Russian spies: Hollywood's version vs. real-life espionage
When spies become news 鈥� as they did this week with the swap of US and Russian spies 鈥� there is often a disparity between real-life espionage and the images spun by popular film and fiction.
Bond ... James Bond. Actor Sean Connery, who played Agent 007 in seven James Bond films, is shown here on the set of the 1964 film 'Goldfinger.'
Newscom
Los Angeles
The sudden and swift exchange of spies between two nations in the midst of a politely tense diplomatic dance 鈥� as the US and Russia have been in 鈥� is no accident, say spy novelists, ex-spies, and government officials.
鈥淭he spy is one of the most potent figures of the imagination,鈥� says author Steve Berry, president of International Thriller Writers. 鈥淭hey live in a world of deep personal conflict, wrestling with betraying everyone and everything they know and love just by doing their job. And so they are a perfect figure to hang these large stories of nations in conflict on.鈥�
Every generation in history has put forth its own version of the vital information-gathering agent for popular consumption, he adds. 鈥�James Bond was the perfect cold warrior, but that genre pretty much died in 1990 and 1991 when the Soviet Union fell.鈥� Since then, he adds, 鈥淲e鈥檝e all been developing the international thriller.鈥�
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When spies become news, there is often a disparity between real-life espionage and the images spun by popular film and fiction.
鈥淗ollywood pushes and exaggerates all the things that make a spy compelling,鈥� says Mr. Berry. All the tools of the trade, from the cool gadgets to the personal ability to live a double life with charm and ease, make for great stories and form our expectations.
Spies can come in handy when things go wrong behind the doors of international relations, says Michael Diaz, an assistant state attorney in the Clinton administration.
鈥淚t鈥檚 usually because something has gone wrong and now it鈥檚 time to fix it,鈥� says Mr. Diaz, a lawyer who specializes in espionage cases. A neat narrative 鈥� a spy swap! 鈥� with characters everyone understands is much more potent than a government report or commission. 鈥淲ho knows what鈥檚 broken down behind the scenes or what isn鈥檛 going right?鈥�
Diaz points out that most Americans can鈥檛 follow the reasons and details for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton鈥檚 visit to remote areas of the former Soviet Union. But, he says, 鈥減ull out that raven-haired beauty living the New York high life while she slips secrets back to Mother Russia, and you have another story altogether.鈥�
The often prosaic activities of day-to-day spying may actually hang on the somewhat dry reasons behind a remote crop failure in a troubled region of the world, but that begs the point, says Antiwar.com editorial director Justin Raimond. Spies 鈥� especially in the context of Russian-versus-American spies 鈥� are part of a larger narrative of the sort that most, if not all, war propaganda is made of, he says.
鈥淭he novels of Ian Fleming are the perfect example: super-villains in league with America's enemies versus equally glamorous superheroes such as Agent 007,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he recent Russian spy scare revives this narrative and tries to place it in a contemporary context. The result is that a rather prosaic reality 鈥� the apparent decision by the powers that be to prod the Russians 鈥� is masked by a fictional narrative: Russian pod people may be living next door to you.鈥�
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