The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service, by Henry A. Crumpton (New York: Penguin, 2012).

At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA, by George Tenet (New York: HarperCollins, 2007).

At the Hurricane’s Eye: U.S. Special Operations Forces from Vietnam to Desert Storm, by Greg Walker (New York: Ivy, 1994).

Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America’s War Against Terror, by David C. Martin and John Walcott (New York: Touchstone, 1988).

Between Threats and War: U.S. Discrete Military Operations in the Post–Cold War World, by Micah Zenko (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010).

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, by Mark Bowden (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999).

Blank Check: The Pentagon’s Black Budget, by Tim Weiner (New York: Warner, 1990).

Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism (New York: Basic Books, 2005).

Brave Men, Dark Waters: The Untold Story of the Navy SEALs, by Orr Kelly (New York: Pocket Books, 1993).

Bush at War, by Bob Woodward (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002).

A Captain’s Duty, by Richard Phillips with Stephen Talty (New York: Hyperion, 2010).

Clinton’s Secret Wars: The Evolution of a Commander in Chief, by Richard Sale (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009).

Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, by Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor (New York: Pantheon, 2006).

Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs, and Operations in the 9/11 World, by William M. Arkin (Hanover, N.H.: Steerforth, 2005).

Combat Swimmer: Memoirs of a Navy SEAL, by Captain Robert A. Gormly, USN (Ret.) (New York: Dutton, 1998).

The Command, an e-book by Marc Ambinder and D. B. Grady (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2012).

The Commandos: The Inside Story of America’s Secret Soldiers, by Douglas C. Waller (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).

Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda, by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker (New York: Times Books, 2011).

Crippled Eagle: A Historical Perspective on U.S. Special Operations, 1976–1996, by Rod Lenahan (Charleston, S.C.: Narwhal, 1998).

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer (New York: Doubleday, 2008).

Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry, by Marc Ambinder and D. B. Grady (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2013).

Defusing Armageddon: Inside NEST, America’s Secret Nuclear Bomb Squad, by Jeffrey T. Richelson (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).

Delta Force, by Col. Charlie Beckwith (Ret.) (New York: Avon, 2000).

Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield, by Jeremy Scahill (New York: Nation Books, 2013).

The Endgame: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, by Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor (New York: Pantheon, 2012).

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas E. Ricks (New York: Penguin, 2006).

The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden, by Mark Bowden (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012).

First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan, by Gary C. Schroen (New York: Presidio, 2005).

Ghost Wars, by Steve Coll (New York: Penguin, 2004).

Growing Up bin Laden: Osama’s Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World, by Najwa bin Laden, Omar bin Laden, and Jean Sasson (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009).

Guests of the Ayatollah, by Mark Bowden (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006).

Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God, by Matthew Levitt (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2013).

High-Value Target: Countering Al Qaeda in Yemen, by Amb. Edmund J. Hull (Ret.) (Dulles, Va.: Potomac, 2011).

The Human Factor, by Ishmael Jones (New York: Encounter, 2008).

Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL

Team Six, by Jessica Buchanan and Erik Landemalm with Anthony Flacco (New York: Atria, 2013).

In My Time, by Dick Cheney (New York: Threshold, 2011).

Inside Delta Force, by Eric L. Haney (New York: Dell, 2003).

Intelligence Wars: Lessons from Baghdad, by Steven K. O’Hern (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 2008).

Jawbreaker, by Gary Berntsen and Ralph Pezzullo (New York: Crown, 2005).

Kill bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander’s Account of the Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted Man, by Dalton Fury (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008).

Killer Elite: The Inside Story of America’s Most Secret Special Operations Team, by Michael Smith (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2006).

Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw, by Mark Bowden (New York: Penguin, 2001).

Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency, by Daniel Klaidman (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).

Known and Unknown, by Donald Rumsfeld (New York: Sentinel, 2011).

The Longest War, by Peter L. Bergen (New York: Free Press, 2011).

Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad, by Peter L. Bergen (New York: Crown, 2012).

The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander, by Pete Blaber (New York: Berkley, 2008).

My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Army (Ret.) (New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2013).

Never Surrender, by LTG (Ret.) William G. Boykin with Lynn Vincent (New York: FaithWords, 2008).

The Night Stalkers, by Michael J. Durant and Steven Hartov (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006).

No Easy Day: The Autobiography of a Navy SEAL, by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer (New York: Dutton, 2012).

No Room for Error: The Covert Operations of America’s Special Tactics Units from Iran to Afghanistan, by Colonel John T. Carney Jr. and Benjamin F. Schemmer (New York: Ballantine, 2002).

No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah, by Bing West (New York: Bantam, 2005).

Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda, by Sean Naylor (New York: Berkley, 2005).

Obama’s Wars, by Bob Woodward (New York: Simon &