Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: The True Story Behind The Book and Movie

Bernie Reeves at American Thinker has this great article on the back story to Tinker Tailor Solider Spy:

Most movie-goers do not know the story behind the acclaimed new film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, opening nationally this weekend.  Adapted from the 1974 John Le Carré book, and the 1982 sequel Smiley's People, both were dramatized on BBC TV and PBS and can be found on Netflix and other sites. 

Le Carré, the pen name for David Cornwell -- who served in MI6, Britain's secret intelligence service -- penned the two books (and the Honorable School Boy, the third installment in this trilogy), drawing on the real-life drama that tore apart the British spy demi-monde in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s: the discovery that the Soviet KGB had recruited upper-class British subjects to penetrate U.K. intelligence agencies. 

Their infamous careers as spies are legends in Europe, but not as well-known in the U.S., which says volumes about the American culture.  Yet three of the five penetrated U.S. secret services and diplomatic departments, setting off one of the most dramatic spy-hunts in U.S. history by James Angleton, the chief of counterintelligence for the CIA.  The manic hunt for a mysterious additional hidden Soviet spy in the CIA was considered the most damaging episode in the spy agency's history by former director William Colby... 

Le Carré's guided tour into the murky world of British espionage depicts a clubby yet lethal subculture that does not need chase scenes, pyrotechnics, and beautiful girls to keep audiences engaged.  Simply digesting the nomenclature requires attention, such as "cousins" for the CIA, honey-traps to lure agents with sex, Romeos and Swallows for operatives who use seduction to gain secret information, scalp-hunters for assassins, babysitters for bodyguards, ferrets for special agents who gain entry to plant eavesdropping equipment, and pavement artists for surveillance teams. 

It's great stuff -- and it's true.

It is still a cautionary tale for today.  Imagine that, the Soviets used to recruit their moles from universities!  Hmmm, Now why would high ranking political candidate or official's college transcripts and records be relevant?    


Here is the Washington Post link on the back story to the novel and movie.


Breitbart.TV Review of the Movie


Parkbench Blog review of the Movie


Keith Korman Review at National Review (with Spoilers)


Update:  Hot Air Notes: Tinker Tailer Don't Remember Why...