Today Justin sits down with Peter Merlin. Peter is an author, historian, and college instructor. He received his Bachelor's of Science degree in Aeronautical Studies from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and has just completed his Master's degree in Aviation Management from Southern Illinois University. He's been a freelance writer and researcher for more than 30 years and has worked as a historian and archivist at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. He currently teaches several courses in aviation management at the school of aviation at Southern Illinois university. Peter has been researching and writing about Area 51 for many years, and his latest book represents the culmination of all his work to date. He has documented Area 51 from the beginning, when it was little more than a dry lake bed, through its growth as a CIA facility for development and testing of cutting edge aircraft and aviation technology.

Connect with Peter:
thexhunters.com
dreamlandresort.com
Check out the book, Dreamland, here.

https://a.co/d/fNR2b6K

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

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This week Justin replays one of his personal favorite episodes, number 26, when author and former special forces officer Greg Walker shared the little-known story of a David Baez, a green beret defector. Baez was a Nicaraguan national whose father was killed by U.S.-backed President Samosa after voicing his displeasure with inequalities that had risen under Samosa's rule. After immigrating the U.S. and joining the Army (and then Special Forces), Baez found himself in El Salvador watching the country he served try to re-institute the rule of a dynasty that had done personal harm to his own family. Baez defected to Nicaragua in support of Sandinista revolutionary forces--despite the danger it posed to his American brothers in arms.

Connect with Greg:
LinkedIn: Gregory Walker
Check out Part 1 of Greg's series on Baez, A defector in place: The strange and terrible saga of a Green Beret Sandinista, here.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/defector-place-strange-terrible-saga-green-beret-part-greg-walker/

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

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A History of the World in Spy Objects
Incredible tools and devices and their real-world use.

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Today Justin sits down with repeat guest Tim Tate. Tim has worked as a documentary filmmaker and an investigative journalist for more than 40 years, and in that time has published 19 books and produced 80 documentaries. Some of the topics he's covered in the past include China's slave labor gulags, the worst child murderer in British history, and the orphans left behind after the Vietnam War. Today he discusses the topic of his latest book. It's the story of Peter Wright, MI5 senior counterintelligence officer who came to suspect in the 1960s that the agency's director, Roger Hollis, was himself a Soviet spy.

Check out Tim's first appearance on episode 30, A Counterintelligence Agent Turned Romanov Heir, here.

Connect with Tim:
timtate.co.uk
Twitter: @TimTateBooks
Check out To Catch a Spy here.

https://a.co/d/7TlKCyw

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show