{"id":8346,"date":"2020-01-20T07:42:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T12:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8346"},"modified":"2020-01-20T07:42:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T12:42:16","slug":"the-spy-and-the-traitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8346","title":{"rendered":"*****The Spy and the Traitor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Ben Macintyre \u2013 A pal of John Le Carr\u00e9, Ben Macintyre brings the novelist\u2019s gift for writing compelling characters and page-turning narrative to the nonfiction realm. The Spy and the Traitor<\/a><\/em>, subtitled \u201cThe Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War,\u201d is based on the defection to Britain of KGB operative Oleg Gordievsky, and it provides at least as many thrills as the best espionage novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gordievsky,\nraised in a family where working for the KGB is the family business, becomes\ndisenchanted with Soviet hypocrisy. Posted to Denmark, he has a tantalizing taste\nof what life is like when lived outside a surveillance society. A British MI6\nagent, working in Copenhagen under classic diplomatic cover, notices him and\nseveral modest bits of outreach are made by the two of them, but nothing comes\nof it. Gordievsky, however, sees his future and when he returns to Moscow, works\nat becoming accepted into the KGB\u2019s English-language training program. Finally,\nhe succeeds. After a few years, he\u2019s posted to London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\nthe connection is made, and over at least a dozen years, he secretly works for\nMI6. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nintelligence he provides and particularly his insights into the Soviet mindset\nare pivotal in the late Cold War era, and he provides significant background\nfor Margaret Thatcher\u2019s meetings with Soviet leaders. His advice helps her\ncraft proposals they can accept. It\u2019s vital and thrilling diplomacy, all\naccomplished well out of public view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nespecially enjoyed the intriguing nuggets of tradecraft Macintyre drops as he\nfollows Gordievsky\u2019s twisting path. That level of detail is just one feature\ninspiring confidence in the narration and investment in the protagonist\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout\nhis years spying for Britain, Gordievsky is, of course, acutely aware that\nSoviet paranoia is ever on the lookout for leaks and traitors. MI6 is so\nprotective of him, they do not even reveal his identity to the Americans. Good\nthing, too, because the head of counterintelligence in the CIA at the\ntime\u2014Aldrich Ames\u2014is himself a double agent. Ames ultimately betrays more than\ntwo dozen Western spies inside Soviet intelligence, effectively signing their\ndeath warrants. His motive? Money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every so often, Gordievsky and his family are required to return to the Soviet Union for a term of months or years. This is the normal rotation to prevent personnel from becoming too attached to their place of posting. In case he comes under suspicion while inside the Iron Curtain, MI6 prepares an elaborate escape plan. No one is truly confident this plan can work, least of all Gordievsky. A breakdown at any point will be disastrous. But once Ames fingers him, they must give it a try, and that whole episode is a real nail-biter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macintyre\u2019s book won the 2019 Gold Dagger for nonfiction, an award sponsored by the UK Crime Writers\u2019 Association. John Le Carr\u00e9 calls The Spy and the Traitor<\/a><\/em>, \u201cThe best true spy story I have ever read.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: tiburi for Pixabay.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ben Macintyre \u2013 A pal of John Le Carr\u00e9, Ben Macintyre brings the novelist\u2019s gift for writing compelling characters and page-turning narrative to the nonfiction realm. The Spy and the Traitor, subtitled \u201cThe Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"*****The Spy and the Traitor - If John Le Le Carr\u00e9 calls a book \u201cThe best true spy story I have ever read,\u201d you know it has to be good. And it is!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[440,265,193,266,267,126,35],"tags":[1688,1690,1689],"class_list":["post-8346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-biography","category-espionage","category-history","category-non-fiction","category-reading-2","category-real-life","tag-ben-macintyre","tag-oleg-gordievsky","tag-the-spy-and-the-traitor"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/train-spy.jpg?fit=398%2C462&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2aC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8348,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8346\/revisions\/8348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}