SEXPIONAGE: WHY WE CANT'T RESIST THOSE KGB SIRENS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201630001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 12, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sexpionage:
Why We Can't
Resist Those
KGB Sirens
WASHINGTON POST
12 April 1987
hfioltasl Dobbs
Jr By
"!t is sometimes said that there are Reds under every
bed Perhaps this saying should be amended somewhat"
-Kremhn apnkeman ('.cm,ali Ceraainnw, cntnmm,Ih,i ,m the spy-
(4-sex waivlal that has rcatlte I in the arrests at h it U.S. marine,.
I T IS THE STUFF of spy novels, diplomatic folklore
and congressional investigations. A foreigner ar-
rives in the Soviet Union. He is bored and lonely,
deprived of the constant stimulations offered by life in
the capitalist west. One day, he meets Tanya, appar-
ently by accident. She is blond, buxom and high-
spirited, a sparkling contrast with the dreary monotony
of everyday Soviet life. They fall in love. By the time he
discovers that she is a KGB plant, it is already too late.
The sex trap outlined above is so corny that it may be
difficult to believe that it works in real life. But the his-
torical record shows that it does-over and over again.
The latest espionage allegations against U.S. marine
guards in Moscow and Leningrad are simply another re-
minder that, in an age when espionage is becoming in-
creasingly technology-intensive, the oldest trick in the
KGB manual is still one of the most effective.
The list of known KGB entrapment victims since
World War It is long, distinguished and remarkably var-
ied. It includes men and women, bachelors and married
couples, young and old, homosexuals and heterosexuals,
military attaches and journalists, security guards and
ambassadors. No category of western resident in Mos-
cow, it seems, has been immune from the charms of
Soviet "swallows" and "ravens," KGB jargon for profes-
sional seductresses and their male counterparts.
"It's a very crude technique-but one that the So-
viets employ with considerable sophistication. You
would have thought that we would be selecting people
who were invulnerable to it by now, but apparently
not," says John Barron, author of two standard works on
the KGB. British journalist Phillip Knightley, author of
"The Second Oldest Profession-Spies and Spying in
the Twentieth Century," explains: "Every westerner
who goes to Moscow knows that some girl may get into
his bedroom, but people continue to get trapped .:.
It's human nature, I suppose."
The exploits of the spy-seductress-an occupation
that could be said to combine the world's oldest and
second-oldest professions-are best described as tragi-
comedy. There is something inherently risible about a
starched-pants marine or a striped-pants diplomat los-
ing his starched/striped pants while on active duty for
his country. The suave Soviet Foreign Ministry spokes-
man, Gennadi Gerasimov, made light of the plight of
Americans in Moscow when he poked fun at "28 strong
marines" for "allegedly being unable to withstand the
charms of blond spies." "Recently we have witnessed a
loss of capabability to resist the enemy," he told an ap-
preciative press conference.
For the individuals involved, however, there is also
deep personal tragedy. In his book, "KGB-The Secret
Work of Soviet Secret Agents," Barron documents the
case of a French military attache, Col. Louis Guibaud;
who committed suicide in 1962 after an affair with a
Soviet woman. Confronted with the evi-
dence by the KGB, and offered the choice of
secret collaboration or public disgrace, the
colonel preferred to shoot himself. A similar
dilemma confronted Jeremy Wolfenden, a
British journalist in Moscow in the early
1960s, whose homosexuality made him a
natural KGB target.
"in these situations, the way out is often
fraught with danger," says Knightlcy, who
has written about the Wolfenden case. ,if you
go back and tell your own side that you have
been framed, they will frequently try to re-
cruit you as a double agent. That's what hap.
pe Peed to Wolfenden and eventually it drove
him to suicide."
'Sexpionage is always a long-odds gamble.
Most westerners who have spent any length
of time in Moscow have their favorite tale of
an attempted seduction by a KGB swallow or
raven. Most approaches fail. But, as the case
of the U.S. marines has shown, it only takes
several successes for the security damage to
be considerable. "The machine cranks on and
turns up enough gees for the expense of the
operation to be worthwhile," says Donald
Jameson, a retired CIA analyst. "The net is
cat very wide. Of 100 prospects, less than
half result in an incident. Perhaps 10 result in
a compromise and only one results in an
agent-but that one agent is worth the ef-
fort."
H eading the list of entrapment victims
are three former western ambassa-
dors, men who had reached the pin-
nacle of their profession and were regarded as
above reproach by their governments when
assigned to Moscow. Prior to the marines, the
most recent known attempt to compromise an
American official involved a high-flying U.S.
military attache on a visit to a provincial town.
AN four stories are interesting, and worth tell-
ing in some detail, because they illustrate four
variations on a very basic technique.
? When John B. Watkins went to Moscow as
Canadian ambassador in 1954, the Soviet
Union was in the midst of a political thaw, sim.
 lI
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0201630001-2
eminent official (another agent) with whom he low. A Soviet colonel known to Holbrook trom
ilar in some ways to the glasnobt" period to- had earlier become friendly. The scandal could his Berlin days then mysteriously appeared to
day. The dictatorial Joseph Stalin had just be hushed up-but favors would be expected offer his old friend "help" The two U.S. offi-
died-atdd Nikita Khruechev was opening up in return. As it turned out, Dejean was now cers were immediately recalled to Washington
the was
superiors
their Moscowg nt Wa fascinating dine to be In
seemed the perfect activated as an agent. Krotkov's defection put aftd raccoorrdiingg the he my both have
since
an end to the operation-and the ambassador
ambassador. He was sophisticated, erudite and the final been promoted.
fluent in Ruissian. He had eitorhhtous curiosity was recalled. As described by Barron,
about theust n. He whichmois curiosity humiliation came in a frosty interview with de Acommon thread running through all
ited-which country tito by taking long trips Gaulle. Looking down from his great height, these stories is that sexpionage has
the general dismissed his errant protege with claimed some improbable victims. "We
into the provinces, frequently alone. He was a single sentence: "lilt bite, Deean, on comelm" are not talking about 19-ye