Summary
Despite the fantasies that are the lifeblood of spy fiction writers, American intelligence officers seldom worried about physical harm at the hands of their Soviet counterparts, even in the frostiest days of the Cold War. To be sure, officers could count on being cuffed around if, say, they were caught servicing a "dead drop" in Moscow to retrieve documents left by a recruited source. But, by early mutual agreement, killing one another's operatives was a no-no.
Rules in the Third World were quite different, especially in situations where established order had collapsed and "revolutionary forces" held sway. Consider Larry Devlin's first day in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), the Congo, as CIA station chief. It was July 1960, and what was once the Belgian Congo had achieved independence only 10 days earlier. The army mutinied, throwing the country into chaos.See the full content of this document
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A "band of mutinous soldiers on the prowl" snatched Mr. Devlin off the street. Swilling whiskey and smoking marijuana, they abused him verbally. The man in charge demanded that Mr. Devlin lick his boots. Mr. Devlin refused. Then the soldier brandished a revolver and said, "E...
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