The fall of the Soviet Union had released a flood of information related to the “spy war” between the U.S. and the Soviets going back to the 1930s and the returns were pretty much in: The Soviets had hammered the U.S.
The Russians had moles in most of the major defense and intelligence agencies not only in the U.S. but in all of the West. They had penetrated almost every communications department, most secure research and regularly had people with access to the White House. They’d managed so many disinformation operations that straightening out fact from fiction was taking careful work by historians. For example, the entire Vietnam “peace movement” had been KGB funded, as were many journalism departments.
–John Ringo, Choosers of the Slain
After reading this quote, I went hunting for a good overview based on recent sources, and this book looks like the most current state of knowledge on the subject.
It’s in Kindle form, too, which I’m appreciating more and more.
The Sovs had the edge because they understood “apparat”, or bureaucracy. If you study the history of Modern Russia (since Katherine the Great), you may find reference to the Russian Civil Service, the very best bureaucracy in existence in the late 19th Century. The Russian aristocracy saw the Civil Service as a bulwark against the various Revolutions that has been coming out of Europe for 200 years.
Russian bureaucracy was so good, so pervasive, and yes, so efficient, that it even survived the idiocies of Socialism/communism, and that is why their spies WERE and ARE so good.
Running a spy net is, above all, a bureaucratic function.
Not to mention how much help they were getting from various members of the democratic party and their media friends… “useful idiots” indeed.
It’s also easier to infiltrate an open society.
Also read “Operation Solo: the FBI’s Man in the Kremlin” for the story of a true American hero… From the Amazon blurb:
Operation Solo is America’s greatest spy story. For 27 years, Morris Childs, code name “Agent 58”, provided the United States with the Kremlin’s innermost secrets.
Repeatedly risking his life, “Agent 58” made 57 clandestine missions into the Soviet Union, China, Eastern Europe, and Cuba. Because of his high ranking in the American communist party and his position as editor of its official paper, the Daily Worker, he was treated like royalty by communist leaders such as Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Mao Tse-tung. Through first-hand accounts, Operation Solo tells the story of the conflicts within the FBI and American intelligence about the operation, and how the FBI, through extraordinary measures, managed to keep that operation hidden from everyone, including the CIA.
Damn, Rick! That’s a story I did not know! Putting it on the Amazon list now.