The Secret Agents Who Changed The Course Of History

"spy" is still not a nice word. (Which is why espionage organizations

prefer to call themselves "intelligence agencies," and their

employees prefer the job title "intelligence officer.") However

much modern political cynicism might concede the necessity of

snooping on certain other people in a dangerous world, espionage

is not a profession parents hope their children will enter.

Spying acquired its unsavory reputation at the moment of

its birth, somewhere around 5,000 years ago in ancient Egypt,

when King Thutmosis III hit upon the idea of concealing men

inside flour sacks to spy on the besieged city of Jaffa. Thutmosis

organized history's first official government state espionage apparatus,

an innovation he later had chiseled among hieroglyphics

recording the triumphs of his reign—although he was careful to

categorize his espionage feats under the heading of "secret science."

They represented a distinctly secondary note alongside

such real accomplishments as the construction of cities and the

filling of granaries that provided food for his people. Thutmosis

may have been a great spymaster, but he sensed there was something

not quite nice about snooping, even on his enemies, and it

is clear that he much preferred to be remembered for other examples

of his statecraft.

The Bible subsequently recorded Moses dispatching spies to "go

spy the land," but it was not until the creation of great nation

states three centuries ago that organized espionage—and spies—

became an integral part of statecraft. At the same time, a distaste

for spies and spying began to develop among the people of those

great nation states. (James Bond is only the latest in a long line

of fictional characters who never seem to dirty their hands in the

real-life grubby world of the spy.)

In the twentieth century, entire armies of spies have been

deployed during a period in history marked by almost continuous

war. And where there is war, there are spies. To confront the more

than 200,000 spies employed by the Soviet Union at the height

of its power, and the slighdy smaller espionage army of the United

States is to understand how deeply spying has woven itself into

the fabric of modern civilization.

This century has sometimes been called "the century of the

spy," because the insatiable quest for information by modern industrialized

states has created the vast armies of spies who have

come to play such a critical role in the course of world history.