2015/08/04 by Krisztián Ungváry · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics #Vetting #Secrecy #Service (business) #State (computer science) #Law #Value (mathematics) #Closing (real estate) #History #Political science #Sociology #Computer science #Business
paper · doi:10.1080/16161262.2015.1061796
published in Journal of Intelligence History 15(1), 1-16 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2015/08/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/05
The article tells us the story of a bungled attempt at recruitment of a prominent member of the British establishment by the Hungarian Foreign Intelligence Service in the 1960s. Its research was based on files found in the Historical Archives of Hungarian State Security. As the reports might have been “edited,” fabricated and tailored for the superiors, the author went to great lengths to study all of the volumes of files dealing with the case, and, using judicious vetting, composed a very credible story of this intelligence operation. The case study successfully lifts the veil of secrecy over sources and methods of the then Hungarian intelligence service and even manages to name a well-known Hungarian person as an agent and talent-spotter. As it turns out, the target proved to be far more skillful and resourceful than his would-be recruiters and took full advantage of their eagerness for his own material benefit without delivering any intelligence of value. The author suspects that the Hungarians’ target was a plant of MI5, which frequently used double agent operations against the Eastern services. In closing, the author, however, finds it strange that the well-known target never mentioned or hinted at the incident in any of his writing, though he could have been quite proud of his feat of making a fool of a hostile intelligence service.