At the end of World War II, the United States dominated the world militarily, economically and in moral standing - seen as the victor over tyranny and a champion of freedom. But the Soviet Union was already executing a plan to expand and foment revolution around the world. The American government’s strategy in response relied on the secret efforts of a newly-formed CIA.

The Quiet Americans chronicles the exploits of four spies who ran covert operations across the globe, trying to outwit the ruthless KGB in Berlin, parachuting commandos into Eastern Europe and directing wars against Communist insurgents in Asia. But their efforts often went awry, thwarted by a combination of stupidity and ideological rigidity - and more profoundly, the decision to abandon American ideals.

By the mid-1950s, the Soviet Union had a stranglehold on Eastern Europe, the US had begun its disastrous intervention in Vietnam and America, the beacon of democracy, was overthrowing democratically elected governments and earning the hatred of much of the world. All of this culminated in an act of betrayal and cowardice that would lock the Cold War into place for decades to come.