Word: scandalous
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Where would it end? The Marine spy scandal that had started with a lonely U.S. embassy guard confessing he had succumbed to the charms of a beautiful Soviet receptionist in Moscow had escalated into what appeared to be one of the most serious sex-for-secrets exchanges in U.S. history. Not only had the Marine's partner been charged with helping him let Soviet agents prowl the embassy's most sensitive areas but last week a third Marine sentinel was accused of similar offenses. A fourth Marine, stationed at the Brasilia embassy, was taken to Quantico, Va., for grilling about...
...pervasive spy scandal was an embarrassment for an Administration that has proclaimed its security consciousness and advocated wider use of lie- detector tests among federal employees to protect secrets at home. Administration officials, and the State Department in particular, displayed a curiously casual attitude toward the vulnerability of its embassies to Communist snooping...
...scandal spread, U.S. diplomats were rendered almost mute in their enclaves in Eastern Europe, reduced to writing sensitive messages in longhand. Even in non-Communist countries, the uncertainty of who might be listening turned U.S. envoys into near paranoids. On a trip in Southern Africa, Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker refused to send any reports to Washington until he could do so personally. "It's incredible the impact of this on all of us," said a State Department official. In an age of wondrous globe-spanning communications, the superpower that pioneered the technology found its creations turned against...
...suggest ways out of both the new embassy dilemma and the penetration of the current chancery. The high-powered panel will include former CIA Director Richard Helms and former Joint Chiefs Chairman General John Vessey. Four other groups, including the Foreign Intelligence Board, are investigating aspects of the scandal. Former CIA Official Bobby Inman last week offered a novel solution for the bugged building: Americans should "very carefully" construct three secure floors...
Indeed it was. Yet spying is an old and nasty game among rival nations. The key issue in the sad and still developing Marine espionage scandal was not whether the Soviets had broken some unwritten rule of civilized snooping or what American agents had done to them. A more relevant question was just why American Marines and State Department officials had permitted the Soviets to compromise U.S. security so thoroughly -- and so easily. On that point the many investigations were very much in order...