Spies during the Cold War tried to gain information through surveillance, recruiting foreign sources, and tapping communications. They would write reports on the information obtained and send it back to their headquarters to be analyzed. At the time, this information was beneficial for the United States because it helped the country understand and prepare for tensions with the Soviet Union without openly fighting. The information could inform military plans in the event of a war.

2. In what ways did spies during
the cold war try to gain
information? What did they do
with this information and was it
beneficial to our country?

3. The Cold War:
 Tension after World War 2 between the
Western world and the Communist world.
 The largest tension was between the US
and the Soviet Union.
 After the debatable “success” of the
atomic bomb there was talk of using it
again
 Every country now wanted to know who had one,
where it was kept, and when/if they would be
using it

4. Causes:
 Differences between the US and the Soviet
Union were intensified by suspicions
after the war.
 Power was largely shared between the
Soviet Union and the United States. As
one wanted to dominate the other
conflicts were inevitable.

5. Hot & Cold:
 Open warfare is referred to as “hot” war
however, when no fighting takes place it
is know as “cold” war.
 After World War 2, the existence of
nuclear weapons on either side meant that
fighting would be mean M.A.D. (Mutually
Assured Destruction)

6. Fighting:
 Propaganda
 Economic War
 Diplomatic Haggling
 Spying
 Occasional Military clashes

8. Spies:
 Spies were used to gain
information on things such as
 Military intentions
&
 Technology

9. Oral History:
What field of study were you in before joining the CIA?
How did you become a spy?
How did this make you feel at the time?
Was you’re job referred to as spying?
What training was required to become a spy?
Were you informed of what you would be doing or trying to
find out?
Were you part of a team or on your own?
Where did you stay while on the job?
What was daily life like there?
What techniques and tools did you use to gain information?

10. Shirley Perry Continued:
Were you warned about the risks of being found?
Was there ever a time that you feared for your life?
Could your family/friends know what you were doing?
How did this affect your relationships with people?
What did you do with the information you gained?
Do you feel that the information that you and others in
your position gained was beneficial to our country?
What effects do you think the cold war had on our country
and other countries involved?
What sacrifices did you make when choosing to become a
spy?
Looking back, how do you feel about the time you spent
with the CIA?

11. Read Her Book:
If you’re interested in this
Kind of stuff read her book;
*I recommend it*

12. Becoming a Spy:
 Recruits
 Asked to join by other spies.
 Applying
 Fill out an application and just
wait.
*The CIA receives hundreds of
applications a day, thousands a month*

13. Physical Training:
 Pass an army physical fitness test
 Defensive driving
 Manning boats
 Hand to hand combat
 Flying
 Jump Lessons (from airplanes)
 Paramilitary

14. Mental Training:
 Assessing Personalities
 Manipulating Weaknesses
 Learning to be “cold”
 You have to know that you’re job is to
use people, don’t get attached
 Working as long as possible just so they
can see how much you can take
 Fake Situations to test your reactions
*Everything’s a Test in training*

16. The Farm:
 Training facility near Williamsburg
Virginia
 It used to be top secret, the outside
world had no idea of it’s existence
 Since the big secret was let out, it’s become a
point of interest in the entertainment
business. Movies and shows have had a field day
drawing up how they think the farm would have
looked or worked.
 In the real world it’s a place of
grueling training for months at a time.

18. The Job:
 If you made it through the training, work
began.
 Office=CIA Agent=someone an officer has
recruited to provide information
 It’s nothing like the movies, they don’t
get all the high tech gadgets, not very
action packed
 Most of the time the tools you have are a car,
your memory, and the notes you take
 Much like working for a big corporation

19. Life Change:
 Living abroad
 Most times living a new life
(cover story)
 Must learn to miss big events in
life, the job (you’re country)
comes before anything else

20. What did they want to
know:
 Extent of their resources,
defenses, and listening devices.
 Their military plans
 Government plans
 Where any atomic weapons were
located or if they actually had
them

21. How People Spied:
 Cover Stories
 Surveillance Detection
 Recruiting foreigners with access to the
information you want.
 Tapping phone calls and emails
 Monitoring conversations (listening in)

22. Information Gained:
 When spies gain information they have to
write it up in a report and give it to
their controllers
 It has to be hidden so no one suspects
anything
 If someone finds out, it could blow the
spies cover or lead them to supply false
information
 The information was then sent back and
analyzed and would be acted upon if
necessary

23. Blown Covers:
 A spy should be able to do their job
without a cover story
 It’s only in place as a type of
security blanket
 Many times when a spy is caught now, they
have diplomatic immunity and are sent
back to their own country
 During the cold war however, spies were
normally tortured for information or just
killed instantly

25. Spying Yesterday & Today:
 New intentions
 Surprisingly the use of “gadgets” has
decreased in a sense
 Training time

26. Lessoning of Tension:
 It’s debated when the cold war actually
ended, some say maybe it hasn’t really,
but many agree somewhere around the early
1990’s
 Both sides at odds possessed the same
destructive weapons it would cause mass
destruction had they really decided to
use them on each other

27. Effects on the World:
 The cold war was a huge test for the CIA
 It tested it’s resources, it
participants loyalty, and the all
around usefulness as a department
 Many people decided they did not want to
remain loyal to their country for
whatever reason and provided secret
information to spies from the other side
 Many people from either side became
traitors

28. What ways did spies during the Cold
War try to gain information? What did
they do with this information and was
it beneficial to our country?
Spies during the cold war gained
information by watching, listening, and
recruiting. Once they had the information it
was sent back to headquarters to be analyzed
and for a plan to be made for it’s use. At the
time it was beneficial to our country because
we weren’t really sure what was going to come
out of the tensions. Because there was no war,
the information that was gained was never
really used. However, had there been a war we
would have known the extent of their defenses
and military plans.

29. Special Thanks To:
Shirley Perry
&
William Walton (Pap)
For taking the time to tell me about
their lives!