Grumpa Joe's Place

Spy novels always catch my interest. I’ve read a number of Tom Clancy novels, and gave them up because they began to sound the same. This month, I selected a non-fiction spy story. David Wise chronicles the escapades of the war to steal secrets between China and the U.S.A. The Chinese were a closed society for five thousand years, and as such are somewhat behind in modern technology, especially war technology. Chairman Mao forced them  into communism. They continued as a closed socialist society. When Nixon made the move to open the West to China it changed everything; the secret stealing began. China is in hyper drive to gain knowledge without paying for it with money and time. Their wish is to compete as a modern war nation now.

This story would be totally dull if it weren’t for our FBI. Without giving away the details, the agent in charge of Bureau’s Los Angeles office was a one man agency. He recruited a Chinese woman to spy for us. A great idea, except she worked for the Chinese government. Add to the mix a love affair between our guy and their girl. They continued the affair for twenty years; what a mess. One affair wasn’t complex enough, so the China doll befriended the San Francisco agent to make it into a four-way affair: her, her husband, the Los Angeles Agent, and the San Francisco Agent. Most women are happy to take care of one man, this woman seemed to thrive on three. The best kept secret in the world was this affair.

Needless to say, too many classified memos and information passed to China.  The whole affair finally became known to officials and the shit hit the fan, heads were to roll. The government prosecuted the agents, but the military didn’t want any of the secrets to come out in court and become really public.  Most of it was swept under the table. Kind of makes a citizen want to bust into Washington with both guns loaded.

David Wise ends the story by revealing some of the cyber spying that is happening now. Most of it comes from China and attacks our CIA, and military. We read stories about hacking almost daily. There is a ninety-nine percent chance it is from China. What I got from the book, was that the Chinese will learn all they want from Chinese turned US citizens who want to help their  homeland, and from US born citizens who get pissed at a boss. Wise cannot show much of the stuff the U.S.A. gets from China, or what they have gotten from us unless it is public. None of the parties want the public humiliation that comes with the revelations.

Nixon did us a huge favor by opening the East to Western trade. It took us thirty years to export our manufacturing to China, and they are happy to take it from us. Now they want us to give them our military technology as well. At the rate Obama is borrowing money from China, they will own the info and demand we produce what ever it is they want.

My boss of forty years made us work under some strict security rules. My workplace was so tight, our vendors joked about it all the time. I told them our biggest secret is that we don’t have any secrets. Our leader, however, paid a big price for successful processes; he wanted his competition to pay for their own development.

I recall once setting up a trip for an engineer to go to one of our vendors. I wanted him to learn how they made a particular product, so we could use the information in a major development project. Our leader got wind of it and I got in big trouble for suggesting such a stupid idea. Not only did I get whacked on the side of the head, I got my ass kicked and lived in the dog house for some time.  Later, I learned that my plan was illegal and Big did not condone it. What can I say, the man taught me many lessons, one was ethics in business.

The U.S.A. needs to adhere to the same strict rules of security and ethics.

Filed under: Book Review, Government, Manufacturing | Tagged: Central Intelligence Agency, China, Chinese government, David Wise, Government of the People's Republic of China, The Chinese Woman, Tom Clancy, United States |