King of Spies

August 7, 2017
Journalist Harden (The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot) mines a broad spectrum of archival records, legal documents, and personal interviews to reveal the sordid side of one of Cold War America’s most notable intelligence operatives. In 1946, Donald Nichols (1923–1992) was an anonymous motor-pool sergeant when he attracted the attention of a U.S. intelligence system flailing in the Cold War’s murk. After three months’ training, Nichols was assigned to a backwater: South Korea. By 1950 he had developed unrivalled connections, from President Syngman Rhee downward. Nichols accurately predicted the North Korean invasion and spent the war conducting an increasingly spectacular and comprehensive intelligence campaign. Harden acknowledges Nichols’s “exquisite gift for clandestine operations” but presents Nichols as a loose cannon given a free hand by both U.S. and Korean authorities. Nichols witnessed, sanctioned, and participated in atrocities and war crimes; described himself as unfit to manage what he called “a legal license to murder”; and admitted to needing “tighter supervision.” He was also a sexual predator. With the war over, Nichols became expendable, receiving shock therapy and Thorazine as part of his military psychiatric treatment. Harden’s Nichols is both a victim and an exemplar of a war that “most Americans never debated, let alone understood.” Photos. Agent: Raphael Sagalyn, ICM/Sagalyn.

August 15, 2017
Fascinating account of an espionage pioneer who thrived during the Korean War and then disappeared into disgraced obscurity.Harden (The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom, 2015, etc.) deepens his exploration of Korean history with the bizarre story of Donald Nichols (1923-1992), who spent World War II as a motor pool sergeant, then moved into military intelligence in Korea as the peninsula was descending into civil war, becoming a confidant of anti-communist strongman (and eventual South Korean president) Syngman Rhee. "In Nichols," writes the author, "Rhee discovered a back door for delivering intelligence that could influence American policy toward Korea." However, Nichols also witnessed Rhee's torture and massacre of both insurgents and civilians prior to the 1950 Soviet-backed North Korean invasion. Nichols' prescient warnings about the invasion to the American military were ignored; once war began, he was able to run operations including code-breaking and pilfering secrets from disabled Russian tanks and planes. "The air force credited Nichols, more than anyone else, with finding bomb targets in North Korea," writes Harden. Under the protection of a powerful superior, Nichols built up an unsupervised black-ops unit, often sending South Koreans on suicide missions. His shadowy activities continued after the 1952 armistice (when he was vilified as a spy in a North Korean show trial), but in 1957, Nichols was abruptly sacked by the military and hospitalized, receiving electroshock therapy. Living with relatives in Florida, the ex-spymaster tried to acclimate to civilian life, but he was eventually revealed to be a sexual predator, accused of molesting young boys. Harden's research shows such behavior had begun with his subordinates during the war, seemingly signifying the amoral inner life of an otherwise audacious, successful spy. The author ably connects his ominous central figure to the larger mysterious, unresolved narrative of the Korean conflict. An engrossing hidden history of wartime espionage, with elements of derring-do and moral barbarity.

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October 1, 2017

Harden's (Escape from Camp 14) third book on North Korea tells the bizarre tale of Donald Nichols, an army motor pool sergeant-turned-spy chief, who masterminded U.S. intelligence operations in Korea for a decade starting just before the Korean War in this provocative tale of intelligence coups, atrocities, and strange behavior. Very successful spy operations and a close relationship with South Korean strongman Syngman Rhee earned Nichols wide latitude for bad behavior and violations of U.S. military regulations. Falling from grace in 1957, Nichols was evacuated from Korea in a straitjacket and treated for serious mental illness. Harden also documents Nichols's serious sex crimes and financial wrongdoing after returning from Korea. From Nichols's autobiography, court and press records, and obscure military records, Harden has uncovered this story of both great success and large failures. VERDICT For readers interested in Korea, the Korean War, or U.S. intelligence operations, this is a must-read. Harden raises troubling questions about U.S. conduct in the Korean War.--Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

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