SpyMania and a Cold War Mystery

The hazards of “popular counterintelligence” or how obsessive worry about espionage and subversion can subvert common sense

Counterintelligence is an issue that gets insufficient serious attention in American society. Since former President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, the mainstream media has amplified accusations of espionage on behalf of the Kremlin by Republicans, but little of this can be termed serious. In their quest to “prove” that Trump was some sort of deep-cover Russian agent dispatched to subvert American democracy, liberals have recreated the politically driven Red-hunting pioneered by their 1950’s archenemy Senator Joe McCarthy, eschewing counterintelligence expertise in favor of rumor, innuendo, and salacious gossip.