Secret revolution: Memoirs of a spy boss

Tafelberg Publishers, softcover, illustrated, indedx, 304 pages, condition: new.

In the murky world of espionage few rules apply. Everything is permitted in the name of state security - even talking to the country's Enemy No. 1. This is exactly what Niël Barnard, then head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), did in the late 1980s, conducting top-secret talks with Nelson Mandela in prison - the precursor to Mandela's release and the democratic elections. The book also sheds light on the daily lives of spies during NIS's heyday in the 1980s and contains several revelations about the organisation's accomplishments.

An excellent insight into the behind the scenes machinations in the 1980's when the National Party realised that farcical "God-given" dream of Apartheid was starting to crumble and how a young Niel Barnard went about his task "outside of the political wrangling of the cabinet" to pave a smoother transition to a black government in SA. Most interesting was confirmation of the attitudes and egos of the likes of FW De Klerk, Pik Botha and the shocking manner in which PW Botha was stabbed in the back by his own cabinet and that FW and Mandela did not really like or have much time for each other.
Politics is not for sissies, that is for sure!