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Chalk Marks: A Review of The Sympathizer

ENTERTAINMENT — “I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.”This opening sentence of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer is one of the finest beginnings in espionage literature; it’s [...] More

Why 'Ronin' is an Espionage Classic

CHALK MARKS / COLUMN — If you craft a list of professionals who by virtue of their job knowingly undertake an effort they expect to go badly, it will be short. First responders at times of course, [...] More

More from Mark Davidson, Former Senior Intelligence Officer, CIA

Why the Classic Movie 'Spy Game' Gets it Right

OPINION — Many moons ago, when I started my training as an operations officer, the world and country were in a different place. Everyone I knew [...] More

'Chalk Marks' Best of 2023

CHALK MARKS / OPINION / ENTERTAINMENT — In a January long past, in one of those places that has dozens of words for snow, I was walking through a [...] More

The Dark Joys of 'Patriot'

OPINION/ENTERTAINMENT — It’s a truth about clandestine operations that you can do everything right, and things will still go wrong. The wise ops [...] More

'Lioness' is Entertaining. Is it Realistic?

OPINION — It’s been true for a long time that female intelligence professionals have been giving the CIA and the United States a tremendous advantage [...] More

An Entertaining Mission (if you choose to accept it)

OPINION — One of the best things about being a retired CIA ops officer is now that people know I was a “spy,” I am often asked what is the best spy [...] More