Recommended Documentaries: British and American Spies who got caught helping the USSR

Last night I posted a reading on YouTube focused on the situation in the UK with the upcoming elections and the report on the Russian influence in Brexit.

It raised the possibility that some in the current UK government might be, unwittingly or otherwise, helping Russians out. Which reminded me that this would not be the first time. Kim Philby came to mind. So for those of you who might not be familiar with these stories, I found the links to fascinating documentaries and series I had previously watched. Cambridge Five, Kim Philby, Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen.

The Cambridge Five

The Secrets of War EP. 11: The Cambridge Five. This documentary gives a comprehensive overview of this group:

From Wikipedia: The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom, which passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s.

Kim Philby: The Spy Who Went Into The Cold

Kim Philby was the most famous among the Cambridge Five Spy ring, who defected to the USSR and died there as a hero.

The Assets (mini-series about catching CIA agent Aldrich Ames)

This is a 9-episode series that dramatizes what happened until Aldrich Ames he got caught. The very last episode is a documentary and interviews the women who finally caught him. The full series is great but I wasn’t able to find all the episodes online for free, you might have to rent them on Amazon which is what I did.

CIA Betrayal, Aldrich Ames

This is a podcast/audio interview with Dell Spry, an agent involved in catching and interrogating Aldrich Ames.

Robert Hanssen - Hanssen and the KGB

Hanssen was an FBI agent who sold secrets to the then USSR for more than 10 years until he got caught, arrested and is serving time at ADX Florence.