Agent 007 Blog

Jeremy Wolfenden was born in 1934 in England.  He was one of the top in his classes throughout school and known for being an extremely intelligent individual.  He studied politics, philosophy and economics, eventually becoming involved in journalism.  It was the time of the Cold War and Wolfenden was quickly recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to work for them as a spy in Moscow.

Wolfenden also happened to be a homosexual.  During this time, it was particularly rough to have such a lifestyle and this was not made easier by the fact that his father was the chair of the Wolfenden Report - a condemnation in law of homosexual acts in Britain.  He represented everything that his father fought against and, if exposed, would have been an outcast among his own people.  This was further complicated by the fact that Wolfenden had a strong liking for both sex and alcohol.  These indulgences would eventually get him into trouble and shape the scope of his spying activities.

The KGB found out about his bad habits and attempted to use them to get Wolfenden to spy for them.  They threatened to expose his homosexuality and thus discredit him.  Wolfenden, valuing loyalty to his country over his own personal reputation, went to his British commanders in the SIS and told them of the KGB’s threats.  Instead of condemning him for his lifestyle, the SIS instead encouraged Wolfenden to play the KGB’s game.  He pretended to spy for them, feeding them false information, but all the while was still working for the SIS.

Eventually, the pressure became too much for him.  Both the SIS and the KGB expected more than he could handle.  He swapped out his reporting job with another person in Washington and managed to get transferred out of Soviet Russia.

It was a short time later, at age 30, when Wolfenden died.  The circumstances regarding his death were suspicious, and so some suspected foul play.  Others think that his heavy drinking finally caught up to him and it was liver failure or something similar that ended his life.  Either way, Jeremy Wolfenden was a man who served his country, even to the point of putting his rather controversial personal life in the spotlight.

James Armistead was born into a world and among a people that didn’t think much of him.  He was a slave in 18^th-century Virginia, with little in the way of rights.  Still, when the time of the American Revolution came, he volunteered, risking his own life to help fight against the British.  Instead of putting a gun in his hands and marching him in ranks, however, his commanders thought to best use him as a spy.  As it turns out, that was the best decision they could have ever made. Without James Armistead doing what he did, the American Revolution might have been for nothing.

He was first assigned to work under the commander of the French allied forces.  His duties consisted of acting as if he were a runaway slave and infiltrating the British army.  The British decided that they liked the idea of making him a spy as well, so Armistead became a double-agent.  He worked under British commander Cornwallis, being sent on recon missions against the American and French forces.  In reality, he was collecting information on the British and feeding them lies.

He managed to relay sensitive information regarding British troop strength, equipment and supplies and even the strategies that they intended to use in upcoming battles.  They thought little of Armistead as he walked among their camps and so freely spoke of their plans while he was around to overhear them.

It was thanks to Armistead that the American and French forces were able to trap the British at Hampton.  He also fed crucial information about British reinforcements in Yorktown.  Decisions based on what he provided allowed General Washington to strike at the right time and end the war in a victory for America.

In the end, Armistead was returned to the one who owned him.  A provision in the laws that freed African-Americans who fought in the revolution did not apply to him since he acted as a spy.  Eventually, thanks to the efforts of his commanding officers, James Armistead was given his freedom.  He ended his days in 1830, a farmer in Virginia and owner of his own land.

Pham Xuan An, also known as agent X6, was one of the most successful spies of the Vietnam War.  He worked as an assistant for reporters during the war, performing both journalist and assistant roles for such prestigious news sources as Reuters and Time.  This unique position gave him special access to the military secrets of South Vietnam, secrets that he fed to the North Vietnamese communist leaders.

He was undercover among his enemies for nearly 20 years, and to facilitate this, an elaborate background was constructed.  For this reason and others, many of the facts regarding Pham’s life are in question.  Some believed that in addition to working as a journalist and spying for the Viet Cong he had also been brought in to help the CIA and South Vietnamese intelligence, the CIO.  If this is truth, it would have given him access to even more vital information to help his communist allies achieve victory.

It is believed that the information he gained played an essential role in the defeat of the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces.  Later, once the communists had won the war and the truth came out, many of those he worked with, who had once considered him a close friend, were shocked to discover his true motives.  Some, however, simply shrugged it off and expressed that they still considered him to be a good person, despite his differing ideals.

His good nature was proven when the North Vietnamese army finally took the city of Saigon.  Despite the fact that his friends were considered dangerous enemies of the Viet Cong, he helped them to escape.  This almost certainly saved their lives.

Pham Xuan An was a man who believed in a cause, but did not see the lives of those he cared for as being disposable, no matter what the consequences.  Even in seeking victory for his people, he still remained human.