Despite the fact that there were things that I've been mad at dad about, he also did a lot of very good things that a lot of lesser fathers wouldn't have. I'll try to make a point of mentioning those as well as we go along. Sometimes it seemed like how he related to me always resulted in him coming out on top, as the "good guy".
***
The next is a book chapter:
Romerstein, H. & Levchenko, S. (1989). The KGB Against the Main Enemy. Lexington, Mass. : Lexington Books.
Chapter 14: The KGB Today and Tomorrow.
***
This text sort of corroborates some of what we've already discussed, but specifically addressing KGB tactics. On this subject, an affidavit written by the then head of the Los Angeles FBI regarding an FBI agent having been successfully recruited by the KGB:
"One technique used by the Soviet Intelligence Service (SIS) to obtain information is to identify a flaw or weakness in a target person and, through a variety of means, exploit this weakness in order to ultimately convince the target to cooperate with the SIS. Some of the weaknesses successfully exploited in the past by the SIS include money, ideological persuasion, personal rapport with an SIS officer, coercion, flattery, and material assistance." (p. 287)
If the KGB saw me as a potential target as a means to get information from my dad, these are the kinds of things they might have tried in that process.
***
This chapter section is titled:
Line X = Technology
"One of the largest and most significant of the KGB functions is the collection of technology ... This program accords top priority to the military and military-related industry, and major attention is also given to the civilian sectors of Soviet industry that support military production... The Military Industrial Commission of the Soviet Presidium of the Council of Ministers (VPK) coordinates the development of both Soviet weapons and the program to acquire Western technology for those weapons." (p. 289).
Military was a huge focus of the USSR's economic 5-year plans, which is largely why the consumer goods sector was so pitiful - because such a large percent of the resources were devoted to heavy industry, and military technology in particular. So it's not surprising at all that this focus would carry over into the USSR's espionage efforts as well. Of course, it's clear in that context how my father could have been of interest to them.
***
"The U.S. government estimates that in the early 1980s approximately five thousand Soviet military research projects per year benefited from Western hardware and technical documents. During that time more than thirty-five hundred instructions were sent to the KGB to acquire specific Western hardware and documents. The KGB was successful in roughly one-third of the cases. This saved the Soviets approximately a half a billion rubles a year in research costs. Most of these savings were realized by the Ministry of the Defense Industry, responsible for armor and electro-optics, and the Ministry of the Aviation Industry." (p. 290)
I'm not sure I need to comment on this much. I'll just put this in a personal time frame. in the "early 1980s" I was an undergraduate and then Bible school student, worked with Soviet emigrants, and made two extended trips to Europe, including the USSR, E. Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. My father was in working on communications satellite contracts with the U.S. Defense Dept. and probably somewhere in there shifted to SDI, when that federal program started up in 1983.
***
At the top of page 291 it says the U.S. government thinks (as of the time of this writing, I assume, which was 1989) that of the 140 members of the USSR Chamber of Commerce in the USA one-third of them are "known or suspected intelligence officers."
The relevance to my life is that it makes me wonder if other countries have intelligence members in their Chambers of Commerce abroad. I had a curious incident involving someone involved in a different (i.e., not USSR) Chamber of Commerce. Not that that person was trying to recruit me though.
***
This issue of sense of loyalty to one's country comes up again on page 294 in discussing specific US citizens recruited by the Soviet intelligence. Like I said before, this could have eventually been a weak point for me, except for my thoughts about the USSR. Also, I never wanted any part of this stuff anyway, but was drawn into it by missions who thought they had to play according to the world's rules and by virtue of being my father's daughter. I was never interested in these kinds of things, this sort of underworld mentality and all that it seemed to entail. In fact, I'm sick of secrets, which is one reason I'm writing this blog.
***
"Some individuals cooperate with the Soviets basically because they are flattered by Soviet attention and favors. Others cooperate out of fear; a time-honored KGB practice is to compromise foreigners visiting the U.S.S.R. so as to make them vulnerable to blackmail later." (p. 304)
This text is referring specifically to the recruitment of "agents of influence", such as cooperating Western journalists. This is irrelevant in my case, but I would like to talk about this quote outside of that context.
I wonder what my trip to Moscow in Dec. 1981 meant vis a vis dad's work. Did people at dad's work know about it? Was there any concern if so?
At any rate, there were times during that trip when I was alone and if there had been any desire to do so, I could have been somehow addressed during those times, but I wasn't. For example, when I left the group to get ice cream (which turned out to be spreadable cheese) for the Siberian Seven in the U.S. embassy - I was alone for that trip to and from the hotel. And I was also alone in getting tickets for some of the group for the Bolshoi Ballet. Or how about when my friend was still at the airport with the rest of the group and I was waiting at the hotel, and the times I was taken around to pay for the extra hotel days, extend our visas, etc. I went on 2 trips like that alone with the Sputnik guide, that there was nothing unusual at all that happened, other than we didn't know what the problem was for us leaving, but that was not a personal thing, but solely regarding martial law having been declared in Poland.
With all those missed opportunities, then, I'm sure that I wasn't on the Soviet Union's radar yet at that point. I still think that didn't happen till when I started working with Soviet emigrants while I was in Bible school.
***
Page 307 of this book discusses a 1987 FBI report in the Congressional Record which describes the connection between the Communist Party USA and the USSR. Although I later became pretty liberal (although I have some political views not usually associated as left-wing, but I'm not alone in that, and some would even say that the left-right dichotomy is a false simplification of possible political views), I already discussed how I wasn't Communist and never agreed with their views. But I actually have never really identified strongly with a party, and I usually don't specific a party when living in a state that asks you to do that when you register to vote. That's why I couldn't vote in the last primary elections, because I lived in a state that required you to indicate a party to be able to vote in the primaries and then I would only have been able to vote for the nominee of the party I'd previously selected.
That's my pesky independent streak, I guess. I sort of like to be able to think for myself instead of being told what to think or being fit into a confining ideological straight jacket. I know that sounds like an American kind of way of thinking, but it's sure caused me a LOT of trouble through the years.
***
That's all for that book, so I'm taking another break. I'm doing my weekly filling of my pill and supplement pouches, and I found out I need a refill. I put that order in and soon I'll have to go pick it up at the pharmacy and work on that plus some other housework that always needs doing.
~ Meg
