Crossing the Red Line

Near the close of the Cold War era, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency used a highly placed mole within Taiwan's nuclear weapons program to halt the project just as it had accumulated enough plutonium to build a small arsenal of atomic bombs. Crossing the Red Line provides a first-hand account of how the CIA whisked its spy out of Taiwan and shut down the project in 1988. The U.S. had once tacitly supported the nuclear efforts of its Cold War allies -- Taiwan, Israel and South Africa -- all pariah states with hostile enemies on their borders. Yet decades later, America switched its diplomatic recognition to China and was forced to withdraw support from Taiwan. The diplomatically isolated nation still has security issues, and its dangerous nuclear legacy persists today. Crossing the Red Line tells this little-known story from the viewpoints of two key scientists who were working inside the Taiwan project, one of whom is the spy recruited by the CIA.