Douglas Waller and David Wise have penned the two most significant books on espionage in the last year. Waller’s exciting biography Wild Bill Donovan, a detailed account of the founder of the era of modern intelligence in the United States, lays the groundwork for American spy agencies. Wise’s inside view of spy operations by China against the US in the modern era — Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War With China — takes us right up to today, and tomorrow, as cyberspying by China emerges as the new frontier of the ancient art of espionage.
Both writers will appear in an Author’s Roundtable during the 7th Raleigh Spy Conference Aug. 24-26, joined by first-time author Kent Clizbe. Clizbe’s new book, Willing Accomplices, is reviewed by Arch T. Allen in this issue. Joining the discussion as a special guest is former FBI counterintelligence special agent Les Wiser — the man who caught Aldrich Ames — who untangled the Parlor Maid case, the centerpiece of Wise’s Tiger Trap.
The SpyMaster Who Created Modern American Espionage
While intelligence gathering played critical roles from the founding years of the United States, it was not until World War I that organized spying by governments was revealed to rather naïve American military and diplomatic leaders. After the conflict, the US retreated inward back into a pre-war idyllic culture where “gentlemen did not read other people’s mail.” But entry in World War II transformed the image of espionage from disgust to necessity as Germany and Japan — and the USSR — unleashed horrific human behavior never imagined before. Everything had to be done to stop psychotic criminals who endangered decency worldwide.
By the time the US joined the conflict, Britain had stood alone for nearly four years, emitting the last beacon of freedom to Nazi-occupied Fortress Europe. And beyond a stiff upper lip and a national penchant for fortitude, it was intelligence gleaned from the Germans that kept the UK breathing. Still regarded as the most significant intelligence coup in history, the Ultra Secret — the code name for the deciphering of messages sent by the allegedly unbreakable German Enigma program — is arguably the single most important reason the British survived until American troops turned the tide of war.
William J. Donovan, born of Irish-Catholic immigrants — became a decorated and public hero during World War I, and after the war a powerful Wall Street attorney. Before Europe fell to Hitler, he became an unofficial envoy for President Franklin Roosevelt, who warmed to the Republican Donovan due to his usefulness and insights as a globe-trotting corporate lawyer. As the storm clouds of war darkened, Donovan was everywhere, including the news. The hard-charging and handsome hero was welcomed by leaders and became a close confidant to Winston Churchill. It was in these heady days that Donovan realized the importance of intelligence and sabotage.
As war broke out, Donovan lobbied for and was successful in creating the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He was named its director and spent the war moving across the panorama of battlefields, from Operation Torch to the D-Day landings, dropping in on every trouble spot in between, including the Balkans, the Middle East, Italy, Russia, China and North Africa. Donovan organized propaganda, espionage and guerilla warfare teams to such success he stepped on the toes of his British mentors and caused extreme jealousy back home, most notably the ire of J. Edgar Hoover who worked behind the scenes to run the OSS out of business at war’s end.
In his stint with the OSS, grippingly related by Waller, Donovan became a larger than life hero with enormous influence. His legend lives large today, and his legacy, the Central Intelligence Agency, the successor to Donovan’s OSS, is a dramatic reminder that intelligence could no longer be swept under the rug after the cessation of hostilities. The Cold War ushered in a new era predicted and prepared for by Donovan, although he was not tapped to head the new spy agency he spawned. At CIA headquarters, there is an extensive museum dedicated to Donovan for employees to visit to remind them of their mission. And the NC Museum of History, site of the Raleigh Spy Conference, has on display a collection of OSS paraphernalia donated by the family of Durham banking tycoon George Watts Hill. True to the traditions of the OSS, Hill never divulged his war time exploits. His family learned of his service after he died.
Chinese Espionage
Since China holds a huge portion of US debt, and relies on the American market for its exports and imports of key technology, it is unlikely they contemplate war. But that has not prevented full-scale espionage operations that make China America’s number one security threat.
Raleigh Spy Conference attendees will recall talks by FBI agent IC Smith detailing the steamy saga of Chinese espionage agent Katrina Leung that dramatizes the threat — and the byzantine complications that arise dealing with an ancient and patient culture. The attractive and wily agent provocateur managed love affairs with JJ Smith and Bill Cleveland, two FBI foreign intelligence investigators who thought they were handling a FBI asset. Instead, Leung (code named Parlor Maid) was actually working for the Ministry of State Security MSS), China’s spy agency.
The Leung saga weaves in and out of Wise’s Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War With China, but there is much more, including Chinese agents obtaining plans for the W88 nuclear warhead atop missiles launched by Trident submarines; the neutron bomb; jet fighter advances; top secret “silent-running” technology for submarines; destroyer technology; and information on the US space shuttle program. In many cases, investigations overlap as the same characters appear, as in Tiger Trap, the code name for the investigation of Gwo-Bao Min, the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab scientist. And Leung was maintaining affairs with the lead investigator in the Gwo-Bao Min case, as well as duping her FBI handler Smith.
Leung’s case also dramatizes the overall difficulty in dealing with Chinese-Americans who are divided by the split between the People’s Republic of China (PRC, the communist “mainland” regime) and the Republic of China (ROC, or Taiwan) created on the island of Formosa in 1949 after forces of US-backed Chiang Kai-shek were driven out of mainland China in the wake of the victory of Mao Zedong’s Soviet-backed communists. The PRC continues to threaten the ROC today, and loyalties of Chinese-Americans are grounded in the conflict, although some ROC-connected citizens are sympathetic to the PRC communist regime and vice versa. Chinese agents can claim loyalty to the ROC while working for the PRC. Parlor Maid was tasked by her MSS handlers to donate large sums to Republican candidates who usually support the ROC, allowing her to operate behind another layer of false political allegiances.
Adding to the complicated cultural and political puzzle China presents are the myriad of Chinese languages and dialects that can trip up even the ablest agents. And the lure of Chinese culture sometimes draws US agents too deeply inside the mystery of China, often altering their objectivity. Unlike Soviet espionage managers, the Chinese are subtle and very patient and do not peddle world socialist propaganda. But they are committed to parity with the United States in weapons and technology.
Wise’s informative and well-crafted inquiry perambulates this labyrinthine maze, providing useful details gleaned from dozens of sources, and includes observations on China’s espionage techniques to recruit ethnic Chinese spies and gullible visitors, as explained in Wise’s book by former FBI China analyst Paul Moore: “…China doesn’t so much try to steal secrets as to try to induce foreign visitors to give them away by manipulating them into certain situations,” for example that “scientific information should recognize no political boundaries.” The pitch is that China is a poor country and spying for them is a good cause, getting good people to do things, says Moore.
Wise relates from his sources and examples that direct payment for recruitment in the US is not the usual way to motivate ethnic Chinese spies, the method employed by the KGB, although business opportunities are offered — and an appeal to assist the home country. And US efforts to fight back sometimes create bungled prosecutions and investigations of innocents. What emerges is a first-class success in indentifying the case histories and nuances of what has become America’s number one espionage threat.
Wise concludes by identifying the leading threat to US security — attacks on defense computer systems by Chinese “cyberspies,” and evidence America’s electrical grids are subject to potential cyber attacks. Mutually Assured Disruption is in the cards, according to Wise and his sources.
(Douglas Waller and David Wise will appear with Kent Clizbe Friday morning, Aug. 26, during the Raleigh Spy Conference. Go to www.raleighspyconference.com for more information and to register. Or contact cyndi@metromagazine.net. You can also call Raleigh Metro Magazine: 919-831-0999.
— Bernie Reeves