The life (such as it is) of a Chinese spy: "A Chinese Spy Tells His Story".
I wonder if the CIA is having any trouble recruiting spies. I should think that America is now considered an unreliable "employer", and what with the emphasis on "diversity" within this, as well as all other, federal agencies, do we possess a sufficient number of people who are any good at espionage anymore? At assessment, analysis and operations? Color me highly skeptical.
I think spying attracts a certain kind of individual. While we were in West Germany, I worked for a short while as a typist for a special operations detachment (IOW, Army spies). They did all the spy things you see in the movies, except maybe for car chases and gunfights. Their personal lives were total chaos. The youngest agent in the group wasn't yet thirty years old and had already been married and divorced three times. The sole female agent was the kind of woman who could eat your typical Karen for breakfast, and she always had a petty feud going with the other agents. The one German national there wouldn't speak to anybody, and the civilian director of the group was born in Egypt. The Army commander, the only one who wore a uniform, wasn't there a lot of the time. The other secretary (who had a higher security clearance than my "Confidential" one) had a German mother and an American father who got canned from his job at AAFES for embezzlement. The girl had spent a total of six weeks of her life in America, so I doubt she never came back, because she had a tendency to sneer at everything American. We also socialized with a guy who lived in our neighborhood (Perlacher Forst, at that time filled with military and NATO families) who worked for the CIA and had been a bodyguard for Henry Kissinger. The guy was a drunk.
ReplyDeleteHave things improved in the intelligence community? You tell me.
I bet that's very likely the profile as it has existed through the ages.
ReplyDeleteAt our agency, because we had dealings with numerous foreign countries, we had a CIA "guy" who was assigned to the organization, but nobody ever knew who he or she was (so they managed to keep that bit a secret, at any rate).
Years ago a guy I worked with, who was Russian and had slipped away from a technical conference outside of Russia and didn't go back, told me a spy joke, about a guy who was taught to speak Russian fluently, taught Russian mannerisms, food and grooming, perfect documents and cover story, the works.
ReplyDeleteFirst mission, his handlers slip him into the country, he is immediately caught and executed as a spy; why? he was Black.
India in the 1980s was a place to meet Russians/Soviets and CIA.
ReplyDeleteAn American friend met a fellow Merkin at the airport, turned out they were both from the same NJ town. Asked 'What do you do?' the guy opened his wallet and showed a dozen different IDs, 'CIA'. He was dressed like a Yogi in Indian clothes!
Evere read John Buchan's Greenmantle, where the Dervish dancers turn out to be English spies? Or something like that.
I was at university with a Chinese former Red Guard whose father was mayor of some city. He 'befriended me' and I helped him with his english. Other Chinese warned me not to share too much with him - things they'd told me in confidence such as seeing Mao's children at the airport. They were scared of him.
I've read quite a bit of Buchan in my time, and I have Greenmantle, but I don't believe I've read it.
ReplyDeleteWe were missionaries of course. An organisation founded in NY - so everyone thought we were CIA in the 1980s. Which was why my associate thought meeting a real CIA in Calcutta airport was so funny. We dressed in Indian clothes, so did the CIA. I first landed in India with the group in 1980, when we went to one of the better beaches, where I saw these fat hairy Euros in weird unfashionable clothes who must have been Soviets. They came in groups to work on engineering projects. Tightly supervised of course.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, one very enthusiastic lady in our group wanted to spread our literature into the Soviet Union. But she was American and couldn't just walk up to them. She got a trusted Indian guy who worked as a welcomer for the foreigners. He gave these spiritual books to individual Soviets as gifts. These slowly had an effect over many years, handed from one to the next, and when the wall came down in 1990, hundreds of followers emerged from the shadows. A few casualties along the way when some secret followers were caught and put in mental hospitals, even in Gorbachev's time. Five years ago there were tens of thousands in Ukraine and Russia.
All through volunteers - How much do you pay the CIA?
The one place my friends could never crack was China. Some live there, that's not a problem, but every time they open a center for meetings, the China authorities shut it down.
I'm no longer a member but I keep up with what they're doing. I met my West Indian wife through the group, she's still somewhat involved. My kids aren't interested.
Maybe it was all for nothing, the world has changed so much since the 1970s and 1980s when all this happened. I'm pessimistic.
unfortunately, that seems to be the fate of many people who are paying attention...
ReplyDeleteI feel like I've become more pessimistic over time too; maybe it was the death of Veshir's dog... Kagogi could be counted on to lighten my mood with his antics; comic relief after reading Veshir's informative posts.
Oh man, I googled Kagogi. Don't.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, all the best and thanks.