The Wolf and the Watchman: A Father, a Son, and the CIA - Hardcover

Scott C. Johnson was a Newsweek foreign correspondent for twelve years, often providing exclusive war reporting from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other fronts in the Middle East. He also served as Newsweek’s bureau chief in Mexico, Baghdad, and Africa; was part of the team that won the 2003 National Magazine Award for reportage of the Iraq War; and received a 2004 Overseas Press Club Honorable Mention for his reporting from Latin America. He is now a freelance journalist and writer living in Santa Monica, California.

“A beautifully written memoir, and a cautionary tale about double lives. . . . I couldn’t put this book down.”
- Robert Baer, former CIA case officer and author of See No Evil

“Scott Johnson has written a fine book of unusual honesty; he grapples with the nature of his beloved father’s secret life and the profound consequences it has had in his own. This is an extraordinary story, astonishingly well-told.”
- Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara

“A mesmerizing book . . . beautifully written, deeply moving, and compulsively readable.”
- David Finkel, author of The Good Soldiers

“Brave and memorable . . . a rare glimpse into the private life of a spy that digs into the love, lies, and ambiguities between father and son.”
- Megan Stack, author of Every Man in This Village Is a Liar

“An aching, lyrical father-son story of the spy world that is dark and intriguing.”
- Evan Thomas, author of The War Lover

“This stunning memoir could be ripped from the pages of a John le Carré novel. . . . A fascinating and important book by one of the great American foreign correspondents of his generation.”
- Michael Hastings, author of The Operators

“[A] searingly honest memoir... [Johnson] deftly explores the eerie parallels between these professional worlds: the CIA case officer who labors to recruit sources to provide secret information to assist the United States in its pursuit of foreign policy objectives worldwide, and the journalist who also recruits inside sources, but ones who will speak for publication.”
- San Francisco Chronicle

“Evokes John le Carré’s dark autobiographical thriller The Perfect Spy.”
- Washington Post

“An enthralling look at a complicated father-son relationship and a painful investigation of the messiness of truth in journalism, intelligence ops, and life.”
- Booklist

“Johnson’s engrossing memoir, through the layers of subterfuge, uncovers many basic truths of familial conflict.”
- Publishers Weekly