Stephen Long

In June 1949, the US and British governments secretly agreed to mount a joint covert action operation to overthrow the communist government in Albania. The top-secret plan would use exiled dissidents to conduct subversive intelligence, paramilitary and propaganda operations to foment an uprising against Albania's authoritarian ruler Enver Hoxha. The Albanian operation is a vital but misunderstood part of Cold War history. A Rich Harvest of Bitter Fruit explains the west's first secret attempt to subvert a communist state behind the iron curtain - this was the test case of anti-communist covert action where the west served its apprenticeship before rolling out this capability on a global scale. Drawing on a range of material and primary sources, this is the first book to take an international look at this crucial flashpoint and incorporate the motives and actions of all three major actors - the western alliance, the Communist powers, and the Albanian rebels themselves. A tale of subterfuge, secrecy and skulduggery, this is a compulsively readable and fascinating examination of one of the most important, and least examined, major flashpoints of the Cold War.

This text/reference develops practical intuition into the art of RF circuit design and introduces users to the widely used simulation tool, Pathwave ADS, from Keysight Technologies. By using project-oriented assignments, it builds a strong foundation and focuses on practical applications illustrated by examples, simulation tutorials, and homework problems. Learning through doing has proven to be an effective preparatory tool for more advanced and complex applications, and this book is developed from the author’s lecture notes for a senior/graduate class at University of California Santa Barbara. The class had a significant lab component employing measurement techniques, board-level prototyping, and RFIC design. Falling somewhere between a traditional textbook and a practical handbook, it focuses mainly on analog RF analysis and design and circuit simulation techniques.

This is a fun book about a serious subject. It reminds people that someday they will meet their maker face to face. The book contains 100 questions that you may wish to ask Him about a wide variety of subjects including Jesus, God Himself, Heaven, the divine system, reincarnation, the history of the earth, past civilizations, evolution, alien visitation, the Akashic records, the great flood, and more. The author does not claim to have any answers whatsoever but, like you, he has many questions about life on Earth and the hereafter. By making a list of questions for God ahead of time, we all can make the most of what literally will be the opportunity of our lifetime. He claims to be just a regular guy, a common man, and has no religious training or particular religious beliefs. He believes that although we think of ourselves as being quite sophisticated and technologically advanced we are in fact one of the dumbest, most arrogant, and self-absorbed incarnations, or crops, of human beings that has ever lived on planet Earth. In addition many in our society today have distanced themselves from God and view science as a new religion thinking that they can cheat death by merging consciousness with machines. We know that we have been lied to many times by our government, educators, and the news media concerning many recent and current events. Therefore it is reasonable to believe that much of our history is, at best, only partially true and likely this history is a bald faced lie. In fact we are lied to so often we don't know what to believe any more. Since evidence can be fabricated, and testimony can be distorted or withheld, it is easy to be doubtful about anything we are told. It is possible that soon even video and photographic evidence will no longer be admissible in court. So when it comes down to religious beliefs it is not a question of proof but a matter of Faith. Until we can ask God directly, Faith is all we can rely on to now to guide us about how to treat each other and how to live our lives. It has been said that we are our own worst enemy. The author thinks that it would be more accurate to say that our belief system is our own worst enemy. As long as we live it is unlikely that we will ever know the whole Truth about anything. All we can hope for is to learn a fragment or some slivers of Truth until we hear directly from God. Hopefully by formulating our questions ahead of time we will be able to satisfy our curiosity about 0ur history and life in general when we get an audience with the Father.

The Central Intelligence Agency was established by Harry S. Truman after World War II and it soon provided covert political and paramilitary support to further US foreign policy. Strengthened by President Eisenhower and under the command of Allen Dulles, by the early 1950s, the CIA was actively overthrowing governments, notably Prime Minister Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 and President Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala in 1954. The Agency was less effective in Eastern Europe, however, where the Soviet Union had established control, despite opportunities for US interference such as the East German riots in 1953 and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Stephen Long challenges the accepted view that the US believed in a post-World War II ordering of Europe which placed the East outside an American 'sphere of influence'. He argues instead that 'disorder prevailed over design' in the planning and organization of intelligence operations during the early stages of the Cold War, and that the period represents a missed opportunity for the US during the Cold War. Featuring new archival material and a new approach which seeks to unpick the relationship between the CIA, the US government and the Soviet Union, The CIA and the Soviet Bloc sheds new light on espionage, the Cold War, US diplomatic history and the history of twentieth-century Europe.