Oh definitely!
I just find it interesting that there are all these points in history when everything swings on one decision. There are so many “if only’s” to the story of Trump that it would make wonderful reading if I didn’t have to live through it.
No ones mentioned Eli Cohen? His story was pretty crazy. Balls to the wall chutzpah. Sacha Baron Cohen has a series playing him coming up soon.
Richard Sorge should be mentioned, one of his reports, ensuring the Soviets were confident to move the Eastern army groups to Moscow in '41, ensured the Nazi defeat.
Oh, if we’re into Nazi-beating, let’s not forget Garbo (Juan Pujol). He rocked.
If we’re going to have a thread about spies in QT3, we have to least mention Robert Hanssen. After all, he was the subject of the movie – all together now – Breach! (that and he was one of the most damaging spies in US history).
Well, except for the whole ‘Russia abandoning the war’ bit, which is what they wanted, after all. As soon as Lenin took power, he signed a separate peace with Germany.
Don’t all previous spies kind of pale to insignificance in comparison to what Snowden did? Essentially every single one of NSA’s secrets revealed.
I think it depends on how you rate harmful. Aldrich Ames probably got more people killed or jailed than any other spy. The Walker group gave the USSR the Navy’s most important secrets. So who’s the most harmful I’d say is debatable.
Although it does end up with a somewhat similar effect (secrets being revealed) whistle-blowing (nor investigative journalism, for cases like Watergate) is not espionage.
He didn’t come anywhere close to revealing everything about the NSA.
Nothing really tops ULTRA and the XX System (used as a deception vehicle). Garbo (mentioned above) was just one tiny part of a huge, comprehensive effort.
And, of course, Klaus Fuchs gave the USSR pretty much all the details of Fat Man. However, it’s difficult to say, in the long run, how harmful that was. The Soviets had a better bomb on the drawing boards, but Beria, whose paranoia was on par with Stalin’s, insisted they copy Fat Man.