First of all, it is good to clarify that a famous spy is not necessarily one of the best in his profession. After all, as one of the secrets of this function is not to be discovered, the true kings of espionage are those who remain anonymous, right? This detail aside, we continue with the list.
The eight secret agents we’ve gathered in the gallery next door became famous snooping around between the 16th and 20th centuries. But the spy game started way before that. The book The art of warattributed to the Chinese general Sun Tzu, already identified, in the distant 4th century BC, the types of spies used by the strategists of the time. Still in antiquity, according to the Bible, Moses was guided by God to send 12 agents to spy on his enemies in Canaan, the promised land of the Jews. But this was, shall we say, an “amateur” phase of espionage.
Professionalization took off in earnest from the 15th century onwards, when several European countries formed organizations to obtain information abroad, infiltrate splinter groups, and protect national secrets. In the 20th century, nations such as the Soviet Union, Germany and Japan created national intelligence agencies – the name given to bodies that function under legal protection. In the United States, the first was the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), created during World War II.
In 1947, after the end of the war, the OSS was renamed the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), which shared responsibility for the main cases of espionage during the Cold War with the Soviet KGB (Committee for State Security). In the late 1980s, with the end of tensions between the two superpowers, many agents began to work behind the scenes in large industrial and commercial operations.
Kim Philby (Harold Adrian Russell Philby)
Country: England
Performance: In the Cold War (from 1945)
Service sheet: Philby joined the British Secret Service in the 1940s. As a Communist, he became a double agent, revealing to the Soviets the details of his home country’s espionage.
TOP SECRET: After fleeing to Moscow in 1963, he became a colonel in the KGB, the Soviet secret service. He was responsible for the execution of dozens of Western spies operating in the country.
Sir Francis Walsingham
Country: England
Performance: Early era of “professional” espionage (16th century)
Service sheet: After Elizabeth I took the throne in 1578, Walsingham organized a secret service capable of obtaining information about foreign governments in a period of great rivalry between the main European powers, such as Spain, France and England.
TOP SECRET: He created an organization that developed, among other tricks, codes and instruments to send and decipher secret messages.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Country: U.S
Performance: In the Cold War (from 1945)
Service sheet: The couple handed over to the Soviet Union military secrets obtained by Julius, who was working in the US army. Both were arrested in 1950 and, three years later, ended up executed in the electric chair.
TOP SECRET: Ethel’s brother, an employee of the Manhattan Project, which built the first atomic bomb, provided the couple with information about nuclear weapons. The reports ended up in Soviet hands.
Violette Szabo
Country: England
Performance: In World War II (1939-1945)
Service sheet: During the war, Violette was recruited by the British secret service to spy on the Germans. Captured and tortured by enemies, she never revealed details of her missions. She was executed in 1945
TOP SECRET: On one of the occasions when she was arrested by the Germans, the train that was taking her to a concentration camp was attacked and derailed. Instead of running away, she stayed with the wounded prisoners.
Mata Hari (Margaretha Geertruda Macleeod)
Country: Netherlands
Performance: In World War I (1914-1918)
Service sheet: In 1916, she would have been hired by the Germans to obtain military information during a trip to France. Captured by the enemy, she changed sides several times. The following year, she was sentenced to death and shot by the French.
TOP SECRET: His nickname means “eye of the day” in Malay. Sensuality was his main weapon. She became the mistress of German and French commanders to obtain secret information.
Corporal Anselmo (José Anselmo dos Santos)
Country: Brazil
Performance: During the military dictatorship (1964-1985)
Service sheet: Accused of promoting military indiscipline, he who, despite his nickname, had the rank of sailor, went into exile in Cuba and Chile after the 1964 coup. Acting as a double agent for the next two years
TOP SECRET: It is suspected that the CIA used its services to defend US interests in Brazil, but this has never been confirmed.
Harold Worden
Country: U.S
Performance: Area of industrial espionage, in the 1970s and 80s
Service sheet: After working 30 years for Kodak, Worden retired and started a consulting firm. It was all a front to sell information about Kodak’s industrial processes
TOP SECRET: He was never tried as a spy, but admitted his guilt in minor crimes and was arrested in 1997.