Did the Cold War Really End? 100 Years of Espionage with Calder Walton

RealClear Defense presents Hot Wash

Did the Cold War really end? As recently as this week, the New York Times confirmed that in 2020 Russian intelligence attempted to assassinate a defector on US soil, crossing a major red line even during the height of the Cold War. On today’s episode of the RealClearDefense podcast “Hot Wash” host John Sorensen and RCD contributor John Waters speak with Calder Walton, the historian who uncovered that attempted assassination and the author of a new book, “SPIES: The Epic Intelligence War Between the East and West.” Using archival evidence only declassified as recently as 2022, Walton looks at the 100 year espionage competition between the Soviet, American and British intelligence services. By comparing each side’s internal secrets the book reveals double agents, the tactics of disinformation, covert action, and assassinations. How did espionage shape the Cold War?

Walton is the Assistant Director of the Harvard Belfer Center for Applied History and Intelligence Project. He is also the author of the three-volume Cambridge History of Espionage and Intelligence and Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War, and the Twilight of Empire.

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