Forty Years of Soviet Spying in NATO: A Preliminary Study
2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 37; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/08850607.2023.2246649
ISSN1521-0561
Autores Tópico(s)Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies
ResumoAbstractThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)'s security against Soviet espionage was devastating. Open sources reveal more than 60 spies unmasked, named, and accused of directly stealing NATO secrets on behalf of Soviet intelligence services, the State Committee for Security (KGB) and Main Intelligence Directorate, while NATO's own secret report estimated 300 spies. These unmaskings attested to the efficacy of Western counterintelligence, but nevertheless evidenced deep and sustained infiltration by Soviet agents. This study, unfortunately, may only be considered preliminary because it is the first one to examine the totality of espionage within NATO during the Soviet years, even though the complete historical record remains inaccessible. Second, most of the information has been gleaned from journalistic sources. Third, the real damage of stolen classified materials remains elusive owing to laws that prevent disclosure. Absent a practical way to verify compromises, NATO officials had little recourse but to assume that Moscow possessed all classified information exposed to spies. Notes1 John Barron, KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Agents (New York: Readers Digest Press, 1974), p. 20.2 When NATO was established in 1949, Soviet espionage was carried out by the Ministry of Security, the precursor of the KGB, established in 1954.3 Oleg Kalugin, The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage against the West (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), p. 150.4 House of Representatives Session, Gerald Solomon, Congressional Record, 10 March 1992; Senate Session, John Warner, Congressional Record, 20 May 1992. See also, "NATO Report Estimates 300 Soviet Spies Operated Within Alliance," New York Times, 10 March 1992.5 See, for example, two excellent books by Ben MacIntyre: A Spy among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal (London: Bloosbury, 2015) and The Spy and the Traitor: The Great Espionage Story of the Cold War (London: Penguin Random House, 2019), a detailed biography of Soviet defector Oleg Gordievsky. See also, John Vassall, The Autobiography of a Spy (London: Sigwick and Jackson, 1975).6 Edward B. Atkeson, "NATO Intelligence—A Contradiction in Terms," Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 28 (1984), pp. 1–3. Redacted.7 "NATO Shfts (sic) A-Arms, Codes in Spy Scare," Washington Post, 31 October 1968. N.B.: The NATO Archives has been unresponsive to the author's request for a copy of the November 1968 report to the foreign ministers. NATO records relating to espionage remain inaccessible with few exceptions.8 CIA, "Interim Report on Espionage and Security," 29 July 1986. This document and all other CIA documents cited herein can be accessed at www.ciareadingroom.gov9 Jay Tuck, High Tech Espionage: How the KGB Smuggles NATO Strategic Secrets to Moscow (London: Future Publications, 1987).10 Ibid., pp. 50–121.11 Kalugin, The First Directorate, p. 78.12 MacIntyre, The Spy and the Traitor, pp. 142–147; Taylor Downing, 1983: Reagan, Andropov and a World on the Brink (New York: Da Capo Press, 2018), pp. 68–89.13 "Germany Fighting Off Spy Onslaught," Herald Tribune, 8 October 1961.14 Tuck, High Tech Espionage, pp. 19 and 96.15 CIA, "Memorandum for the Chief of the German Branch," 1 November 1968.16 "Germany Fighting Off Spy Onslaught," Herald Tribune, 8 October 1968.17 "Bonn Experts Say Defector Was One," New York Times, 26 October 1967; "Soviet Defector Linked to Talbot Safe House," Baltimore Sun, 29 October 1967.18 CIA, "Press Item for the DCI," 30 October 1967.19 "NATO is Believed Riddled with Spies," Daily News (Washington), 23 October 1968.20 P.L. Thyraud de Vosjoli suspected the film was a fabrication because how could he have been so forgetful? He had been under suspicion; perhaps it was a trick to get him to confess. "The French Spy Scandal: Some Sinister Secrets," Life, 26 April 1968, pp. 30–37.21 "Slain Bonn Official Suspected as Spy," Washington Post, 23 October 1968; "Suicide of 4th Official Revealed: Spy Hunt Pressed," Baltimore Sun, 23 October 1968.22 "NATO Is Urged to Shift A-Bombs in Spy Scare," Washington Post, 26 October 1968; "Espionage: All Honorable Men," Newsweek, 4 November 1968.23 Richard Deacon, Russian Secret Service (London: Grafton Books, 1972), p. 368.24 "Spies: A Model Secretary," Newsweek, 19 March 1979; "Defector Says NATO Plans First Atom Raid," New York Times, 18 January 1980; "West Germany: Easy Prey in Spy Game," Los Angeles Times, 1 September 1985.25 Thierry Wolton, Le KGB en France (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1986), pp. 90, 279; CIA, "Biweekly Propaganda Guidance," 27 May 1967; Richard Deacon, French Secret Service (London: Grafton Books, 1970), p. 222.26 "The Alliance's Security Was Left Out in the Cold: Tingling Thriller," Daily News (Washington), 5 November 1968; "How Spies Stole Allied Missile and Sent it to the Soviet," New York Times, 30 October 1968.27 Deacon, Russian Secret Service, p. 289.28 Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB (New York: Basic Books, 1999), p. 449.29 "World: Secretary Sentenced as Soviet Spy," Los Angeles Times, 11 May 1989.30 "NATO Changes Codes after Spy Codes," The Daily Telegraph (London), 11 April 1975.31 Andrew and Mitrokin, The Sword and the Shield, p. 448.32 Ibid., pp. 447–448. "Bonn Adds up Damage from Defection of Top Counterspy," Washington Times, 2 September 1985.33 "Spies Stole Top NATO, Bonn Secrets," Washington Post, 13 December 1977; "Bonn Defense Aide Suspended After Spy Disclosure," New York Times, 14 December 1977.34 Andrew and Mitrokin, The Sword and the Shield, pp. 443–445.35 "Top Bonn Counterspy Defects to East Germany," Washington Post, 24 August 1985; "West German Aide in Espionage Post is Said to Defect," New York Times, 24 August 1985; "East German Spy Chief Tells NATO of Soviet Readiness for War," Washington Post, 2 September 1985; "US Spying Held Unhurt by West German Breech," New York Times, 8 September 1985.36 "Bonn Spies Impact Described as 'Grave,'" Baltimore Sun, 27 August 1985.37 The DIA report or extracts were released to Washington Post columnists Jack Anderson and Dale van Atta, who described three spies in their column of 2 September 1985. The author's Freedom of Information Act request for the full espionage report has gone unanswered. In addition, although George Washington University Library Special Collections has custody of the Anderson Papers, the factual backup materials for this column cannot be made available for research until 2032, according to the deed of gift.38 Downing, 1983, pp. 129–134. MacIntyre, The Spy and the Traitor, pp. 178–183.39 www.nato.int.40 De Vosjoli, Lamia (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1970), pp. 193–194; Deacon, Russian Secret Service, p. 342.41 Deacon, French Secret Service, pp. 223–224; "NATO Spy, Uncovered French Say," News America (Baltimore), 24 August 1969; "NATO Spy Suspect May Face Death," Washington Post, 14 August 1969.42 Baron, KGB, p. 130; Andrew and Mitrokin, KGB, p. 304; Tuck, High Tech Espionage, pp. 181–182.43 Andrew and Mitrokin, The KGB, p. 467.44 Wolton, Le KGB en France, p. 118; De Vosjoli, Lamia, p. 364.45 Ibid., pp. 117–119; "Stranger than Fiction," Newsweek, 29 April 1968; "The Astonishing Story of the Soviet Spy Close to de Gaulle, The London Times, 22 April 1968; CIA, "KGB Exploitation of Heinz Felfe: Successful KGB Penetration of a Western Intelligence Service," March 1969; Don Oberdofer, "The Playboy Sergeant Who Spied for Russia," Saturday Evening Post, 7 March 1964.46 De Vosjoli, Lamia, p. 304.47 Wolton, Le KGB en France, p. 122; Douglas Porch, The French Secret Services: From the Dreyfuss Affair to the Gulf War (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993), pp. 410–412. Although this historic letter is cited in several books, newspapers, and other publications, the original letter or copy can no longer be found. In response to my inquiries about using a facsimile copy in this article, neither the Kennedy Presidential Library, the French National Archives (which has custody of the Charles de Gaulle Papers), nor the CIA could locate a copy of Kennedy's letter.48 Porch, The French Secret Services, p. 412; Wolton, Le KGB en France, p. 123.49 "Penkovsky Unmasked 3 Soviet Spies in the West," Washington Post, 18 May 1965.50 Wolton, Le KGB en France, p. 413; Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev (New York: Harper and Collins, 1990), p. 444; Secret NATO memorandum, Secretary General to Permanent Representatives, 25 March 1964, George Pâcques. Plus Annexes I–IV. www.nato.int51 Deacon, French Secret Service, pp. 208, 224–225, 299.52 Baron, KGB, pp. 214–224, 466–467.53 "Implications of Spy Case Ripples Into 2 Other Services and NATO," Washington Post, 14 June 1985. See also www.vaultfbi.gov54 Kalugin, The First Directorate, pp. 82–83, 162–163.55 De Vosjoli, Lamia, p. 314; "How to Spy in One Easy Lesson," Herald Tribune, 21 November 1964; "Spy Tells How US Data Aided Red Rocket Plans," Washington Post, 30 November 1964; Mark Hackard, "The GRU's Viking Spy in NATO," 19 June 2015, www.espionagehistory.com56 Baron, KGB, p. 21; "NATO Plane to be Spy Target," Christian Science Monitor, 18 August 1976.57 John Barron quoted Trinchin in, "Former Laval Professor Hugh Hambleton Earned High Praise," Universal Press International, 25 March 1983. See also, Wolton, Le KGB en France, pp. 124–125; "NATO Aide Admits Giving Soviets Data," Washington Times, 7 December 1982; "Spy Expert Said to be a Double Agent," Philadelphia Inquirer, 2 December 1982.58 Sheila Kerr, "'NATO's First Spies': The Case of the Disappearing Diplomats—Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean," in Securing Peace in Europe, 1945–1962, edited by Beatrice Hauser and Robert O'Neill (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), pp. 293–309; "Philby May be Behind Big Spy Ring in NATO," Sunday Telegraph, 27 October 1968; Phillip Knightley, The Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philby (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1989), p. 152.59 Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, pp. 438–439. John Vassall, accused spy, has written his own book, The Autobiography of a Spy.60 "Accused Spy Ring May Have Hurt NATO," Washington Post, 25 October 1982; "Translator, Linguist, Sergeant—Spy?," Washington Post, 31 October 1982; "Zeroing in on Prime Suspects," Time, 8 November 1982.61 "Big NATO Spy Ring Reported Broken," New York Times, 23 March 1967; "300 in NATO Called Red Spies," Washington Star, 23 March 1967; "NATO Officers' Link to Red Spy Ring Denied," Washington Star, 24 March 1967; "A NATO Spy Link Denied by Italy," New York Times, 24 March 1967.62 P. L. Thyraud De Vosjoli, "Scenario of Spies and Suicide," Life, pp. 30–37.63 "Italian Press Describes Spy Suspect's Film," Washington Post, 16 February 1983.64 MacIntyre, The Spy and the Traitor, pp. 137 and 186; Downing, 1983, p. 127; "Portrait of Spy as Golden Young Man," New York Times, 29 January 1984.65 "Soviets Blackmailed Diplomat for NATO Data, Norway Says," Washington Times, 26 February 1985; "Spy Wars: A Year of Discontent," Christian Science Monitor, 23 October 1985.66 "By Miguel Acoca," Life, 12 December 1968.67 "South African Spying Seen as Painful Blow to the West," Washington Post, 11 June 1984.68 "CIA and KGB Wage Silent Struggle for Defectors," Washington Times, 18 March 1986.Additional informationNotes on contributorsWilliam T. MurphyWilliam T. Murphy, retired from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), has an M.A. from American University. He has written books and articles on documentary film and television archives as well as several journal articles on espionage in the United States and France. Since leaving NARA, he has worked with producers of television documentaries as an archives consultant, most notably the French Apocalypse series. He is a recipient of the International Documentary Association's Preservation and Scholarship Award. The author can be contacted at wmurphy394@aol.com.
Referência(s)