All language subtitles for Secrets.Spies.A.Nuclear.Game.S01E01.Paranoia.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta

DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES

Paranoia emerged all the time.

Once, my wife and I were
on leave from Moscow

and we went to a
small Irish island.

And I remember walking
round the cliffs of this island

with my wife.

And I said, "I think
I'm under surveillance."

And I said to myself, "I
must be mad! This is Ireland."

I mean, this is not Moscow.

But I still had this very strong
sense that I was under surveillance,

and I couldn't place it until
I looked over into the sea

and there were about 50
seals that had popped up

and were following
one from the sea.

That sort of stayed with one,

the fact that you knew
you were being watched

but you didn't quite know how.

This is the story of a critical
moment in the Cold War...

..told not just through
the politicians...

..but hidden figures.

There was complete
misunderstanding on either side.

It's very difficult to
determine whom you can trust.

As the Soviet Union faced off
with the West in the early 1980s...

..three secret agents played a
dangerous game from the shadows...

..seeking to win the upper hand

while the world stood on
the brink of nuclear war.

These are their stories...

..told in their own words...

After 11 years of secret work,
maybe I developed paranoia.

..testimony pieced together
from interviews over the years...

It was actually the greatest
intelligence operation

of the Cold War.

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

..revealing the deadly intrigues

at the heart of the battle
between East and West.

These kind of jobs are a bit
like being actresses and actors,

where you're busily performing

for an audience you're
not quite sure about.

Look, this is a war.

A secret war.

1982 was a time when people
in Soviet Union still believed

in the reality of nuclear war.

Confrontation between West
and East was very serious.

Sometimes it was not only

iron curtains,

it was like an iron sphere.

This is a dangerous
time for the Soviet Union.

Almost 40 years
into the Cold War...

..the economy is overstretched,

the military is unexpectedly
entrenched in Afghanistan,

and support for
communism is faltering.

The Soviet leadership, under Leonid
Brezhnev, is stockpiling nuclear arms

in a show of strength
against the West.

But there's a more
subtle weapon, too.

Secret intelligence.

The head of the Soviet
intelligence service is Yuri Andropov.

The KGB have been running
the Russian life for years.

Andropov was getting more and
more convinced of the menacing West.

He was a full-blown KGB person

who thought that
it's either us or them,

and basically it'd
better be them.

He started Operation RYaN.

Operation RYaN is a running tally
of all possible signs that the West

is getting ready
for nuclear attack.

Andropov believes
that once his chart is full,

the Soviet Union should
be ready to retaliate.

There is a chart for
"Americans said this"

and "the Brits said that",

somebody was caught here,

and a plane crossed that border.

And I think, in Andropov's mind,
he was absolutely convinced

that nuclear
confrontation is coming.

And so Andropov is using every
resource to keep close watch

on his adversaries.

Being a skilled
intelligence officer, a spy,

life was exciting.

It was thrilling.

It was romantic.

I was thrilled by being involved
in specific KGB operations,

like dead letterboxes.

Oleg Gordievsky is a very
highly qualified intelligence officer.

He's like royalty, because he was
born in a family working for KGB.

His brother working for KGB.

KNOCK ON DOOR

I think he was a good example
of Soviet intelligence service.

Soviet Union always keen to
put agents all around the world.

The KGB never sent
abroad unmarried men.

I was married to my second wife,
Leila, and we had two children.

I wanted to get abroad
as soon as possible.

I wanted to participate in
some daring operations.

Oleg Gordievsky is being sent
across the Iron Curtain to London

to help understand
British intentions.

NEWSREEL: President Reagan's
vast limousine has just drawn up here

outside the Norman Porch, having
come from Buckingham Palace.

This is going to be the first
time that an American president

has addressed both Houses of
Parliament here at Westminster.

The Cold War was
a view of the world

where you had a
totalitarian empire,

run out of Moscow...

..and Western countries,
led by the United States,

facing off against each other.

It was an ideological
battle, and the competition

really was for security,

and it was pretty much that way

since the early '50s.

Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan
have joined forces in a new approach

to the hostile East that is feeding
Andropov's every suspicion.

Ronald Reagan had met
Maggie Thatcher and was amazed

that they thought alike.

Prime Minister Thatcher, who
really did, despite her uptight bearing

and her hairdo, really loved
to be with Ronald Reagan.

There was a certain
magnetism, a certain glory to him.

And she felt that tingling.

My Lord Chancellor...

..speaking for all Americans, I
want to say how very much at home

we feel in your house.

Ronald Reagan said that Soviet
communism will lie, cheat and steal

to advance its mission
around the world.

That was the idea that
Ronald Reagan had

to delegitimise
the Soviet Union.

The decay of the Soviet experiment
should come as no surprise to us.

We see totalitarian forces in
the world who seek subversion

and conflict around the globe

to further their barbarous
assault on the human spirit.

In 1982, the Soviet Union had

something like 33,000
nuclear weapons.

We had something like 22,000.

Way too many and way too scary.

Even before he became president,

Ronald Reagan said,
"The Cold War will end

"and I know how
it's going to end.

"We win and they lose."

The march of freedom and democracy,
which will leave Marxism-Leninism

on the ash heap of history,
as it has left other tyrannies

which stifle the freedom and muzzle
the self-expression of the people.

That speech, it was offensive,

and it was actually
offensive to a lot of people.

A lot of people I remember saying,
"Who the hell are you to tell us

"that we're the
heap of history?"

Closer cooperation between the UK
and the US is exactly what Andropov

has been looking out for.

But in a cold war,

getting proof of what the
other side is thinking is key.

The craft of intelligence
is very ancient.

We need to know the intentions

and capabilities of those

who have an intent to harm us.

At this period of the Cold War,

both sides were monitoring
very closely the other.

This is a very typical one
of my wife and my aunt

eating ice cream in the snow
outside the Bolshoi Theatre.

I'm Raymond Asquith and I was
head of our SIS station in Moscow

in the early 1980s.

Civil servants are all signatories
of the Official Secrets Act,

and what's not in the public domain
is really not for discussion by us.

Our station in Moscow
was quite a small one.

The whole apparatus of
control and surveillance

was very sophisticated.

I mean, they used to
paint radioactive paint

on the bottom of our cars,
you know, in order to track us.

We were thin on
the ground, really.

It was extremely hard for outsiders
to discover anything significant

about Soviet
political intentions.

CHATTER OVER COMMS

As British agents seek inside access
to Moscow's intelligence service,

Oleg Gordievsky joins
Russian agents in London.

London was one
of the major cities

where Soviet
espionage was going on.

The KGB quarters in
London, it's called a station.

KGB station is located
in the Russian Embassy.

My name is Alexander Vassiliev.

I am a Russian
journalist, writer,

espionage historian

and also ex-KGB
intelligence officer.

That London job was extremely
advantageous for Gordievsky.

It means that he was trusted
and that he was a decent operative,

and it was good for him.

You must understand the nature
of the KGB intelligence service.

Everything is top secret.

I wasn't supposed to write
anything on an ordinary paper.

We had special
notebooks for this.

So anything you write in
your top-secret notebook...

..immediately
becomes top secret.

There were only a few people
above Gordievsky in the station.

One of them is the
station chief, Arkadi Guk.

General Guk, he
was a big, fat man.

He was not able to
speak good English,

so he could not do anything.

He could not write. He
only was able to sign.

Gordievsky was supposed to
spend most of his time, nine to five,

in the embassy,
doing his official job,

and then after that
he became a spy.

Other job was to
get British secrets...

..especially secrets concerning
Britain's foreign policy.

It was a very good career
move for Gordievsky.

But the British counter-intelligence
service MI5 is considered

one of the most professional
services in the world.

So I'm pretty sure he knew
that it wouldn't be a picnic for him.

British intelligence is watching
closely to stop Soviet spies

from getting access to political
plans and military capabilities.

MI5 has a specialised team,
known by insiders as "the watchers".

There was lots of locking away
of everything and shredding

and then burning and then
re-shredding and re-burning.

It added to the sort of glamour
that what we were doing

was very secret, and we
were therefore rather special.

My name's Miranda Ingram

and I worked for the security
service MI5 in the early '80s.

We spent a few days
with Special Branch.

We were learning how
to spot a tail, I think.

The person who was head of
training and the person who trained me

was a man called
Michael Bettaney.

My course is Oxbridge.

But he was northern
working class.

We had both got posted to K, which
was the top job everyone wanted,

because it was
against the Russians.

Michael, I suspect, is quite
glad to get onto K Desk.

The MI5 agents are there to
monitor Russians in London,

identify active agents
and track their activities.

That was a very popular job,

because the Russians
are very good spies,

so it was
intellectually fulfilling,

but also, morally, it
was very straightforward.

We spied on them.
They spied on us.

Michael Bettaney,
he was very kind,

intelligent, quite academic.

He was quite old-fashioned.
He was very well dressed

and well mannered.

Conscientious.

By the early '80s...

..spirits were fairly high.

I was aware that we had
identified quite a lot of spies.

You might have the letters
opened, see where they were going,

who they were meeting.

Russians are very good.

So they don't slip
up on the phone.

So it was almost exclusively
talking about what white goods to buy

on the Tottenham Court
Road to take back to Moscow.

An awful lot of it!

Well, I've got various
newspaper cuttings,

but also photos with Mrs T.

Margaret Thatcher was
uncompromising in her dislike of socialism

and of communism, and
that was what drove her.

I look so young and innocent.

My job was really to make sure

that 10 Downing
Street worked well

for the Prime Minister.

Yes, OK, certainly. Margo!

Margaret Thatcher was
fascinated by intelligence.

Part of it was the glamour,

but also, she liked to collect
as much information as possible,

and intelligence was
one of the sources.

There was a special box in
Number 10 known as "stripey",

because it had a red
stripe across a blue box,

and there would have
been regular reports

of anything which became known
about Soviet activity in the UK.

What the Prime
Minister doesn't know

is that her intelligence service
has a very special resource in play.

There was a number
of secrets in my life.

In Britain, I was supposed
to be just an official,

civilian official of
the Soviet state.

Meanwhile, I was a KGB spy...

..spying against Britain.

But Oleg Gordievsky
has an even bigger secret.

Gordievsky was
recruited as a double agent

while working in
Denmark in the 1970s...

..but was summoned back to
Moscow, and all contact went cold.

His British handlers have been
waiting four years to hear from him.

You can imagine...

..a combination of anticipation

and delight,

but on the other hand, the
realisation that this would be

an extraordinarily
sensitive operation to run.

A completely
unparalleled situation.

I would be regarded
by the Soviet state

as a traitor and a criminal.

There are some things
that I really cannot go into.

I know you'll understand the
nature of what we're talking about.

When Oleg arrived
in London in 1982,

it was invaluable

to have the views of an insider

in the Russian Embassy in London

who knew the meaning of
everything that was happening.

I hated the communist system.

I wanted to fight against it.

I was euphoric about
working not for a tyranny,

but for a democratic state.

He was very, very
intellectually disciplined.

He knew all the
tricks of the trade.

They're not all very good,
but some of them are,

and he was.

I knew so much about the
crimes of the communist power

against the Russian people

and the peoples
of other territories -

Lithuanian, Ukrainian -

that I simply would have regarded
myself as not an honest person

if I wouldn't be fighting
against that system.

It's a huge risk for Oleg,

because Soviet Union,
it was a death sentence

for all people who
betrayed their own country.

What I know about Oleg,

he was very balanced
and very strong.

Some people have
their own destiny.

My name is Marina Litvinenko.

I'm a British citizen,

and I live in the country even
after my husband was killed.

It would be very, very few people
anywhere who knew about Oleg.

You don't want
anybody at any stage

to betray the source

because accidents happen.

Usually things are very,
very carefully contained.

Only people who need to know.

That's a great
principle - need to know.

You have to keep
completely tight

to a very few people.

Only eight people in the country
have been told about Gordievsky.

But MI5's watchers are always
on the tail of Russians in London

so could accidentally
blow his cover.

Two of Michael Bettaney's
colleagues at K Desk

are let into this highly
sensitive operation

at a highly sensitive time.

A specially extended Nine
O'Clock News with Michael Buerk.

President Brezhnev, ruler of Russia
for nearly two decades, is dead.

For the Soviet people tonight,
five days of mourning begin.

For leaders who've
grown old in his shadow,

the chance of ultimate power.

Who will take over?

Brezhnev was there for 18 years.

There was a whole generation

that didn't know how to deal
with the death of a leader.

The Communist Party decides

to promote someone
with a very clear agenda.

Andropov becomes, from the
KGB, the head of the Soviet Union.

He was quite a terrifying man.

He came out of the
apparatus of control,

and he then ran the Soviet Union
as a very controlled environment.

When he's marched into the General
Secretary of the Communist Party...

..it's a coming-of-age moment.

Because of the Krushchev
name, my great-grandfather,

when Andropov became
the head of the Soviet Union...

..my family was
simply terrified,

because he's the KGB head.

Khrushchev dismantled,

or as much as he could,

he dismantled the
KGB after Stalin's death.

So Andropov, as my
mother was convinced,

was going to come back at us,
at the family, with a vengeance.

And, you know,
there was even a talk

that the gulags are
going to be reinstated.

He's going to push
forward certain policies,

including
international policies.

Now he is leader
of the Soviet Union,

Andropov's Operation RYaN charts

are taken from the KGB backrooms
to the heart of Soviet policy.

It was Andropov's obsession,
those charts that we talked about.

He did think that confrontation

and particularly
nuclear confrontation

with the United
States can happen.

And so the Soviet
Union has to be

completely and utterly
prepared to push that button.

All eyes are now on Reagan in
this uncharted new landscape.

Reagan was adamant

that he's not going to deal
with those red...red bastards.

So, for him, Andropov was
that icon that he imagined.

And for Andropov,
Reagan was that icon,

the cowboy who is going
to destroy the Soviet Union,

because he was playing in
all these films like John Wayne.

Reagan and Andropov, in
some ways, found each other.

Neither of them would back off.

Reagan, of course,
was going to whip it up

and show those Russkies.

When they're such mirror images,

then of course it would be

obviously a cycle of animosity.

This was the moment when we
were really scared of the nuclear war.

That really stayed with
me as the scariest time

that I've ever experienced
in my life in the Soviet Union.

The opposing sides in the Cold
War could not be further apart.

Now Britain's double
agent is their best chance

at understanding where
Andropov's paranoia is leading.

After some time, I started to
spirit authentic KGB documents

out of the KGB premises,
which was a great risk for life.

So it was not just me telling them
and briefing the British officials

but also producing real,
authentic KGB documents.

You should always
be slightly on edge.

The mistakes are endless
that you could make,

and if you get relaxed,

that's when you make them.

One day, the head of
station, a KGB general...

..drove past me when I
was crossing the road.

It was very dangerous.

It turned out that he
was such a poor driver

that he simply failed to see me.

Gordievsky is now firmly
established as a high-value asset,

and so MI6 make a decision.

It was in December
1982, as I recall...

..that MI6 needed to
tell the Prime Minister

that they had a source
but it was highly secret.

Good morning, good morning. Happy
Christmas to you all. Same to you.

Wonderful to be here. Mrs
Thatcher, lovely to see you.

We weren't told the name.

It's lovely to see you
here. Wonderful to be here.

We weren't even
told the position.

The spirit of peace and goodwill!
Thank you, Prime Minster.

She would have
recognised the importance

of protecting this asset
very, very carefully...

Good afternoon.

..partly, I think, for
the glamour of it,

but partly for real necessity.

She would have not
wanted to know the real name

and would have invented
a name that she could use.

The inner circle who know
about Gordievsky is growing.

But Britain's advantage over
the Soviets must be kept secret.

Two months later, Gordievsky
provides crucial intelligence,

revealing that the
new Soviet leader

has pushed Operation
RYaN to the foreground.

We were instructed to watch
for signs of special activities

during the day and
particularly by night.

Lit windows of the
Ministry of Defence

and the Foreign Office.

The American Embassy
working overtime

until early morning hours.

What Oleg Gordievsky
really brought

was an inside understanding

of what Operation
RYaN was really about.

It was showing a paranoia.

But the paranoia was real.

As soon as they
were receiving reports,

the number of crosses
was slowly, slowly growing,

which was making the
point, "Yes, they're preparing!"

When two sides don't
know one another,

they both misread signs.

You can see how
dreadful things can happen

by that kind of
misunderstanding.

Despite Andropov's suspicions,

the West has no plans
for a nuclear attack.

So they will watch and wait

and protect their
source at all costs.

The decision not to tell the
Americans about Gordievsky

would have been because
this was such a valuable asset

that you would want to
protect it as much as possible,

illustrated by the fact that

Margaret Thatcher didn't even
know his name or his position.

Without Gordievsky's insights,

Reagan is not thinking about
the Soviets' true state of mind.

He steps up his strategy to
scare them into backing down

with a brazen new stance.

Ladies and gentlemen, the President
of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

In 1983, I was
arms control director.

Ronald Reagan gives his speech

before the evangelicals,
of all people...

..saying that the Soviet
Union is "the evil empire,

"the focus of evil in
the modern world".

The Soviet leaders have
openly and publicly declared

that the only morality
they recognise

is that which will
further their cause,

which is world revolution.

Ronald Reagan felt that there
was a tendency in the world

to equate the two sides.

They're both to be
blamed for the Cold War,

they're both to be blamed
for all these nuclear weapons,

there's a moral
equivalence between the two.

Ronald Reagan was saying
there's no moral equivalence.

Let us pray for the salvation

of all of those who live in
that totalitarian darkness.

They are the focus of
evil in the modern world.

APPLAUSE

Most Soviet people,
including Andropov,

believed that there could be a
nuclear attack from the West.

By the way, the Soviet Union
never bombed anyone with A-bombs.

The Americans did it twice.

You know, somehow
in the Western media,

the Soviets are presented
like, you know, paranoid people.

Excuse me!

Look from our point
of view at America.

Reagan's approach is to openly
and expensively arm Europe

as a way to force the increasingly
impoverished Soviets to back down.

The Defence Secretary told NATO
that we would be prepared to have

160 cruise missiles
based here in Britain.

The main base is to be
Greenham Common near Newbury,

where 76 of the
missiles will be stored.

The cruise missile can carry
any size of nuclear warhead,

and with a range of 1,700 miles,

the ones soon to be based
at Greenham Common

could reach as far as Moscow.

Margaret Thatcher was
always a firm supporter

of the policy of
nuclear deterrence.

In the mid-1980s, it was
very much a disputed matter.

There were many people
who were very anxious

about the danger
of nuclear weapons.

Of course, this coincided

with the deployment of
nuclear missiles to Europe

and the basing
of them in the UK.

She felt that that was necessary
for the safety of Europe.

She knew it was
going to be opposed.

As protests gained momentum,

KGB agents seized the opportunity
to impress Andropov back at home.

The KGB office in London

was claiming credit with Moscow

for having organised

the Greenham Common protests.

They couldn't organise a
soapbox in Hyde Park as a protest,

let alone, you know,

a massive, massive
spontaneous protest

like Greenham Common.

And, of course, that eventually blew
back to the Conservative government,

and certain Conservative
politicians at the time

started to accuse Greenham Common
women of being funded by Moscow.

And so they got tarred
unjustly at the time

as being sort of
puppets of Moscow.

Internal memos are shared
within the Government

as the rumour takes hold.

The British secret service
quietly starts surveillance

on the peace movement
at Greenham Common.

The use of watchers
to keep control at home

sits uneasily with
Michael Bettaney.

I think Michael was
becoming increasingly unhappy

that domestic surveillance
as such was being expanded.

Who checks on what
the spies are doing?

Who spies on the spies?

Because we were beginning to
see MI5 as a microcosm of society

and a society that he was growing
more and more disillusioned with.

I got on with him very well

because I very much
liked his sense of humour.

And he was quite
interesting to talk to.

He liked talking to me
about Russian culture,

Russian literature,
Russian music.

He didn't really want
to hear all the realities

of the day-to-day hardships
of the Soviet citizens.

And he'd sometimes
make odd little comments,

you know, about, I don't know, how
wonderful Russia was or something,

that I took to be ironic but
perhaps weren't, in retrospect.

Michael Bettaney, he became
more and more disillusioned

with British
governmental policies.

He then decided communism
was a better path for mankind.

I think he was a man still
looking and still searching for...

..the meaning in his life.

Michael Bettaney pushes
a letter through the letterbox

of General Arkadi Guk,

offering his services.

I think he was
probably more interested

in hurting the
Establishment than...

..giving secrets
to the Russians.

It just seemed like
something out of a novel,

like a sort of
John le Carre thing

that you didn't expect to
happen in the real world.

You didn't really expect people

to be approaching the Russians
and fixing dead letterboxes,

no, even despite
all our training.

It did seem rather
extraordinary.

When that letter arrived
in Arkadi Guk's flat,

I'm pretty sure
he was suspicious

because he had huge experience
as a counterintelligence officer.

So he was extremely careful.

Gordievsky learned that
there had been some offer

but of course didn't know who.

Guk said, "Now, look,
that man is sending us

"their information about KGB,

"which means they're sending
us what we already know."

It was not real intelligence.

The KGB deliberate over
whether the offer is genuine.

Gordievsky can feel
danger inching closer.

The potential spy giving away
secrets to the KGB was dangerous.

I felt...tremendous pressure.

The nerves were
beginning to fail me.

My health started
to deteriorate.

I had insomnia...

..and high blood pressure.

I told the British
intelligence service.

They started to
look for a traitor.

It was really important to identify
who this anonymous person was

who was offering secrets

to the Soviet Embassy.

A mole hunt, classic mole hunt.

MUSIC: Newsnight Theme Tune

As British intelligence
raced to protect Gordievsky,

a drama is unfolding on
the other side of the world

that plays into every paranoia
on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Good evening, and our apologies
for joining you later than usual.

We had a fire alarm in the building,
which fortunately came to nothing.

But now for our programme.

In perhaps the most
alarming diplomatic incident

since the Second World War,

a Russian MiG fighter has
shot down a civilian airliner.

All 269 people aboard
are presumed dead.

The missile attack happened

when the South Korean jumbo
jet strayed into Soviet airspace.

The crisis over Flight 007...

Just about half were Korean,
Japanese and Taiwanese...

The free world was outraged.

For once, it's no exaggeration
to say that Western governments

have been stunned and
even a little frightened.

Once the news comes that the Soviets
had shot down the Korean airliner,

Ronald Reagan immediately
goes on national television

and uses every dirty
word for their behaviour

that he can find
in the thesaurus.

What can be said
about Soviet credibility

when they so flagrantly lie
about such a heinous act?

The military in Moscow explain.

"The Korean jumbo was spying,
so our missiles brought it down."

Being in the Soviet Union,
you've been limited for information.

It was all controlling,
all propaganda style.

This was all right.

This was just an aeroplane
just crossed the border

and nobody knew
what it's going to be,

and this was only
way to shut it down.

The Soviet Union becomes
very defensive, very quiet

and makes no apologies at all.

So that drove people in the West,
especially conservatives like me,

to think, "Boy, they are even
worse than we thought they were."

THEY SHOUT

NEWS CORRESPONDENT:

The Soviet people don't know

that there is a major
diplomatic crisis,

because they haven't been told.

It was a frightening moment.

But there was so
much going on in 1983

that was frightening.

Gordievsky will need to help the
British interpret the Soviet mood.

But first, he must
watch his own back.

The mole has tried again.

A rather frustrated
Michael Bettaney

put a second letter
through Guk's letterbox,

in this case enclosing a list

of all the identified
KGB officers in London.

Guk was very boastful.

And he was saying things
which were unnecessary to say.

He was not supposed to tell me.

The document provides
a much-needed clue.

Only someone at K Desk could
have access to these details.

Gordievsky's lead takes MI5
to Michael Bettaney's door.

He didn't confess initially.

So they left him to
sweat it out overnight

in a safe house with
a bottle of whisky.

And the next day he said,
"I'll make a clean breast of it."

My name is Helena Kennedy.

I was one of the barristers
who was instructed

to act for Michael Bettaney.

I remember that we asked,
"Why did you ask for us?"

And he said, "Because I knew
you and I knew your work,"

and he made it very clear
that he did have informants

inside all these campaigns,
in the cases that we did.

Bettaney tells his lawyers
that spying on British citizens

like Helena Kennedy and the
women of Greenham Common

fuelled his betrayal.

I think that he
then felt that he was

party to something
that was discreditable,

in fact, to the British state.

He was not going
to play that game.

I think he did feel
a sense of outrage

that took him down
this crazy road.

Once his house was raided
by the security services,

they found a large amount
of accumulated material

that would never, in
normal circumstances,

be sitting in somebody's house.

Michael Bettaney, I don't want
to have it on my conscience

that there are people in jail
because of my information.

I feel uneasy about it,
because I'm a human being

and I've got my
conscience and my soul.

The concern of
the security services

was that Michael Bettaney
had passed information,

information about
Gordievsky, to the KGB.

Bettaney's arrest means the KGB
has missed a valuable opportunity

to see what the
West are really up to.

Andropov's paranoia
is now at boiling point

but remains unheeded.

Still unconvinced about how
their actions are being read,

Western forces
carry on as normal...

..and launch a
military exercise,

gathering 40,000 US and
NATO troops across Europe,

right on Russia's border.

Able Archer was a normal military
exercise by NATO command...

..to prepare NATO
forces in Europe

for an attack from
the Soviet Union.

But the way it was done
was not normal at all.

The nuclear component of
the exercise was hyped up.

RADIO COMMS:

Yankee 4 Lima...

The idea of it was,

make this as realistic as
you could possibly make it.

For Andropov, it looks like

his Operation RYaN
prophecy could be coming true.

They were receiving much
more cables during Able Archer.

I knew it was a dramatic moment.

I knew Moscow was nervous.

Daytime, 01.55...

B-52 bombers with
nuclear capabilities

now arrive at the
US German airbase.

Andropov is watching
it unfold from hospital.

But the Soviet
people aren't told

about their leader's
declining health

as he keeps his hands
firmly on the reins of power.

I think KGB people have
a different kind of brain

than a politician.

KGB is all about state security.

They are protecting the state

from all this malign
interference and influence.

And so if Andropov
would get that close

to feeling that the
nation is threatened,

why not?

In response, the
Soviets get into position.

Nuclear submarines are primed
and ready to rise and launch.

Soviet troops are put on a
15-minutes' combat standby.

Andropov, he's dying, but
he's clutching that red button.

He really thinks if
it's not him, who else?

He's in charge.

But the exercise continues,

unaware that a nuclear confrontation
is now just a phone call away.

The prevailing attitude was,

"We're not even
thinking about them."

You know, their reaction
to all this is something that...

..you know, that doesn't
come up, just doesn't come up.

Ultimately, you kind
of have this mendacity.

You believe in your own
propaganda of your own greatness,

you're in the
control of the state.

All Russian and
Soviet dictators,

their problem is they always
think they're the last line of defence.

While the country is
being starved to death,

eliminated, bombed,

destroying others in your wake,

you still think that,

because the
greatness of the state

belongs to you,
you are in power,

you have the right, if
you decide, to destroy it

so nobody else would get it.

Two weeks after it began,

the Able Archer operation
wraps up on schedule.

Andropov off is
finally persuaded

that this really was
just an exercise.

This time.

Western forces
pack up their kit,

not realising how close the world
could have come to nuclear war.

We knew the times
were dangerous.

What we didn't know was even
worse than we thought at the time,

and they could press the button

and unleash a nuclear
war against the West.

We don't know what's happened
in the Kremlin during those days

or especially the last
few hours of the drill.

My contribution was to
explain that this is dangerous.

You're playing with fire,
you simply don't understand

the mentality of the
old Russian leaders.

The Able Archer exercise,

the world came very
close to nuclear war.

It's important that
the agent feels

that the risks they're running
are properly recognised.

After the Bettaney case,
Margaret Thatcher, through MI6,

sent congratulations
to Gordievsky

for helping expose Bettaney.

Little things like
that really matter.

Michael Bettaney never knew

about the double identity
of Oleg Gordievsky.

Britain's highest-ranking
mole is safe...for now.

Bettaney is found
guilty of ten charges

under the Official Secrets Act
and sentenced to 23 years in jail.

To be a traitor, to hand over names
of people who might end up dead,

that is wrong,

because of the harm he
could cause to other people.

And then the people left behind

are working in an atmosphere
where they don't know

if they can trust the
people they're working with.

He could have done
with somebody in his life

that just said, "Oh,
come on, stop fantasising

"and let's, you know, go
and see a film, or something."

He wrote to me from prison.

"A young sparrowhawk chose
my exercise yard for a picnic.

"We looked at each other
in mutual amazement.

"Bird puzzled by man in cage.

"But it only lasted for
a couple of minutes,

"so I have to try and relive the
experience in my imagination."

Our goal was to weaken the enemy

and eventually help
the suppressed to rise up

and build another
communist nation.

I felt instinctively that
my time was running out.

From cyber intelligence

to undercover operatives
and so-called honeypots,

the shape of espionage has
constantly changed with the times.

For an interactive
look at spying's past,

go to the address below

and follow the links
to the Open University.