I am embarrassed to say that I was fooled by a video clip of Clint Eastwood on a plane, giving an obnoxious passenger a lesson in life. I guess I liked the message so much that I was willing to believe the story. Shame on me. Then, upon reflection ...
I was classically trained as an intelligence analyst by NSA, and I am (was) very alert to the tradecraft of deception. But I missed it in this case because I liked the message. That, in itself, is a lesson for me. Trust, but verify, as Ronald Reagan said. That is a good message in today’s fast-paced world of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
I was dupped by the tradecraft of this era. But I still remember the tradecraft of my era – the Cold War. And what disturbs me now is that our leaders are being led into a classic trap by an old adversary.
Vladimir Putin is a Cold War warrior who was classically trained as a KGB officer. And he knows that tradecraft very well. He is a practitioner of human intelligence - HUMINT, as we call it in the intelligence community. He knows how to manipulate people and how to exploit their weaknesses. He will smile to your face while stabbing you in the back. And no one should underestimate his ability to play the game. He is a master.
Some background is important. Putin was an active KGB officer in East Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. He was abandoned - yes, abandoned – by his own country while he was serving in a foreign assignment there. Then, after over 40 years of Russian oppression, the East Germans were finally free. The local populace was looking for blood. And Putin, like all Russian occupation forces, was in their crosshairs.
The Wall came down so quickly that the Russians couldn’t get all their people out of East Germany fast enough. The railroad cars were filled with retreating Russian soldiers. Flights to Russia were coming and going on a constant basis. It was similar to our evacuation from Vietnam, only much worse. It went on for weeks. They were in panic mode.
This is the backdrop for the current negotiations over the peace treaty for Ukraine. Make no mistake – Putin hates us. He blames us for the disintegration of the Soviet Union. He hates Reagan for telling Gorbachev to “tear down this Wall.” He hates Gorbachev for doing it. He hates America for winning the Cold War. Everything he’s doing is designed to return the Soviet Union to its status as a world power. And he is winning the game.