Q Lives - Spy Gadgets for Every Season

During the last half of the Cold War, technology enabled the United States to fracture a Soviet security apparatus that had been virtually impenetrable to Western intelligence services after World War II. Evens the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and the Corona satellite were providing remarkable overhead imagery of airfields and missile sites, the intent of Soviet leaders, and the design plans for new military capabilities remained unknown to US officials. How CIA officers and their private contractors then created the gadgets and devices to enable human spies to operate securely behind the Iron Curtain is a story of innovation, imagination, persistence, and daring. Robert Wallace is co-author of SPYCRAFT: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs from Communism to al-Qaeda.