According to the book description of Potsdam Mission: Memoir of a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer in Communist East, “recently declassified information makes it possible for the first time to tell part of the story behind the Cold War intelligence operations of the U.S. Military Liaison Mission (USMLM) to the Commander of the Soviet Army in Communist East Germany. Intelligence collection often led to dangerous encounters with the Soviet and East German armies. On occasion, Allied officers and non-commissioned officers were seriously injured. Before it all ended with the collapse of the Iron Curtain, one French sergeant and one American officer had been killed. Potsdam Mission traces the development of the author into a Soviet/Russian specialist and U.S. Army intelligence officer. The author then relates his own intelligence collection forays into East Germany by taking the reader on trips that include several harrowing experiences and four arrests/detentions by the Soviets Finally, the author describes the challenges and rewards of interpreting at USMLM and comments on the important role played by the Mission in Cold War intelligence.”

One reader of Potsdam Mission: Memoir of a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer in Communist East said, “an excellent and riveting first-hand report by a former U.S. Army officer about a little-known but extremely important role played by the U.S. Military Liaison Mission in Potsdam. Holbrook was a legendary Russian linguist and was considered to have native fluency. However, it would be even more interesting if Holbrook completed this abbreviated memoir with his exploits a few years later at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, where it is understood that the KGB attempted to compromise and turn him and a cloak-and-dagger story that rivals any James Bond exploit.”