Major Acid's E-Rag
What Else Is There?
Volume 1, Number 4
Spy Stories
�It is not obligatory to be a perfect marksman or a sprinter. It is necessary to be wiser than the enemy, a charming person, and to love the motherland.� Those are the words of Dmitri Yakushkin, a Russian spymaster who earned the nickname �the Gray Cardinal�, not from his opponents, but from his own KGB operatives. The nickname ties Yakushkin to one of his historical predecessors, the infamous Cardinal Richelieu.
Both Richelieu and Yakuskin get brief profiles in �Spy Stories�, a special edition of �U.S. News and World Report.� With only some 85 pages to play with, this one-off magazine is not in any way an in-depth study of all things spook, but its range is broad, jumping from the tediously well-known to some lesser-known and far more interesting spy world tidbits. Overall, it provides some light, summertime reading.
The well-known stories include the D-Day deception, in which a double agent�s information helped convince the Germans that the fateful invasion of France would happen at Pas de Calais rather than Normandy. Another tired tale is that of Enigma, the WW II German code machine cracked by Alan Turing and friends. Then there is Kim Philby, who perfectly reflected Yakushkin�s commentary on what it takes to be a spy. Bright, charming and dedicated to communist ideals, Philby operated for decades before escaping to Russia.
Unlike Philby, though, Yakushkin didn�t drink himself to death in enforced retirement. He simply retired and enjoyed the wealth his years of service and power had given him until age did him in. Others in the spy game weren�t so lucky, like Raoul Wallenberg.
Wallenberg, well-known as a saviour of Jews in WW II, also dabbled in the intelligence business it seems. Ultimately, he disappeared into mother Russia�s not-so-maternal clutches, and although the date and manner of his death remain unclear, his fate itself is not.
Russian�s, too, paid the ultimate price, among them the not so well known Richard Sorge. Sorge�s information gathering skills in the orient enabled Russia to make crucial strategic decisions that helped them prevail against German invaders. For his efforts, Jorge was captured by the Japanese and executed. More would have been welcome with this story, but though the article notes that Jorge was held for about three years before being executed, no details are given.
Spying, of course, didn�t begin and end with WW II. As long as the interests of power needed serving, spies have found gainful employment. From Hammurabi to Queen Elizabeth 1, from the balance of powers in imperial Europe to the cold war balancing act, spies have had a long, dark lineage, on that continues today.
Most of the longer �Spy Stories� articles aren�t historical, however. Instead they look at contemporary concerns such as corporate espionage and today�s high tech, post 9-11 spy world. Still, since so little detailed knowledge is to be had about contemporary spookdom (think about it) there is an historical bias to the magazine, including its 10 page book excerpt. The excerpt is taken from �The Main Enemy�,
�The Main Enemy�, KGB speak for the United States, is written by a real-life former American spook, Milt Bearden, and a spook news columnist, James Risen. The book is an insider�s view of the shadowy world of duplicity, violence and death that underpinned the Cold War, and the excerpt looks at a Russian agent, Vitaly Yurchenko, who defected and then, apparently unhappy, undefected. So to spook.
There are other tidbits in �Spy Stories�, from spy weaponry (including the infamous Bulgarian umbrella) to a short compilation of some unexpected human assets. For all his literary bravado, Hemingway came a bust as an agent while others, including the lady with the limp and the compellingly curious baseball player Moe Berg, who had his own license to kill, had more success.
Ultimately, �Spy Stories� makes a useful summertime diversion, at least on one of those depressing days when cloud and rain turn the world gray and chase us inside. Pause, though, when you�ve finished, and think of the brightest, most charming person you know and ask yourself if he, or she, might reflect the words of the gray Cardinal for some reason other than simple coincidence.
�Spy Stories� is published by U.S. News and World Report Inc. and sells for $6.99 CDN.
