  |
|
|
|
Page 2
No fiction, of course, can compare to the real stuff. The more you look into the world of covert operations, spy satellites and submarines, nuclear warhead secrets and trawlers in search of fish of a different sort, the more you come to realize how serious the Cold War was. Perhaps we were never in danger of really going to war with the Soviet Union, but don't forget the policy of "mutually assured destruction."
No one was clean in this high stakes game of cat and mouse -- they did it, and we did it, and getting caught was just a part of it all. Remember the Walker family spy ring? That was the case of an entire American family busy selling submarine secrets to the Soviet Union. And on our side, you can look no further than one particular chapter in the United States' own intelligence program , one that involved the use of United States Navy nuclear submarines (boomers, hunter-killers and "research" subs) to install these huge phone tap pods on Soviet underwater telephone lines. Most of these ops took place under the Barents Sea, with specially equipped subs slipping right past and under Soviet surface vessels and submarines. These pods recorded nearly countless phone conversations to and from top secret sub bases, and was the only way for the U.S. to intercept these secure lines. What did they find out, do you suppose? Not even the Freedom of Information Act is going to get you those particular bits of information, but some of it, I imagine, were pretty prime. Don't think that the spy game is over. It goes on and on, does this espionage stuff, in spite of the end of the Cold War. Today, our emphasis has shifted to China and the various "rogue nations," but our eyes will, I suspect, always be on the Russians. 50+ years of fear, parinoia and official enemy status didn't, alas, go away with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and in spite of our new space partnership (one of many, and perhaps best?, reasons for the necessity of space exploration), it will be a while before we can really embrace our Russian neighbors as friends.
The copyright of the article Boris & Natashia -- Pride of the KGB - Page 2 in Cold War is owned by . Permission to republish Boris & Natashia -- Pride of the KGB - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
