# Ever know or meet a spy? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 1, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488 "2020-11-01T15:27:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/42 "2020-11-03T03:47:31Z")
Well, not a spy per se but my dad worked for IBM beginning in the mid ‘60s and we spent several years in Japan. My dad had a title that indicated he was in sales, BUT what the fuck is a computer sales person doing going to places like Truk and Palau and Saigon in the middle of a shootin’ war? Took me a weirdly long time to put together how unlikely it all was, including the fact that we lived off base but my dependent’s military ID listed dad’s rank as GS-15, which is ludicrously high for a sales person selling computers in a war zone working for a company that at the time was about 98% a defense contractor. I recently had it confirmed by my mom that he also had a top secret clearance in the Air Force, a higher clearance when we were in Japan and that she herself held a high level clearance dating back to before they married, as she was working for Martin (later Lockheed-Martin) on a missile contract. So yeah, apparently my parents were just a bit more than they appeared to be. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/43 "2020-11-03T14:19:11Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Shortly before I moved from my old town, my neighbors said that I might get a knock on the door from some Federal officials because the husband, who was then about 60 years old and retired military, was applying for a job that would require significant background checks. > > I moved before anything more happened. That doesn’t necessarily signify “spy” - my job required background checks for my security clearance and all I did was sit in a cubicle reading stuff and writing stuff about what I’d read. Similarly when I was in the Navy, since the job would expose me to classified material, I needed a background check to ensure I could be trusted. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/44 "2020-11-03T14:52:15Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > Oh, _sure_ it was! @MEBuckner These aren’t the droids you’re looking for… ;o) ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/45 "2020-11-03T14:53:26Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I was acquainted with someone who was definitely not a spy because he worked overseas as a uniformed military officer so he couldn’t be treated as a spy if captured. To my knowledge he was not spying because he was supposed to be an arms expert, I had no way of knowing what he was actually doing out of the country though, but it was clear he was working for US intelligence. Military liaison/observer duty? Like the sort of thing [Major Arthur Nicholson](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_D._Nicholson) was doing before he got killed? As to the OP, I’ve only met a few overt intelligence personnel. Most were giving lectures on their former work in the 60s and 70s. It sounded like a big pain in the ass, mostly. They couldn’t tell people what they did for a living. Some of them moved around like they were military families, which had to be rough. Paperwork and vetting sounded annoying. But they universally sounded proud of what they did, and acted like they had a job that paid more than juse salary or benefits. Go them. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/46 "2020-11-03T14:57:52Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Military liaison/observer duty? Like the sort of thing [Major Arthur Nicholson](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_D._Nicholson) was doing before he got killed? Could be something like that. There was no way I could verify what he said about is actual mission, but he had the military ID, and I picked him up at the airport one time and he was carrying a diplomatic pouch. He was coming in from Honduras, you can take a guess what he was carrying into the country in that pouch besides official documents. This was the early 80s, DEA couldn’t touch those pouches back then. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/47 "2020-11-03T14:58:03Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > How could you tell the French spies (in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, etc.) from the American spies? > > - The Americans wouldn’t eat the street food. There’s a great bit in _Charlie Wilson’s War_ about the grizzled CIA officer Gust, showing his displeasure with some annoying, fresh from the Ivy League, observer or the like, by having Gust’s underlings take the observer to every street food vendor in Peshawar (IIRC EDIT, or maybe it was Cairo?). ‘Get him sick’ was more or less the order. Gust and his cohorts had cast-iron stomachs and either didn’t get ‘Delhi Belly’, or knew how to avoid it. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/48 "2020-11-03T15:00:51Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I’m a little surprised your friend told you this. The CIA recruited at my college (they even had ads in the student newspaper) and someone who went for an interview was told not to tell people they were even applying for a job there. Perhaps it’s only for the actual spies, but my understanding is that they give you a cover story to tell people when asked where you work. As I understand it people with classified backgrounds can apply for “rollback”, which allows them to talk (most likely in a limited way) about what they did. It’s a big thing for people who want to leave the government and work elsewhere; otherwise your resume is going to be pretty severely lacking. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/49 "2020-11-03T15:04:09Z")
I meant a cover story to tell people while you’re still employed as a spy, say at Thanksgiving dinner with your extended family or when you meet someone you went to college with. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/50 "2020-11-03T15:11:37Z")
I had a neighbor who was a little suspect at times. Traveled often, but would only say “South America”, refused to specify the country. He had a strange habit of never speaking certain words, too. Like “apron” or “swingset”, he’d pretend not to remember the word, but even if reminded, he’d still talk around it. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/51 "2020-11-03T15:16:15Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > > [@DPRK](#): > > > > How could you tell the French spies (in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, etc.) from the American spies? > > > > - The Americans wouldn’t eat the street food. > > There’s a great bit in _Charlie Wilson’s War_ about the grizzled CIA officer Gust, showing his displeasure with some annoying, fresh from the Ivy League, observer or the like, by having Gust’s underlings take the observer to every street food vendor in Peshawar (IIRC EDIT, or maybe it was Cairo?). ‘Get him sick’ was more or less the order. Gust and his cohorts had cast-iron stomachs and either didn’t get ‘Delhi Belly’, or knew how to avoid it. To be fair, given the choice, you might not eat some of the street food either, like at a place where they take the bowl used by the previous customer, swish it around in a barrel of dirty water, dry it off with some newspaper, and serve you in that. Not all places are, or were, like that, but not all of them would pass even a lax health inspection either. A grizzled spy might indeed know which places to avoid, or have a cast-iron stomach, as you say. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/52 "2020-11-03T15:29:50Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I met a guy once who worked for the CIA in the past. I used to know a genuine Communist who worked for the CIA. The guy was from East Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/53 "2020-11-03T15:47:12Z")
There was this girl that I thought was a spy. She had eyes like Bette Davis. Can we joke? ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/54 "2020-11-03T15:57:30Z")
Do Stasi informers count? I met a couple of them as a kid. My family hosted several East German academics who traveled to the US for conferences at my dad’s university. Two of them showed up in his Stasi file. Nice folks, as I recall. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/55 "2020-11-03T16:09:24Z")
Similar situation with pre-Detente visitors from the USSR. They were supposed to be government and business representatives but after the fall their KGB associations were confirmed. They probably had to be well trusted by the KGB to be allowed out of the country in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/56 "2020-11-03T19:27:51Z")
We did a sales call at NSA in Ft. Meade once. The sales guy asked for business cards - they just laughed at him. If you ask an NSA guy where they work, they’ll say Department of Defense. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/57 "2020-11-04T01:37:04Z")
Glomar response. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/58 "2020-11-04T01:53:50Z")
I like to twist cliches around, such as, “If I killed you, I’d have to tell you.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/59 "2020-11-09T18:59:00Z")
We were friends with a woman at one of our embassy postings who was a CIA employee. She was an administrative person who was declared to the host government. She was about the farthest thing from a spy as one can get in the CIA, but she loved to hint that she was more than she was. When we were all back in DC at the same time, I called Langley to try to find her. They of course wouldn’t give out any information, but passed my message to her at the school she was attending. She then called me and told me that I’d “blown her cover”. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/60 "2020-11-10T03:30:22Z")
My next-door neighbor is an American mercenary, who works for the Iraqi government as a paramilitary. Probably a lot of spying going on there, too. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488/61 "2020-11-10T04:06:50Z")
Well, maybe. Again in the “not-spy-per-se” category. According to a couple of elderly professors of mine (since passed on), apparently back in the day ( like the late 1950’s - 1960’s when Africa in particular was decolonizing) the CIA was happy to occasionally throw a little extra cash towards receptive field scientists working in Third World countries for basic humint. Post-field work debriefing of heard political gossip, that sort of thing. I got the distinct impression that a couple of these old gentleman-adventurer types I knew may have taken that deal on occasion. It was broadly hinted at with a wink and a nod. But they were always cagey even when trying to impress young undergrads, so who knows how much was bullshit 🙂. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-or-meet-a-spy/924488.md?page=4)