SPY CASES

United States

Treason Generally

Archer, Jules. Treason in America: Disloyalty Versus Dissent. New York: Hawthorne Books, 1971. [Petersen]

Boveri, Margaret. Tr., Jonathan Steinberg. Treason in the Twentieth Century. London: MacDonald, 1961. New York: Putnam's, 1963.

Pforzheimer calls Boveri's work a "brilliant, subtle, provocative analysis of treason during World War II." It "brims with incisive comments and over thirty sharply-drawn character sketches of 'traitors.'" Those covered include Quisling, Laval, and Petain.

Bulloch, John. Akin to Treason. London: Arthur Barker, 1966.

Constantinides: The goal here was "to analyze the motives of Britons who committed acts 'akin to treason' from the Boar War" to the 1960s. "This series of essays lacks source notes and suffers from the author's tendency to combine fact, opinion, and speculation."

Carlton, Eric. Treason: Meanings and Motives. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1998.

Davis, David B., comp. and ed. The Fear of Conspiracy: Images of Un-American Subversion from the Revolution to the Present. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1971.

DuCann, Charles Garfield Lott. Famous Treason Trials. New York: Walker, 1964.

Lewy, Guenter. The Cause that Failed: Communism in American Political Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Loeb, Vernon. "Spies and Other Ego-Trippers: Psychiatrist Jerrold Post Weighs the Personality in Politics." Washington Post, 24 Mar. 2001, C1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]

In 1975 CIA psychiatrist Jerrold M. Post wrote in a now-declassified paper, "The Anatomy of Treason," that "spies are people 'who have a pattern of split loyalties..., who can sham loyalty on the surface while actually being disloyal under the surface.... One particular psychological quality which we find in the major agents in spades ... is narcissism or self-absorption, egocentricity.' When he heard last month about the arrest of Robert Hanssen, a devout Catholic and dedicated family man accused of spying within the FBI, Post was puzzled. In all his years as a psychological profiler, he had rarely come across a spy whose outward life seemed so free of crisis or conflict."

Marbes, Wilhelm. "Psychology of Treason." Studies in Intelligence 30, no. 2 (Summer 1986): 1-11. In Inside CIA's Private World: Declassified Articles from the Agency's Internal Journal, 1955-1992, ed. H. Bradford Westerfield, 70-82. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.

A CIA psychiatrist discusses the mental makeup of defectors. He makes a number of interesting assertions, one of which is that "the percentage of [major] mental disorders ... among defectors is less than one would expect to find in an ordinary population of the same size." Stated simply, defectors are no crazier than the rest of us. The Agency's psychiatrists were not able to establish a single profile that would describe all defectors, but "there are clusters of characteristics which fit most defectors."

Richards J. Heuer, Jr., calls this article "a first class piece. Recent research suggests that what is written here about Soviet defectors applies equally well to many of the American traitors ostensibly motivated by money or revenge."

Murphy, Seán. Letting the Side Down: British Traitors of the Second World War. Stroud: Sutton, 2004.

From publisher: "[A]bout two hundred British citizens were under investigation for assisting the Axis powers. Using the case studies of the individuals concerned, Sean Murphy uncovers the reasons for their treacherous activities, describes how they collaborated with the enemy, and come the end of the war he explores their respective fates."

Pincher, Chapman. Traitors: The Labyrinths of Treason. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1987. London: New English Library, 1989. [pb]

Sarbin, Theodore R., Ralph M. Carney, and Carson Eoyang, eds. Citizen Espionage: Studies in Trust and Betrayal. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994.

According to Richards J. Heuer, Jr., "[t]he authors are behavioral scientists at the Defense Personnel Security Research Center."

Thompson, Terry. "Security and Motivational Factors in Espionage." Intelligencer 11, no. 1 (Jul. 2000): 1-9. American Intelligence Journal 20, nos. 1 & 2 (Winter 2000-2001): 47-56.

The author addresses the "why" question in CI -- why would an individual risk everything in a crime that carries maximum penalties and an intense stigma? In the 1930s, 1940s, and the Cold War period, ideology was often the dominant motivation for commiting treason. Today, "recent trends indicate that pursuit of money is the most common motivation in espionage." Other motivations include anger/revenge, ego, and ethnicity.

West, Nigel [Rupert Allason], ed. The Faber Book of Treachery. London: Faber & Faber, 1995

Surveillant 4.3: This is an anthology of the writings of individuals "convicted or charged with treachery.... Some so-called traitors include German patriots who fled the Nazis, or Soviet intelligence personnel who defected to the West." The writings are presented under the headings of "The British," "The Soviets," "The Soviet Bloc," "The Americans," "The French," "The Israelis," and "The Germans."

West, Rebecca.

Much of what West does in her works on treason stands up well, especially from a philosophical point of view, even after so many years.

1. The Meaning of Treason. New York: Viking, 1946. London: The Reprint Society, 1952.

2. The New Meaning of Treason. New York: Viking, 1964. [pb] Rev. ed., 1967.

Constantinides finds this work "marked by the penetrating analysis and writing ability for which the author is famous." She provides "discerning judgments on the traitors and their motives." Taylor and Snow, I&NS 12.2/116/fn.1, note that West's "epilogue in both volumes is a good introduction to the concept of ideological treason."

Wheale, Adrian. Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994.

Thurlow, I&NS 11.1: "Broadly speaking, the renegades were mainly involved with Nazi propaganda,... and with the attempted formation of ... the 'British Free Corps,' to fight against the Soviet Army on the eastern front." This book "gives the most illuminating account" of the latter effort thus far published. The author's work is also "useful" in discussing the motives behind treasonous behavior: "Wheale shows the complexity of the motives of those involved..., and provides a much more plausible assessment[] than Rebecca West's classic contemporary unsympathetic account of the weeds and misfits who dabbled in treason."

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