Spies and Counterspies

Abstract In the periods leading up to the Nazi seizure of the Rhineland and invasion of Poland, the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, the Soviet invasion of Russia, and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the spies of Britain, Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, and other nations were seeking to discover the intentions and capabilities of their nation’s potential enemies. But they either proved unable to secure the crucial information or, as in the case of Richard Sorge and several other Soviet agents, their information was ignored by their nation’s political lead ership. Once war began, the espionage and counterespionage efforts of all the major participants grew dramatically. For some countries these efforts proved of significant value; for others they did more harm than good.