Susan Rice

1. “Warnings,” by Richard A. Clarke and R.P. Eddy: These two veterans of the White House National Security Council tried to offer, in this 2017 book, a way to anticipate the unexpected calamities that seem to come from nowhere but have huge repercussions — like, yes, pandemics.

2. “Decent Interval,” by Frank Snepp: This 1977 account by a C.I.A. intelligence analyst focuses on the United States’s chaotic withdrawal from Saigon. It is essentially the story of a foreign policy disaster: the poorly executed exit from a war that had gone on too long.

3. “Spycatcher,” by Peter Wright: Another intelligence officer’s account, this one from the former assistant director of MI5. It is full of untold Cold War stories — assassination plots, eavesdropping schemes and the like. Publication of the book was initially banned in England.