Editor’s Note: David Wise is the author of numerous books on
national security, intelligence and espionage. His latest book,
Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War with China, was published
June 14 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. By David Wise – Special to
CNN For almost half a century during the Cold War, the world
focused on the global espionage battle between the United States
and the Soviet Union. The duel between the CIA and the KGB,
portrayed in countless books, films and news stories captured
the public imagination. Espionage became a kind of entertainment
thanks in no small part to the fictional exploits of James Bond.
This fiction masked a cold reality. In the actual conflict,
spies and their agents died. Lives were shattered. The KGB's
supermoles - Aldrich Ames in the CIA and Robert Hanssen in the
FBI - stole U.S. secrets by the trunkful and betrayed agents
working for U.S. intelligence. Many of those agents were
executed. A the East-West intelligence battles played out in
back alleys across the globe,