Spy novels and Hollywood movies are full of stories about so-called "double agents," those spies that are supposedly working for one side, but in fact are working for the other side. This was an especially popular vehicle for spy novels during the cold war era. Someone who was working for the "West" was in fact a "plant" or a "mole" for one of the communist bloc country's intelligence agencies. Usually this played out in the form of a "mole" in the CIA who was leaking information to the Soviets and causing all sorts of problems. As far fetched as some of these stories were, there were in fact many double agents during the cold war era and no doubt are still many such cases in existence, although the cold war is supposedly no more. However, they were not "double agents" in a strict sense. They were simply Soviet moles or Soviet spies.
Some of the more infamous cases of Soviet agents involved the British MI6 in the 1950s and 60s when a bunch of MI6 officers, known as the "Cambridge Five" were discovered to be actually working for the Soviet Union's KGB or the GRU. The worst case was that of Kim Philby (part of that Cambridge Five), who rose to a very high position within MI6 and worked as the head of the liaison between MI6 and CIA in Washington for counterintelligence. He, like most of his compatriots in similar position, managed to escape capture and ended up living out their lives in Moscow after escaping from the West. These British spies did tremendous damage to Western intelligence and are often referred to as "double agents." They were not "double agents"! They were officers of the MI6 but agents of the Soviet Union. For us, the Aldrich Ames case was a bad one, possibly the worst case involving a CIA Officer. But, like the infamous Brits, he was not double agents, he was simply an agent for the Soviet Union. Unlike the Brits, who were communists, Ames did his spying for money!
A true double agent would be someone who is supposedly spying for one side, but is in fact spying for the other side. In other words, if someone is hired by country A to spy on country B, but is in fact spying for country B, then that individual is a double agent. A CIA officer or an FBI Special Agent who is paid by a foreign country to provide information to them is a foreign spy, not a double agent. But, if that same CIA officer or FBI Special Agent is in fact still loyal to the U.S. and is only pretending to be working for the foreign interest, then he or she is a double agent. So, although the cases of true double agents are not that common, they do exist. Far more complicated and more rare are cases involving "triple agents." Those are the extremely rare cases involving individuals who are hired by country A to spy on country B but are in fact providing information to country B, but are still actually working for country A. This all sounds very confusing and complicated, and it is to some extent. The individual involved has to be extremely crafty and good at providing selective information to one side while gathering and providing more important information to the other side. True cases of triple agents are very rare and very few survive for very long doing this extremely dangerous work.
In my lifetime, I knew of only one person who was a double, possibly a triple agent and survived performing this extremely dangerous work mainly because of his very high intelligence and exceptional ability to "read" other people. It all started for this man in a very unusual, almost adventure novel style of beginning. He was a son of a wealthy Russian family who had to flee Vladivostok after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. He was but a mere babe at the time when his large family fled Russia and settled in what is now North Korea. His family consisted of his father and mother and three brothers and sisters as well as some aunts, uncles and cousins.
Korea was a Japanese colony at the time, so naturally the family had to learn to get along with the Japanese. Since they had money, they were able to settle comfortably in a large estate and ran a very successful resort for wealthy people. Japanese nannies were hired to take care of the small children, so all the children grew up speaking Japanese as well as Korean fluently. But, their good life came to an end when the Soviets entered and occupied North Korea in 1945. Immediately, all of the men, his father and his two brothers were arrested, and even though the younger men had no political affiliations, they were all considered enemies of the State. However, the Soviets saw the possibility of using the younger men to their advantage.
Initially, they were all hired to work for Soviet intelligence to interrogate Japanese and Korean prisoners. But as soon as the occupation era was over, roughly after one year, the father and the oldest and youngest brother were sent off to Siberia along with uncles and cousins and even some women. The middle brother was kept in Korea for a short while. He was the only one of the three brothers who had gone to school in Shanghai and was fluent in English. So, the Soviets offered him a deal. If he went to South Korea which was under U.S. occupation, and went to work for the U.S., he could spy for the Soviets. In return, his father and brothers as well as other relatives will be spared. It wasn't much of choice, so he took it.
As soon as he ended up in the south, he went directly to the U.S. military intelligence (G2) and told them that he had been instructed by the Soviets to gain employment and spy for them. After a lengthy interrogation session, he was given a clearance by the U.S. intelligence and hired to work for G2. As he was instructed by the Soviet GRU (military intelligence), he made contact with his Soviet handler (case officer) and duly reported intelligence that he gathered. A year after his employment, in 1947 a new intelligence organization, the CIA was formed and he became an employee of the CIA.
The GRU was no doubt very happy that they had a man in CIA, but what they didn't know was that he was giving CIA intelligence that he gathered through his Soviet handler. He provided the Soviets with juicy bits of intelligence, just enough to keep them interested. In the meantime, he was able to give CIA detailed information on Soviet network in Korea, contacts, etc.
Within a year after his arrival in the south, he learned that his father and younger brother had been executed. Only his older brother was still in the Gulag. Yet, his Soviet handler kept telling him that everyone was alive and well. He continued to pretend to believe his Soviet handler and continued to give him bits of information. In the meantime, he also provided the CIA with all the information that he could gather through his handler. During the Korean War his contact with his handler was broken and he, after working in Korea for a while, was moved to Tokyo. In Tokyo he reestablished contact with the Soviets and continued on with the very dangerous game. Eventually he left the employment of CIA and went to work for a private company and had a very successful career. What was fascinating about his work with GRU-CIA, was that apparently the Soviets never suspected in all those years that he was feeding them information that was carefully selected and provided by CIA. There was just enough "real stuff" in the information to keep the Soviet interest, and at the same time there was "misinformation" that would delay and sometime sabotage Soviet efforts.
Was he a double or a triple agent? Its hard to say. Obviously the information that he provided to both sides satisfied each side. One thing is for certain, he was an ultimate survivor! Interestingly, when he finally left CIA and went to work for a private company, the company, a U.S. electronics firm, ended up making him one of the top executives in their Tokyo office, which was understandable because of his native level fluency in Japanese. What was interesting was that this company was a DOD contractor (still is!) and was heavily involved in our Space Program at the time. I wonder if he still had contact with intelligence communities?
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