The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage

In 2004's "The Great Game", author Frederick Hitz faces the inevitable challenge of every former intelligence officer in discussing his trade: much of what he knows is likely still classified. In preparing a class on intelligence for university students, Hitz chose an interesting way to approach this challenge. He compars our popular view of espionage as presented in novels and film with real-life declassified cases, mostly from the Cold War. The result is a concise, well-written, and fascinating introduction into the intelligence business. Hitz systematically examines a variety of topics: recruitment, betrayal, bureaucracy, counterintelligence, and a variety of aspects of tradecraft, both human and technical. He enlivens his narrative with fictional examples from a century's worth of spy fiction, from Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" to the latest John LeCarre and Tom Clancy novels. His real life points of comparison include Russians who spied for the US (Popov and Penkovsky) and Americans who spied for the Soviets (Ames and Hanssen). His examples are drawn primarily from American and British spy fiction and actual espionage. Many of Hitz's more thoughtful insights are those of a Cold War veteran who watched others squeezed by the pressures of double and even triple lives, or were undermined by doubts in their respective causes. He knowledges that much of espionage can be redundant or futile, but he is quick to note that good intelligence is often essential to national survival. His closing chapters address the new and different challenge of fanatical non-nation state threats like al-Qaeda. "The Great Game" is highly recommended as an accessible introduction to the intelligence business.

The beauty of Hitz's book is that he brings to it the experience that comes from a lifelong career in the agency. It is an insider's look, and is both a fun read and an interesting look at the career of a spy.

The Great Game is a great starting point, or ending point, for any reader interested in spy fiction. It's not a tell all account of Professor Hitz's years in the CIA, it's a topical approach to espionage writ large. Read that way it's both informative and fun. I enjoyed reading the different chapters as distinct units when I had the time. I recommend the book, just don't make the mistake of some other reviewers and assume it is something it doesn't purport to be. I found it informative and quick.

I enjoyed this book, though it has several frustrations. It is a relatively small book, and a relatively quick read. Overall, the text is very approachable and the subject matter broad but not deep. Each chapter is for a particular aspect of spying such as: sex, tradecraft, gadgets, recruitment, betrayal, retirement, etc. Each chapter is presented in an artificially independent manner; rarely does one chapter refer back to a reference in another chapter. I suppose this can help keep things straight, but it makes it more difficult to create a continuous thread of understanding through the whole book.Throughout the book, Hitz compares his experiences (rarely explicitely said or rarely a specific incident cited) to about 10 fictional accounts and about 5 true-life books previously written. There are many extended quotes followed by a short interpertation by Hitz. Most of the book focuses on what the author deems an accurate (versus inaccurate) portrayal. If you are not familiar with most of the sources he uses then you may have a difficult time keeping keeping the references straight throughout the book (as I did). I had a difficult time deciding whether to give three or four stars. The book is a nice read, but not to deep. I felt myself constantly looking for more; wondering what Hitz was leaving out, what he couldn't say and what is still classified "secret" by the government. In the end, I am not a spook so I have to give Hitz the benefit of the doubt and assume he is relatively thorough and honest.

If you are a fan of spy films and fiction, you will appreciate the countless times double agents are integral to their plots, and how often the Americans, say, would dangle rewards to recruit Soviet spies to come over to the other side. It worked in fiction; it never worked, not once, in any significant way, in actual spying. Frederick P. Hitz, who has a long history of service with the CIA, knows this and says it is confirmed by former CIA director Robert M. Gates and case officer Dwight Clarridge. In _The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage_ (Knopf), Hitz gives an overview of 20th century spying, comparing fiction to the real thing. It will be a book best appreciated by those who are familiar with the work of such authors as le Carré and Graham Greene, but it can be appreciated not just for the comparisons between fact and fiction, but for the many observations of fact about the spying game.Rather than recruitments, there were walk-ins by Soviets; a spy (or potential spy) literally walked in to an embassy and offered his services. Changing sides comes from diverse motivations. Some Soviet walk-ins disliked the repression of the Soviet state. Others needed money. Aldrich Ames walked into the Washington Soviet embassy in 1985 with what he estimated was $150,000 in CIA and FBI secrets, ready to sell because he had a lot of bills for his extravagant way of living. Frequently spies have resentment towards their own bureaucracies and failures to rise in them. Sometimes people are tricked into spying. Even the James Bond novels describe a specific sort of "honey pot" entrapment, whereby the sexual liaison would be filmed and the victim forced to spy if he wanted to avoid exposure. The Soviets could apparently insist to attractive female workers that their bodies belonged to the state and had duties as lures, not the sort of order that western countries could make to their female employees. It is interesting that honey pots did not work in the opposite direction for another reason. Entrapped westerners would fret about exposure, but when such entrapment was tried on Soviets, they "...would invariably laugh off the threat of exposure as not very compelling in their country." Gadgets so beloved by the movies are downplayed here. There have been, for example, extraordinary advances in miniaturization of microphones and transmitters, but a cat equipped with a microphone makes too many sounds of its own; thus the "Acoustic Kitty" of the Technical Support Division "died a deserved death as technically infeasible." Spy reality has affected spy fiction. Where the heroes used to be unsung good guys doing their patriotic duties, after Vietnam and Watergate, novelists like le Carré and Clancy wrote about obsessives, misfits, and power freaks who were interested in playing the spy game for itself rather than for national interest. The end of the Cold War and the effect of terrorism have potential for bringing back the hero spy. Perha