The parents of childhood friends had a Minox camera. Interestingly enough, both parents had friends and relatives with Cold War connections. Come to think of it, the father himself did, as he made some spending money doing a report for a US government agency on on his visit to relatives in an Iron Curtain country.

The Minox: A Closer Look at Every Spy’s Favorite Camera

In a related way, an old Dean Koontz book had a significant twist being a US “city” actually being a training ground for Soviet kids to learn English and “be American”; I only just finished this 1982 book last week.

The Russians were embarrassed at being caught, but also proud at doing it.

Now, I think the Chinese have also been doing it, like Feinstein’s driver, but have better at avoiding being caught.

Huawei’s IP thefts are tangentially related.

One of my continuing complaints about the series was the amount of violence that Phillip and Elizabeth engaged in. Constant string of murders. I guess that’s just show biz– they had to keep the audience engaged–but it got preposterous.

At the top, it is obtuse to ‘wonder’ about the (at least hoped-for) role of any children of these plants. And the putative recruitment. This was a ‘feature’ from the get-go, not a ‘bug’.

I did a Cold War hitch in military high-tech. Not an officer, not intelligence. But even in such relatively pedestrian environments, the lines do begin to blur. Like with the boys…

I suspect when we look at Assange and Snowden et al, we are looking at the cutting edge of intelligence and spying. Clear & clean lines are not there … not very useful. Major blurring.

The extreme value of a second-generation operative means that serious thought went into their handling. To transition an innocent child (or later adult) to incremental levels of awareness, and hopefully (some degree of) co-optation, needs to be done right.

Of course, the game-board has changed, ‘out from under’ Alex and Tim. But just imagine the mirror-case … kids raised in Russia, now semi-stranded/exiled in the West: we’re talking profoundly unique individuals with matchless perspective.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0511107/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_i73

What sticks in your head…