The CIA Book Club

The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature

By: Charlie English

Narrated by: Michael David Axtell

“A story as fascinating as it is undersung . . . a riveting account” (The New York Times Book Review, Best Books of 2025 So Far) of the CIA’s secret program to smuggle millions of books through the Iron Curtain during the Cold War

“Brimming with poetic detail, spring-loaded with tradecraft, English’s account feels like it’s torn from the pages of Ian Fleming. . . . An indelible reminder that words matter, and that perhaps the most patriotic thing one can do is read.”—The Washington Post

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, THE ECONOMIST, KIRKUS REVIEWS

For nearly five decades after the Second World War, the Iron Curtain divided Europe, forming the longest and most heavily guarded border on earth. No physical combat would take place along this frontier: the risk of nuclear annihilation was too high for that. Instead, the war was fought psychologically. It was a battle for hearts, minds, and intellects. Few understood this more clearly than George Minden, head of a covert intelligence operation known as the “CIA book program,” which aimed to undermine Soviet censorship and inspire revolt by offering different visions of thought and culture.

From its Manhattan headquarters, Minden’s “book club” secretly sent ten million banned titles into the East. Volumes were smuggled aboard trucks and yachts, dropped from balloons, hidden aboard trains, and stowed in travelers’ luggage. Nowhere were the books welcomed more warmly than in Poland, where they would circulate covertly among circles of like-minded readers, quietly making the case against Soviet communism. Such was the demand for Minden’s texts that dissidents began to reproduce them in the underground. By the late 1980s, illicit literature was so pervasive in Poland that censorship broke down: the Iron Curtain soon followed.

Charlie English narrates this tale of Cold War spycraft, smuggling, and secret printing operations for the first time, highlighting the work of a handful of extraordinary people who fought for intellectual freedom—people like Mirosław Chojecki, who suffered beatings, imprisonment, and exile in pursuit of his clandestine mission. The CIA Book Club is a story about the power of the printed word as a means of resistance and liberation. Books, it shows, can set you free.

Gripping

A powerful review of the CIA’s book and printing smuggling efforts to support the Solidarity movement in Poland. Revealing and well-researched.

A fascinating history of a little known Cold War Project that used books and newspapers as weapons against Communism.

The level of detail and the clarity of a complex story was what appealed to me. I was alive then and had no idea what was going on in Poland and abroad to aid Poland.
This should be required reading for everyone!

The historic information

Great appreciation for the people who helped distribute the books while risking their lives; and making a huge difference in the outcome getting rid of communism

Unknown History

Read this important book! As a history major, stories of the clandestine activities of the CIA I learned about are focused on quasi military activity. This was fascinating to read.

Deceptively titled book

Over 90% focused on Poland. Other Eastern European nations are barely mentioned at all. Mainly a history of Solidarity and is more tedious than gripping. Very disappointing.