Sometimes I feel like I am going to get rickets from living in Connecticut, so I took a much-needed break to Cozumel, Mexico for a Vitamin D boost and just got back. Here’s a sampling of my view for four days:
Sorry not sorry.
The good news is that I am refreshed for both my class at Yale and on Substack! As a reminder, this week’s class will be a guest speaker, former CIA officer John Sipher, who served in Moscow and ran the CIA’s Russia operations. He has spoken to my class at Yale for the last several years and is a huge hit with my students — I always learn something new from him. I hope you will be able to join us at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, January 17. A Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, and the recording will be posted on Wednesday.
One thing I was able to get done while on holiday was to line up some more exciting guest speakers for the coming months, so please make a note of the following dates (these have also been added to the class syllabus):
February 15, 3 p.m. EST: Tim Weiner, author of The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945-2020 (recording will be posted the following morning)
March 15, 4 p.m. EST: Seth Jones, author of Three Dangerous Men: Russia, China, Iran and the Rise of Irregular Warfare (recording will be posted the following morning)
Finally, please note that I have posted on the syllabus the assignment for next week’s class. It’s the transcript from Soviet Active Measures: Hearing Before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, Second Session, July 13, 14, 1982. And don’t panic! The assignment is only for pages 47-50, the section titled, “VI. AN EVALUATION OF ACTIVE MEASURES.” I plan to take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of active measures during the Cold War compared to now, how we fare by comparison, and what lessons we learned from that assessment. (It’s worth perusing the entire Interagency Intelligence Study and some of the exhibits if you are interested and have time — I include the whole thing mainly because it’s the easiest resource to link to online.)
See you soon!
The Intelligence Committee's focus on forgeries in the 80's seems "quaint" today when the Russians have access to four billion Facebook and Twitter idiots of varying degrees of usefulness, to spread their lies. Some of the forgery exhibits made me laugh and brought back memories. While at Field Station Korea I was passed a North Korean forgery of a Japan Airlines shipping document for transit from Kinpo International Airport in Seoul to Los Angeles International Airport, for 17 refrigerated containers of "human organs." The North Koreans were spreading the word that organs were being harvested from South Korean women and children with the cooperation of the corrupt South Korean government, in order to extend the lives of wealthy American capitalists. [Clearly nonsense. Everyone knows wealthy American capitalists insist on organs from Scandinavians for their transplants.]
Wow...can’t wait for your next guest speakers!!! Can our class take a field trip to Cozumel? 😂