Martin & Mitchell: The Defectors

The National Security Agency faced a terrible crisis in the summer of 1960 when two cryptologists disappeared on vacation, possibly behind the Iron Curtain.
In a worst case scenario for the U.S. government, the pair appeared in Moscow on September 6, 1960 to announce their defection and denounce the United States. For the first time the mission and activities of the NSA-including unauthorized incursions into foreign airspace-were made public. Dr. David M. Barrett, professor of political science at Villanova University and author of, The CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy, will uncover what led to their defection and the aftermath for both the NSA and the defectors.
---------------------------------------­­­­­------------------------------------­-­-­-­-­-
Website: www.spymuseum.org
Facebook: / intlspymuseum
Twitter: / intlspymuseum
NEW BLOG! blog.spymuseum.org

[@rebeccamaser4111]

Took a fascinating subject and made it dull as dishwater. I haven’t read his book, I would hope it is better presented. Regarding their naivety, I think a lot of folks believe in a “all or nothing” view of government. This view is a challenge to overcome Because governments are run by people, who are not perfect and therefore imperfect policies, laws, and cultures happen within governments and the various agencies. It can take decades to change underlying issues within any government, regardless of the level of government.

[@jimloretta9474]

Great speaker.

[@jerzykaltenberg298]

BTW, the newsreel language for the clip announcing defection is Polish, not Russian.

[@tomg5187]

Amazing! Thank you. It must be difficult for the public to get their heads around. Especially at this time. Looking in they see an impenetrable government force to be reckoned with! When in actual fact, I’d say a good 50% actually go home and speak to their wives/husbands about their work! The public sees James Bond, in reality it’s more like Parks and Rec :-).

[@oooSoundOfLifeooo]

It's nice to be able to speak off the cuff, but he could have prepared his talk a little better, instead of searching through his slides/pictures all time.

[@colinosborne3877]

agreed, i aborted after 20 mins

[@LivingDead53]

I was naive with people and immature. They made fun of me--everyone does. I'm so jealous. Fine, Jessica, keep sending them.

[@pavise6333]

Wait, the defectors were not Adam and Eva?

[@parrotraiser6541]

Before WWII, a US official, whose name I've forgotten, made the astonishingly naive remark that "Gentlemen don't read each other's letters". (The naivety is in the assumption that foreign policy has anything to do with gentlemen.) The attitude severely hampered US intelligence in that period. The reason that Churchill understood what was going to happen was the he had a private (and probably illegal) network of his own, thanks in part to some patriotic business people. He sent Sidney Cotton, an industrialist who invented, among other things, the electrically heated flying suit) on an aviation tour of Germany in 1938. The route somehow featured a lot of Luftwaffe fields, and a camera hidden in the nose of Cotton's Beech 18 ensured that the RAF had some reasonably current gen when the war started. Any intelligence agency that isn't finding as much as possible about both friends and enemies isn't doing its job, and the staff should know that. The important boundary is between foreign and domestic surveillance, and the latter should have the whistle blown on it, so I'm pro-Snowden until there's evidence that he did deliberate damage to the US..

[@kentmitchell1510]

Future SecWar Henry Stimson made that statement

[@parrotraiser6541]

@@kentmitchell1510 Thanks for the memory!

[@berkoyt6397]

hahahah amazing

[@LivingDead53]

I can't believe you guys let them show all that--or do it. It's a bomb waiting to happen. Do you know what people will do once they see it? I'm going to run the world with my computer.

[@jegesmedve2276]

Poorly presented.

[@LivingDead53]

A lot of us are rejects and looking for an enemy to serve. Can't you find something better for us to attack? You know you screwed us all over. Get away from my trashcan. The grass is greener. We're not enemies. We're not exactly married. The interests are complicated.

[@dwijgurram5490]

Henchmen of the cabal

[@JOEMORRISSEY70]

Poor speaker,

[@LivingDead53]

Evil friend says I don't know my place, you big disgrace. Fine. it's not like they value us when they take us captive, not that they're bad people. They care about their country's interests.

[@jfreeman6130]

Having read on this subject, this presenter is disingenuous in this report, especially regarding U-2.

[@LivingDead53]

As far as peasants (sorry, don't know a better term), you just have to watch them, not destroy their minds. We're children awareness-wise (and in the head if you are me), and you have to be babysat. I'm going to be annoying.

[@LivingDead53]

As far as the RT psych ward goes, why do you have to destroy their minds? It's like, just don't let them do anything. Babysitting again. I hate you all.

[@bettyhappschatt3467]

This was a case of folie a deux. The underlying feature has been high functioning autism.

[@ogarzabello]

Snowden naive? What's naive about discovering that the federal government is violating the US Constitution?

[@trissloan2340]

Go live in Cuba or N. Korea so you can live under a gov.t seeking what you need.

[@shadowmihaiu]

@@trissloan2340 You are an American unpatriotic loser, who neither appreciates nor deserves the rights the government still lets you have. People who betray the constitution are criminals and those who reveal the criminals are Patriots.

[@gennaro13]

@@shadowmihaiu please explain how the government let's the people have rights.

[@manishagangawala3921]

Poor story teller. Confused presentation jumping around different topics. No thread in narration.

[@kazkazimierz1742]

They were certainly naive about what the USSR was like, but they were correct in thinking that the US was greater threat to world peace.

[@gunntroy]

Interesting subject poorly presented. Prepare in the future or don’t speak.

[@manishagangawala3921]

He seems obsessed with homosexuality.

[@anng.4542]

Not exactly. As he says during the Q&A, a key of his presentation was "looking at the case through 1960s eyes." At that time in history, being gay was thought to make people vulnerable to blackmail, pressure or coercion because people wouldn't want that aspect of their lives to be publically known. So at the time it was a popular theory as to why they defected.

[@LivingDead53]

You guys are so vain. You are so special because you are in the agency. I mean that with as much offense as possible. Don't forget about my dear stalkers who told me about the plane and that my boyfriend was dead. I'll let that bomb drop. Sorry, I slither back to Satan. I fought. Ctbyx3308 gives up. Any morals at all? You got your ass kicked by Snowden (no wisdom) who didn't even graduate college but thought he was superior when he wasn't, and you didn't even catch him. I'm a hero, too. Sorry about the concussions because it was so known that they couldn't bluff. Does he want to meet my dear friends?