The Cold War : The Cia Versus The Kgb

It all started in 1979 when FBI agent Robert Hanssen, using the pseudonym “B” committed espionage against the United States for the former Soviet Union and later on the Russian Federation. Mr. Hanssen’s spying activities against the United States were conducted over three different phases over 22 years. While working as an FBI Agent at the Bureau’s Soviet Counterintelligence Division in New York City and at different leadership posts in Washington, DC, Mr. Hanssen provided the Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (KGB) and later on the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation the identities of Russian spies, two of which were executed as a result. Mr. Hanssen also provided over 6000 national security classified documents

Many individuals do not realize that part of the Cold War began on Canadian ground. Major reasons of concern started with the Gouzenko affair (Parks, 2009). A man by the name of Igor Gouzenko stated allegations against a spy ring saying these Canadian communists were handing out secretive information

Rohm wanted a government that scared the people to do the right thing similar to kidors government because they didn’t want the people in the areas to revolt ageist them.

The US after the war becoming aware of these so called “mind control” techniques came to the conclusion that this method was to time intensive, so with the help of modern day sedatives, alcohol and drugs the US eventually completed their research, but the price was US lives with some even committing suicide. Therefore America 's conduct of espionage during the Cold war similar to that of Russian espionage, when trying

The United States has involved itself in several missions shrouded in secrecy throughout the nation’s short history. Operations, like the Iran-Contra Affair, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) role in Afghanistan are just two examples of these types of secret government missions, which have become public knowledge. Both operations occurred under the helm of President Reagan, who outlined a clear agenda, promising to fight the spread of the Soviet social influence of communism. Moreover, other similarities are observed between the two covert missions, like providing armaments, equipment, and training to foreign rebel forces to assist in combating communist influences (National Security Archive 2006, Johnson 2011). Moreover, various government agencies were used in the operations for distinct purposes. The comparison of the Iran-Contra Affair and the CIA’s role in the Afghanistan war, aid in revealing a picture of how covert operations were used in the 1980s, in combat communism, while achieving other presidential agenda items, like securing American hostages (PBS n.d.).

After the end of World War II, the United States entered war, a cold war to be exact. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union, was a communist nation that was the United States rival. After World War II, the world was left with just two superpowers, the two super rivals. These two countries fought for the control of the world. The Soviet Union wanted a communist world, while the United States fought for a free world. One of the United State’s main tools was the CIA.

Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor and United State’s involvement in World War II, we remained an isolationist country. Once World War II ended, the United States left isolationism behind and began a quest to abolish communism during the Cold War, involving many nations. Although the success of the containment policy in South America and Asia was not identical, each were beneficial in decreasing communism during the Cold War.

In Beyond the Vigilant State Richard Aldrich suggests that, “there was a distinct shift in the nature of secret service by the late 1990’s towards more kinetic activity.” Furthermore, Aldrich advocates that the shift can be attributed to the transnational capabilities of these new targets such as terrorist groups. During the Cold War, intelligence agencies collected information passively which included missile counting or persuading people to defect from communist governments. However, given the more violent and ruthless nature of new threats such as terrorists, “the result has been that the secret services are doing less analysis and estimating and more 'fixing', enforcing and disrupting.” Specifically, there has been an evolution from, “pure intelligence towards the kind of intervention that looks more like

Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America is a book written by John Earl Haynes. the book goes into very specific detail of the activity of the KGB in the United States during the 1930’s and 1940’s. This book which was written with the KGB archives formed the most complete source of soviet espionage in America. Co-author of the book Alexander Vassiliev was given access to stalin era records and material of Soviet espionage activity against the United States. Haynes also presented a webcast for this book through the Library of Congress. In the Webcast Haynes spoke about the background information of his book Spies. Haynes also explained the different sources he used to write the book, and the validity of those sources. Watching the webcast I learned the importance of having multiple primary sources when writing a book about history. Not only are primary sources important, but being able to connect those primary sources to one another proves the information is valid. Haynes did a wonderful job explaining the connections between sources he used to write Spies, which turned out to be most of his presentation.

The KGB was an ever present force in Soviet Russia. Throughout Russia’s history, it has had many spy organizations before the KGB, including Cheka, the NKGB, and the MGB, though the KGB is the most widely known. As stated on Russiapedia.com, “Should you ask a foreigner to say a three-letter word that is associated with Russia or the USSR, you’re almost certain to hear KGB – short for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti – or the Committee of State Security.” (“KGB”). Everyone knew about them, but could never be sure of who worked for them.

After World War II the United States was on the up and up from the long and hard Great Depression. It had reestablished itself as a superpower though due to reconstruction in Europe it could be argued that it was a bipolar power that came to follow the Second World War between the Soviet Union and the United States. These tensions came to follow after the difference in ideology became the forefront of what was to become the Cold War which would come to end in 1991 after the Soviet Union fell. (History.com staff) Though before the fall of the Soviet Union a decade long arms race between the two superpowers ensued. This led to many complications with international

It was the dawn of a new day. Several weeks had passed following the onset of what used to be the Cold War. Even now it was difficult to grasp the fact it had only been a decade ago in which the world celebrated as a whole to the end of the Second World War.It was ironic once innocuous proxy war could escalate far beyond its initial magnitude, with potential to cause carnage and destruction on a gargantuan scale. Nobody would have expected an espionage war unrecoverable repercussions

The CIA has a history that is shrouded in mystery. The Agency’s history is rich with patriotic acts that rival the likes of the GRU (Russian Intelligence), MI6 (British Intelligence), and Mossad (Israeli Intelligence). These agencies are some of the top Intelligence Agencies in the world, yet the CIA is constantly topping the list by being the

The topic I will be covering is the Cold War and question number six. The Roosevelt Administration was determined to avoid a retreat like the one that followed WWI. The United States itself had sole possession of the atomic bomb. The United States goal was to expand democracy. America saw that there needed to be global economic reconstruction. The Soviets looked to model the rest of the world after their own values and origins. It indeed had to do with Soviet Expansion. The Russians didn’t want to go to war with the United States. The Russians wanted to expand their ideology throughout the world. It was the United States goal to stop that spread and to contain the Russian Government (Foner 882). These were some of the origins of the cold war.

The Cold War introduced many new things to the world. The possibility of nuclear war, the internet, advanced technology, space programs, etc. But one of the more well-known advances would have to be spies and espionage. Espionage was used before the Cold War but the war increased the popularity of espionage. It was portrayed as romantic and exciting, but the reality wasn’t romantic. It was a dangerous job; if you were caught you would be tortured for information or killed with little to no hope of being rescued. But despite the dangers people still became spies and their efforts fueled the war. Spies were an essential part in the Cold War.