Overworld
Book Author -
Larry J.Kolb
Book review by - S.S.George
Dean, ICMR Case Studies and Management Resources
As the son of a senior intelligence officer, Larry J.
Kolb was born into the world of spies. As he grew older, he resisted numerous
invitations to follow in his father’s footsteps, choosing instead to become a
businessman and hobnob with the wealthy and famous. Ultimately however, he was
recruited as an agent by Miles Copeland, one of the founders of the CIA. In
Overworld, Kolb describes his life in espionage.
|
Overworld is the memoir of a man who claims to
have been a spy. The author of the book, Larry J. Kolb, has an easy and
engaging style of writing; consequently, the book is interesting,
reading like a spy novel – so much so that one is tempted to doubt
whether it is a memoir or a work of fiction. But the incidents that are
described in the book have happened, and many of the people Kolb
describes are well known, and seem familiar enough to the author.
Kolb is a good story teller, and this is one of the many talents that he
says made him a good spy. And certainly, the book has some great
stories. He also had a genuine liking for people, and made friends
easily – other qualities that, according to him, are required to be an
effective spy.
|
|
Kolb was born into the world of espionage. His father was a senior US
intelligence agent, and he spent his childhood moving from country to
country with his parents. His introduction to tradecraft also began in
his childhood, with young Larry sitting “on the stairs in the dark and
listening to his father and his men downstairs drinking into the night
and saying things they thought no one else would hear”.
A few years prior to his father’s retirement, the family
moved back to the United States. At the age of 22, the CIA attempted to recruit
him, but Kolb had other plans. Always an adventurous soul, he drifted around the
world, finally hitting upon the idea of starting a tour company that promoted
and arranged adventure tours to various parts of the world. With his
considerable charm and skills of persuasion, within a year, he managed to have
his business featured in a story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.
Subsequently, he hit upon the idea of promoting golf tours, a venture that
brought him into contact with many celebrities and sports starts, and where his
people skills won him many friends. At one point, he married Jan Stephenson, an
Australian golfer, who was once described as the Australian Sex Bomb. However,
the marriage ended in divorce after just six months. During this period, he also
met Mohammed Ali, who was even then a hugely popular figure around the world,
and became his friend and eventually his agent, arranging Ali’s appearances
around the world. The job entailed traveling around the world with Ali, and
brought Kolb into contact with more rich and powerful people, with many of whom
became friendly.
He also met Adnan Khashoggi. According to Kolb, Khashoggi was no mere arms
dealer – instead, he was often a go-between for the Saudi royal family and
successive US presidents, and often the person who provided the link between the
western and Arabic cultures. Khashoggi had a “genius for explaining the West to
Arabs and Arabs to the West.”
The son of the court physician to King Abdul Aziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia,
Khashoggi grew up at the court in Riyadh, with prince Sultan who would later
become the Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia. His contacts with the Saudi royal
family, and the members of the ruling class in other Arab countries stood him in
good stead later, when he would become the intermediary between Arabs and the
west – and an immensely wealthy power broker and middleman.
Eventually, Kolb ended up marrying Khashoggi’s stepdaughter
Kim, the daughter of his first wife Soraya. His various business interests, his
friendship with Khashoggi, and his job as Ali’s agent took him around the world,
often to places where other Americans would have been unwelcome. This made Kolb
an irresistible target for recruitment by CIA. Ultimately, he was recruited by
Miles Copeland, one of the founders of the CIA, who also had him trained him in
the basics of spying. Copeland, after retiring from the CIA continued to work
with his old organization, in an unofficial capacity.
More >>
2005, ICMR Case Studies and Management Resources. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted
in any form or by any means - electronic or mechanical, without permission.
|
More Classifications...