Operation Loyalty: The Cia's Role In The Cold War

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Operation Kitty was a CIA operation in the Cold War in which cats were surgically implanted with bugging devices to eavesdrop on Soviet conversations. The thought was that no one would suspect a cat. The 15 million dollar operation was dropped after one of the cats was run over by a taxi (Madrigal). This is a perfect example of the creativity the CIA used in the Cold War. The Cold War forced espionage technique to evolve into something more advanced. It showed how creative spymasters could be in times of war. Events leading up to the Cold War drove espionage activity. Both countries began to realize how important espionage would be in dealing with each other (Barrett). Espionage played a critical role in the Cold War because it created new …show more content…

In the war, people began to realize that some Americans helped the Soviets build the atomic bomb. This caused great concern about internal security in the United States. Dr. Klaus Fuchs was a famous nuclear scientist who gave away secrets to the Soviets (Barrett). As soon as they started investigating his case, they realized Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were also involved in it. The Rosenberg’s were arrested and eventually sentenced to death. All of their work gave the Soviets years of research that greatly changed the war. Espionage also leveled the playing field for both countries. If one were to get ahead in their research, the other would likely catch up from spying. The Rosenberg’s is a perfect example of this(Harris et al., 2013).
Espionage still continues to affect the current political climate. After the Cold War both countries knew that every country needed espionage. The act of spying must continue to keep their country safe, and to provide themselves with important information about other countries. Because of that, techniques has been improved and perfected. The Cold War showed the world how important espionage is and it is the reason why espionage is still around

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