John Ford: Hollywood & the OSS
John Ford with Oscar® statuette, circa 1946. He is the essence of classical American cinema. Any serious person making films today, whether they know it or not, is affected by…
Operation Bernhard: The Secret Nazi Counterfeiting Operation
The entrance to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where the forgers operated. According to an article in The New York Times published on December 13, 2001, the SS experimented with mass killing…
Low-Tech Tactics in a High-Tech World: The Undying Art of Spycraft
This (replacement) mailbox is identical to the one, and in the same location, that convicted spy Aldrich Ames used to signal his Russian counterparts. Ames would place a horizontal chalk…
SERE: Essential Survival Skills for the Modern World
Capt. Allison Ohlinger, a 36th Airlift Squadron instructor navigator, uses a compass to navigate for her team during a survival, evasion, resistance and escape combat survival course at Tama Hills…
Operation Shocker: Counterintelligence, Deception & the Cold War
J. Edgar Hoover Building, the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C. Credit: Audie / CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED. Counterintelligence is, in effect, chasing ghosts, which is…
Brewing Connections: The Social Influence of Coffee
Café Central in Vienna, Austria. Photo: Andreas Praefcke / CC BY 3.0 DEED. A cup of gourmet coffee shared with a friend is happiness tasted and time well spent.” —…
Invisible Ink: The Unseen Language of Secrets and Spies
Reproduction of one of Benedict Arnold’s coded communications with the British while he was negotiating what eventually became a failed attempt to surrender the fort at West Point in 1780.…
Café Cubano: A Cuban Cultural Staple
Cuban cafecito (expresso) in Miami’s Cuban Quarter (Little Havana). Credit: Marte007 / CC BY 4.0 DEED. Cuban coffee is not just a drink, it’s a culture.” — Unknown Cuban coffee,…
The Real James Bond: An Unsung Hero of World War II
Sean Connery as James Bond during filming of “Diamonds are Forever” in Amsterdam, 31 July 1971. Dutch National Archives / CC BY-SA 3.0 NL DEED. Ian Fleming, the mastermind behind…
American Espionage: A Historical Overview of Intelligence Collection
Aerial view of the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters, Langley, Virginia. There is nothing more necessary than good intelligence to frustrate a designing enemy, and nothing requires greater pains to obtain.”…