All language subtitles for Secrets.and.Spies.A.Nuclear.Game.S01E04.Fallout.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
Previously on Secrets & Spies.

[Tim Naftali] He sells their
souls to the Soviets.

He sells their lives.

Aldrich Ames is voluntarily

killing people.

[Aldrich Ames, on recording]

[Sir David Omand]
Gordievsky knew

that they had surreptitiously

entered his flat,

and that his flat was bugged.

[Oleg Gordievsky]

[Alexander Vassiliev]
So, what do you do to officers

who betray their own motherland?

You execute them.

[crowd cheering]

[narrator]
This is the unseen story

of the Cold War...

fought not by politicians...

but by secret agents.

[Jack Barsky] There was complete
misunderstanding on either side.

It's very difficult to determine

whom you can trust.

[narrator] As the Soviet Union
faces off with the West

in the early 1980s...

two spies play a dangerous game
from the shadows.

They seek to win the upper hand

while the world stands
on the brink

of nuclear war.

These are their stories

in their own words.

Testimony pieced together from
interviews over the years...

[Oleg]
After 11 years of secret work,

maybe I develop paranoia.

...and never-before-heard
recordings...

[Aldrich, on recording]

...that reveal
the deadly intrigues

at the heart of the battle
between East and West.

[Alexander]
Look, this is a war.

A secret war.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator]
It's August 1985,

and the leader
of the Soviet Union,

Mikhail Gorbachev,

has extended an olive branch
to President Reagan,

potentially shifting
the entire dynamic

of the Cold War.

[Susan Eisenhower]
Gorbachev had a sense

that he had an opportunity here
to open this dialogue.

He was of a different
generation.

He was particularly sensitive
of the geopolitical situation.

This is probably
just about the time

that world leaders
are beginning to think

that there may be
an opportunity here.

Aides to President Reagan

and Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev

are working to set up a summit
meeting later this year.

Marvin Kalb reports
it could take place in Geneva

around November 19th
to the 21st.

Kalb says it's not being
considered a full-dress summit,

but rather a meeting for
the two men to get acquainted.

[Ken Adelman]
This summit was carefully,

carefully planned out.

It was going to be in a neutral
country, Switzerland.

In a neutral city, Geneva.

Even in a neutral venue.

Not the Soviet Embassy
or the American Embassy.

[narrator] But the delicate
balancing act

of this new diplomacy

is about to take a hit.

Oleg Gordievsky,
the head of the KGB in London

and double agent
for Britain's MI6,

has been urgently summoned
back to Moscow by his bosses.

Clearly, they were suspect
of something.

But even in the Soviet Union,

this was not the Stalin era,

where people were just accused
and then tried,

convicted, killed, murdered,
what have you.

His bosses were possibly looking
for evidence

for what they had believed
at this point.

[narrator] He is under
KGB surveillance for weeks.

He knows his days
must be numbered.

[Tim] Historically,

the Soviet Union
killed traitors.

Killed those who betrayed
Soviet secrets.

They just shot them.

And so Oleg understands

that he's facing
a death sentence.

[narrator] Gordievsky's family
join him in Moscow,

so he has their fate
to think of too.

He makes an agonizing decision.

[cawing]

[quacking]

I believe Oleg,
it was the only way

to save his family.

Only way.

They might be arrested.

They might be killed.

For Oleg, it was just like
a new future.

Escape from Russia,
you have future for your child.

Maybe a difficult future
for yourself.

But, again, you have to live
this future.

It's your chance.

MI6 had made a plan

which they had discussed
with Gordievsky

about how they might
extract him from Moscow

if things turned badly.

And the key to that will be
Gordievsky alerting them

that it was time to get him out.

The plan was he had to stand
at a particular place

holding a particular
supermarket bag.

British intelligence officers

would just regularly
look at that spot

just to check that nobody
was flying the distress flag.

[Raymond Asquith]
I wasn't on duty

for the head watch that night,

but my assistant was on duty.

And my wife and I were
driving out from our compound

to go and have dinner.

And as I turned down
to go into the center of Moscow,

I saw a Safeways bag
on the other side of the road.

And it was a bit after
the time due

for the signal
to be an exchange.

So I thought possibly
my assistant had just missed it.

It turned out he had passed
Gordievsky,

and he had eaten his chocolate
bar and all the rest.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] Seven years ago,

MI6 started Operation Pimlico,

a plan to extract double agents
working for the British.

Every week since then,

an agent stood at the same spot
eating a candy bar.

A secret signal.

Now, finally,
the mission is a go.

Next day, we went to the embassy

and we sent off our telegram
to head office,

which I think pretty well
sort of rather rocked them.

And they weren't...
I don't think--

They were hoping that this
telegram was not gonna come.

So there was a lot
of tearing and fraying,

as I later discovered,
back in London.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator]
The diplomats urge caution.

But MI6 argue for the rescue.

The final decision
is elevated to the very top.

Very unusually,

Margaret Thatcher
was at Balmoral at that moment,

because normally
she went in September.

[bagpipe music playing]

So the principle private
secretary

and the foreign affairs
had to go up to Balmoral,

almost force his way in
to see her.

What was at stake?
It was two things.

One was the human feeling

of the risks to this person

who had served the UK
so well.

The other was the damage
that would be done

to British relations
with the Soviet Union.

[narrator]
Prime Minister Thatcher

now holds Gordievsky's fate
in her hands.

Now, will that disrupt
this very fragile

but new relationship
with Gorbachev?

That must be a consideration
for Margaret Thatcher.

[Raymond] This telegram was sent
to us, actually, to SIS.

So it was enciphered.

"The prime minister

has personally approved
this operation...

and expressed
her complete confidence

in your ability
to carry it out.

We all here join in standing
100% behind you,

and are confident
you will succeed."

I mean, there was a lot
of adrenaline going on,

and an awful lot to plan.

I wasn't excited. I was--

I was bloody frightened,
actually.

[dramatic music playing]

We had developed the story
that the wife of my assistant

had got some gynecological
complaint,

and this needed urgent attention
in Helsinki.

And I was gonna be accompanying
my assistant and his wife,

and take my wife with me.

The wife of my assistant
had to groan for the microphones

and keep up her story,

and I was complaining
what a bore it was

to have to go off,

and who was gonna
look after the baby?

So there was a lot of talking up
to the ceiling,

as it were,
for their benefit.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Raymond] We took our baby

because she was still
breastfeeding.

But, to be honest,

I thought that was the best
cover story for us.

I later learned
from a Soviet agent

who told me that the KGB
simply didn't believe

that a British
intelligence officer

would take a baby
on such a perilous operation.

We drove through the night.

It was an incredibly
beautiful dawn.

You couldn't really believe
that anything bad

could come of that day.

[narrator] Gordievsky is ahead
of the MI6 team

at all times.

[wind gusting faintly]

[insects buzzing]

[narrator]
Gordievsky must stay hidden

until the MI6 team arrives.

But their problems
are just beginning.

[dramatic music playing]

[Raymond] I think it was about
half past 11 or 12.

And that's when I saw
that two KGB cars

had come behind us.

One of the cars came
zooming past

me and my assistant's car,

and then cut in
just directly in front of me.

And so we were then bracketed

by two KGB cars.

And to be quite honest,

I had never thought
of that possibility.

I hadn't even planned for it.

I didn't think-- I didn't really
know what to do.

I thought the only way
to get out of this

is to play a sort of
psychological trick on them.

And so I slowed the pace
right down.

The two surveillance cars
had to slow down.

If they'd been genuine cars,
they would have overtaken us

or had shot off
at a proper speed.

The one ahead,
his nerve eventually broke,

and he shot off
at a tremendous speed.

[tires squeal]

And we were then
about 20 kilometers short

of the rendezvous point.

So our only hope was to outrun
the one behind us.

So we got faster
and faster and faster.

[baby crying]

And the actual rendezvous point
was in a kind of forested glade,

and there was a huge rock.

And we slammed into this lay-by.

[tires screech]

And we could see
the surveillance cars

shooting ahead of us.

They had obviously lost us.

Gordievsky sort of rose up

like some kind
of Norwegian troll

out of all this moss

and all this undergrowth
where he'd been hiding.

I said to myself,
"Luckily, he'd come alone."

Sadly, that he hadn't been able
to bring his wife and children.

But from our point of view,
I thought,

"We might just have a chance
of getting away with this."

We put him in the boot.

As we drove on again,

we arrived at the border
crossing itself.

And then I saw the Soviet
Alsatian dogs.

And then they turned up
at our cars.

And then they started
to come down...

to the back
of the assistant's car

where Gordievsky was.

And I thought
that was gonna be tricky.

My wife had already got out
with our baby daughter.

I said,
"Go and change her nappy.

Put the baby over the boot,

over Gordievsky's head."

[baby crying]

And she did that.

Changed the nappy,
and then dropped it down

just below the boot
as the dog came around.

[suspenseful music playing]

The dog looked pretty disgusted
and sort of slunk off.

[Raymond] We drove off to where
we were meant to meet

this SIS reception team.

And this wonderful woman,

I remember as we got Gordievsky
out of the boot,

she just looked at him

and shook her finger at him
like that.

I thought, "You don't know
what he's been through."

[laughs]

But it was a very
affectionate gesture, really.

So that's-- That was it.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator]
Such a daring operation

is completely unprecedented.

But the Soviet Union
will be humiliated.

[no audio]

[Tim] For Thatcher,
at this moment,

the timing is very bad.

What is Gorbachev gonna think?

Any points that we wish to raise
generally

before we go
into the main business?

[narrator]
Through diplomatic channels,

the British offer to keep news
of the escape quiet...

if Gordievsky's wife
and children

will be permitted
to join him.

The Soviets are given
two weeks to agree.

[Tim] You never know
how a leader's gonna react.

Is Gorbachev self-confident
enough to say,

"Yeah, those are the rules
of the road"?

Or does Gorbachev
take it personally?

"How could she do that?

How could Thatcher do that?"

Good evening.

There must be a lot
of table pounding

going on in the inner offices
of the Kremlin tonight.

The Soviets are caught
in a major embarrassing setback

in their spy operations.

The head of the Soviet KGB
in London has defected,

and he brought
a lot of names with him.

So today, the British
kicked out 25 Soviets.

[man] I'm afraid he's not in
this afternoon.

[reporter]
All over London,

the Soviets to be expelled
dropped out of sight,

and their co-workers
lost their charm.

[man]
It's none of your business.

[reporter]
And it's only the beginning

of the shock waves
from the defection

of Oleg Gordievsky.

Married, 46 years old,
a Soviet spy since 1962.

[Alexander] The fear that he had
managed to escape,

it was obviously a major failure
for the KGB.

It was a disaster.

Um...

[sniffles]

Well, in my opinion,

Gordievsky was a traitor
and a scumbag.

He's a very good spin doctor.

A spin doctor of himself.

It's treason. It's high treason.

You betray your country.
You betray your people.

You betray your fellow officers.

It's disgusting.

[laughs]

That's it.

[Susan]
Spying has always created

an important tool
for policymakers,

but because of the nature of it
and the secrecy of it,

has always, you know,

been kind of a threat
to the dialogue as well.

[Sir Bryan Cartledge]
It was pretty soon after

the announcement in London

that I was called
into the foreign ministry.

I was told that 18 members
of my staff

were being expelled
for conducting activities

hostile to the Soviet Union.

News of today's move
by the Soviets

reached Mrs. Thatcher
during her visit to Egypt

as she was flying
between Cairo and Luxor.

Our correspondent Keith Graves
asked her for her reaction

as she started
a sightseeing tour.

I'm not surprised.

I think that the Russians

were caught red-handed,

and now the fact is
they're red-faced.

And that's why
they're reacting like this.

But I hope this is an end
of the matter.

We wish to draw a line under it

and now get on with
a constructive relationship.

[narrator]
Reagan and Gorbachev

are just two months away
from a summit

to discuss the future
of nuclear arms.

But the CIA is getting nervous

about the fate
of their double agents.

[Diana Worthen] We were finally
starting to realize

that a lot of our assets
were not coming back.

When you have one,

it's not really
cause for an alarm.

And then the next one
that happens...

you know, it's like,

okay, that's two
that didn't come back.

Finally, somebody says,
"I think we've got a problem."

You know? And I...yup.

I think we do too.

[narrator] Clearly,
someone inside the agency

is leaking the names
to the Soviets.

[Jim Milburn]
Yeah, this is Dmitri Polyakov.

He was recruited
back in the 1960s.

He was an outstanding source.

Provided a lot of information.

Yeah, we suffered a big loss
when he was compromised.

[narrator]
Over the coming months,

the CIA slowly learns
of its spies' fate.

[Jim] The Russians, of course,
publicize some of these arrests.

They're grabbing his mouth
in case he had a suicide pill.

[Diana] Gut-wrenching.

Oh, I don't even want
to see that one.

Polyakov.

I can't watch it.

[Alexander] Oh, their fate
is execution, obviously,

because what they did
was high treason.

They pledged allegiance
to their motherland.

It sounds barbaric for a normal
person, for a civilian,

but look, this is a war.

A secret war.

They were officers.

And they normally
execute traitors.

[Diana]
Smetanin was executed.

Martinov is executed.

Motorin is executed.

[Jim] Motorin, for me,

was probably the most--

The case that impacted mostly

because I was part of the team
that ran him.

You learn about their family.

You learn about their fears.

The dangers they face.

And then you realize what a risk
they're taking for us.

It is very difficult.

[Diana] It's more than sad.

But...

I'm glad that I'm not
in that business anymore.

[emergency sirens
wailing distantly]

[Tim] These are people who,
for various reasons,

opted to provide information
to the United States

about Soviet intentions
and capabilities.

Aldrich Ames put some
of those names to death

by sharing them
with his KGB case officer.

And he does it
without a second thought.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator]
Double agent Aldrich Ames

has set into motion
a chain of events

that threaten to unravel
global politics...

and his own life.

[Bianna]
Not only was the CIA

and its intelligence sources
in the Soviet Union

completely compromised...

he also was in
a compromised position,

not knowing what tomorrow
would hold.

Not knowing
who would turn on him.

Not knowing if he would
be found out or discovered.

[Diana] We knew there was
a mole somewhere.

Nobody wanted to say that.

but there was some kind
of a problem.

[Jim] We've got to find this guy
before he kills other agents.

Not only for national security
reasons,

but for personal reasons.

For the agents themselves.

And so you feel like
it's a race against time.

It never leaves your mind
for a second, you know.

[ominous music playing]

[narrator] Despite the damage
inflicted by spies

on both sides,

the Geneva Summit is still on.

Ronald Reagan
and Mikhail Gorbachev

will meet
for the very first time.

Fortunately for all concerned,

Gorbachev was self-confident
enough and wise enough

to understand
that countries spy,

even while they're trying
to get along.

A letter Gorbachev was writing
to Reagan in September

wrote that,
"Let's get together

and try to resolve
the main issues between us."

So he seemed to accept that
there's all kinds of

back-and-forth
in the spy world,

at the same time as we have
an obligation

that's bigger than that,
that's broader than that,

and that is bigger
and more important than that.

Good morning, everyone.
The moment is at hand.

President Reagan now
is at a lakeside mansion

about eight miles
north of Geneva.

Fleur d'Eau, it is called.

Gorbachev was impatient
to meet Reagan.

And though he normally
would consider Reagan

as an anti-Communist,

Ronald Reagan
was interested himself

to leave a different legacy
of his years

than just the legacy of someone

who launched a crusade
against the Soviet Union.

[new anchor] Senior White House
correspondent Charles Bierbauer

is right outside here
on this driveway.

-Charles, here he comes.
-[Charles] There he is.

[dramatic music playing]

[Ken]
I was with Reagan in Geneva.

The first U.S. summit
in six and a half years.

First summit
for Mikhail Gorbachev.

First summit for Ronald Reagan.

So it was pretty special.

[reporter 1] Mr. President,
what are you going to say

to Mr. Gorbachev, sir,
to try to convince him

that you want peace?

Sam, that will be
the subject of the meeting.

And I believe we both
do share the same goals.

[reporter 2]
Mr. General Secretary,

Mr. Gromyko once said of you,

"You have a nice smile
but iron teeth."

I guess meaning you're tough.

[speaking Russian]

[translator]
It hasn't yet been confirmed.

As of now, I am still using
my own teeth.

Ronald Reagan
never gave up the idea

that communism is a threat.

Communists pose a danger to us.

But he was really taken
with Gorbachev.

[Bianna]
At the end of the day,

they can see humanity
in each other.

And that is something

that people like Gordievsky
was able to reveal.

Gordievsky's betrayal
of his own country

actually laid the foundation

for a relaxation of tensions.

But by the end of the 1980s,

the U.S. intelligence community
would come to understand

that Oleg Gordievsky
was one of the great spies

of the Cold War,

and a tremendous source
of information for NATO.

[ominous music playing]

[narrator] The summit in Geneva
is a first step on the path

to the end of the Cold War.

The U.S. and the Soviet Union
both agree

to reduce
their nuclear stockpiles

and diminish the threat that
has paralyzed them for decades.

[Susan]
If there was anything

that the Gorbachev era
really produced,

was the opportunity for people
to develop relationships

with each other.

At the end of the day,

we're gonna look back
at this period and say,

"We took a lot of risks."

Um, and we were lucky.

As a matter of fact,
most people today

who had anything to do
with that part of the world

would say, "It's just a miracle
we got through the Cold War

without some terrible incident
taking place."

[narrator]
But the spies of the 1980s

will have an impact
far beyond the Cold War itself.

[Bianna]
Oleg Gordievsky was an outlier

in the world of spies
who would ultimately turn

and be a double agent.

In the sense that, in his mind,
he convinced himself

he was always a patriot
to a better Soviet Union.

He did not do this for money,
for fame.

He did it because he felt
it was the right thing to do.

He was very lucky to survive.

He was very lucky to be
the only Soviet spy

who was able to be exfiltrated
out of the country safely.

But this was not a fairy tale
happy ending.

But I would imagine
that he didn't expect one.

[narrator]
His family stay in Moscow,

prohibited by the state
from leaving

until the Soviet authorities

finally let them join him
in the U.K. in 1991.

Just two years later,

his marriage to Leila is over.

[Bianna]
From his perspective,

was that a price worth paying?

I bet he toys with that
every single day.

[narrator] In the decades
since his daring escape,

Gordievsky became
an expert witness,

briefing the British
and their allies

on the secrets of the KGB.

For years, he had no idea
who betrayed him,

while Ames continued
to work undetected

at the heart of the CIA.

[Tim]
He is not arrested until 1994.

And he's caught because the CIA

begins to connect the dots.

They find that he has made
$1.3 million

on a middle-class salary.

So they begin to piece together

chronology of his activities

and realize that each time
he meets with a Soviet,

he comes back a richer man.

Then the issue goes to the FBI.

By early 1994,
they had their man.

[narrator] Rick Ames
is convicted of espionage

and sentenced to life in prison
in Terre Haute, Indiana.

[narrator]
In the Soviet Union,

the blame for Gordievsky's
escape lands on the KGB team

responsible for tracking
British diplomats.

Chief among them
is a certain junior officer

working his way
through the ranks.

[Raymond] I know for a fact
Putin is pretty cross.

For him,
that Gordievsky operation

was a time
when a lot of his friends

were chucked out of the KGB.

[Susan]
But all of those things,

as they were framed
in the context

of the Soviet Union
and then Russia,

are today really quite relevant

to the crisis
that we have underway.

[Tim] In times of war,

spying is extraordinarily
important.

The courage
of the individual soldier

can never be replaced.

But good intelligence
can save the lives

of courageous soldiers.

One of the lessons
of the period in 1982 to '85

is you have to know your enemy.

If you don't,

you can scare your enemy

into doing something
that neither of you

want to see happen.