John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Russian Defense Minister Honors Legendary German-Soviet Spy at Tokyo Grave
“Richard Sorge told Stalin Japan would not attack allowing him to move Siberian division to rebuke the Germans at Moscow”
I read a biography of Richard Sorge some years ago. He was a remarkably talented and daring man.
As with so many top spies, he was not particularly admirable or ethical in his personal life, quite the opposite indeed. That generally "comes with the territory" for top spies, who do tend to be extreme narcissists, if not out-and-out sociopaths.
But his being mentioned here reminds me of that golden period when the Soviet Union had the most remarkable success with its recruitment abroad of "humint," as some security services call their live spies.
There was a list of them, including, of course, the famous Cambridge Circle in Britain, which included such important spies as Donald Maclean and Kim Philby.
And the German, Klaus Fuchs, who worked at the Manhattan Project and gave the Soviets perhaps their best information on the American atomic bomb design.
Perhaps, the non-monetary, idealism of the time gave the Soviet Union an edge in gaining the service of such first-class people, some of them being deeply concerned about the future intentions of the United States.
Going the other way, many, although not all, of the spies in Russia serving the United States, seemed motivated by money, not as strong a motive as idealism or political faith.
Stalin, being a rather paranoid man, did not always trust the excellent intelligence he received. Some of it was definitely wasted because he refused to trust it.
In this, he resembled the Germans who threw away the deadly accurate revelations by "Cicero," a spy from the British Turkish embassy, revelations with exact details of the upcoming D-Day landing.
The ancient Greek myth about Cassandra's curse was a profound idea. She was condemned always to speak the truth while having no one believe her.
