In literature and film the spy chief is an allknowing allpowerful figure who masterfully moves spies into action like pieces on a chessboard. How close to reality is that depiction and what does it really take to be an effective leader in the world of intelligenceThis first volume of Spy Chiefs broadens and deepens our understanding of the role of intelligence leaders in foreign affairs and national security in the United States and United Kingdom from the early 1940s to the present. The figures profiled range from famous spy chiefs such as William Donovan Richard Helms and Stewart Menzies to littleknown figures such as John Grombach who ran an intelligence organization so secret that not even President Truman knew of it.