Revolutionary Battle officer Nathan Hale, one of America’s first spies, said, ‘Any kind of service essential to the public great becomes honorable by being required.’ A statue of Hale stands outside CIA headquarters, and the agency often cites his declaration as you of its guiding principles. But who decides what’s necessary for the public good, and could it be really accurate that almost any service is certainly permissible for the general public good?

These questions are in the heart of James M. Olson’s publication, Fair Play: about Good Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying The Moral Dilemmas of Spying. Olson, a veteran of the CIA’s clandestine program, takes listeners in the real world of intelligence to describe the hard dilemmas that field officers face on an daily basis. Far from being a dried out theoretical treatise, this interesting book uses real intelligence functions to illustrate how murky their moral choices can be. Listeners will become surprised to discover that the CIA provides hardly any guidance on what is, or is not, permissible. Instead of empowering field officials, the author provides found that this insufficient guidelines in fact hampers operations. Olson is convinced that U.S. intelligence officers need clearer moral recommendations to make correct, quick decisions.