This incident occurred when Srodes was a member of the Business Council press corps, a tightly-knit group which regularly covered the semi-annual meeting of 200 chief executives of large corporations.
[5] When CIA Director Richard Helms addressed the Business Council in a locked-door dinner in the spring of 1969, he made it clear that his talk was off the record and no reporters would be briefed or included.
[6] The CIA director reportedly described Ho Chi Minh as “an utterly cold-blooded individual, not at all a kindly uncle” and called the Kremlin leadership “morally bankrupt.” [7] Srodes filed his story before Helms finished speaking.
Writing about the incident in the January, 1970 issue of Dun’s Review, Gerald R. Rosen described Srodes as a “whip-smart 230-pound behemoth.”[8] His most recent biography is Spies in Palestine: Love, Betrayal and the Heroic Life of Sarah Aaronsohn published by Counterpoint Press in 2016.
The book is the story of Sarah Aaronsohn and her prominent family, early settlers of Palestine who formed the Nili espionage network to spy for the Allies against the Ottoman Turkish Empire during World War One.
But the fact that it didn’t turn out that way is a real tragedy.” [10] According to Booklist, “In this engaging story of the woman called the Flame of Israel, a woman greatly admired by the fabled Lawrence of Arabia, Srodes also details the lost opportunity for a peaceful alliance between the new Israel and the indigenous people of the region.”[11] Srodes' previous book is a multiple-biography titled On Dupont Circle: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Progressives Who Shaped Our World that was published by Counterpoint Press in 2013.
[21][22] Following publication, the indicted carmaker’s defense lawyers subpoenaed Srodes, because they wanted him to name the law enforcement agents with whom he talked about John DeLorean’s alleged trafficking in cocaine.