Relating to the issue of independence, I want to recommend a great non-fiction spy book: A Secret Life by Benjamin Weiser, 2004. Maybe this has been posted on before; I don’t recall. It is about a very high level Polish officer who spied for the CIA, at great risk to his life, for nine years–telling us everything about Russian plans for a possible invasion of Europe (and later of Poland.) He was motivated by principle, the desire for freedom. Very dramatic and a good ending.
