Uboats launching V1 rockets against New York City, and training foreign agents to parachute into Germany late in the war. Postwar he joined CIA, where he engaged in paramilitary and psychological warfare operations during the Korean War, including launching an escape and evasion (E&E) operation to rescue downed Allied pilots, as well as creatively and effectively thwarting a Chinese resupply operation, thereby saving the US government $1 million. During the Cold War, he engaged in various disinformation campaigns, morale operations, and regime change, to stymie the Soviet Union and its allies. When the end came, it began on an innocuous note-Tofte simply wanted to rent out the basement apartment in his home in the most fashionable quadrant of Washington D.C. in 1966. However, by its denouement, his accomplished career in the intelligence community would be at an abrupt end, a national agency already facing harsh scrutiny would be embroiled in controversy, and America would be reading all about it as the case progressed through the judicial system. Tofte was an imperfect but accomplished role model; a little-known but significant figure in the history of 20thcentury military and civilian intelligence whose factual and nuanced story should be told and appreciated. This first English-language biography highlights his boldly creative and extensive contributions to the developing intelligence community. AUTHOR: Dr. David Foy received his Ph.D. in Modern European History from the University of Arkansas, where he also was selected for Phi Beta Kappa. He has more than three decades' experience as a professional historian and intelligence officer, having worked as a college faculty member, an active-duty and civilian member of the US Army, a defense contractor, and an intelligence officer for several agencies within the US Intelligence Community. He is also the author of For You the War is Over: American POWs in Nazi Germany During World War II, and Loyalty First: The Life and Times of Charles A. Willoughby, MacArthur's Chief Intelligence Officer, a history of the tenure of a Director of National Intelligence, and numerous book reviews. He lives in the greater Raleigh, North Carolina area. 27 photographs, two maps

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