During the Cold War era after World War II, there were many “spy stories” concerning the Soviet Union’s extensive espionage against the United States. Most notable — and most alarming — were the Communist efforts to gain U.S. nuclear bomb secrets before the Soviet Union was able to make nuclear weapons.
But while international spying surely goes on, there had been few recent spy stories until news came this week that the United States had accepted guilty pleas from 10 Russian spies who had embedded themselves in this country.
The Russians were loaded on a plane to Russia — in a swap for four Americans who had been convicted in Russia of spying for the West. (An “11th” Russian spy was “missing,” having fled authorities in Cyprus while on bail.)
The big question that inquisitive ordinary Americans were asking was this: What U.S. secrets were the Russian spies seeking to discover?
There was no answer.
The Russians living in the United States were said to have operated with false passports, phony names, secret codes, invisible ink and encrypted radio. But we know little else. Because of the nature of the spy business, we may never know much more.