It looks like the relationship between former CIA Director Allen Dulles and 007 mastermind Ian Fleming ran deeper than some might've expected. A study of declassified documents has revealed that the United States' highly secretive security organization copied gadgets from James Bond films and used some of the books to bolster its image.
According to a University of Warwick analysis of letters and interviews, the real-life CIA nabbed inspiration for its own gizmos from those that appeared in such films as Goldfinger and From Russia With Love. During Dulles' tenure, the agency also tapped the British author to paint the American organization in a more positive light at a time when stateside filmmakers and writers were keeping mum.
Christopher Moran (above), a professor at the University of Warwick, pored over the documents, which included letters and media reports from the 1950s and '60s for the study Ian Fleming and the Public Profile of the CIA, which was published in the Journal of Cold War Studies.
"There was a surprising two-way influence between the CIA and the James Bond novels during the Cold War, stemming from the mutual admiration between Allen Dulles and Ian Fleming," Moran said, in a statement. "This ranged from the copying of devices, such as the poison-tipped dagger shoe in From Russia With Love, to the agency using the 007 novels to improve its public profile."
Moran noted that the relationship between the two iconic figures was blossoming at a time when the CIA was strictly off-limits for U.S. media, though Fleming could say what he liked from overseas. In fact, a 1964 edition of Life has Dulles describing Fleming as "brilliant and witty" — referring to their 1959 meeting in London. Fleming told the CIA director that his agency wasn't doing enough in the area of "special devices."
"For a long time, the James Bond books had a monopoly on the CIA's public image and the agency used this to its advantage," Moran said.
Dulles, per the article, urged CIA technical staffers to replicate as many Bond devices as they could. As a result, the CIA mimicked Rosa Klebb's poison-tipped dagger shoe (below) from From Russia With Love.
The CIA had less luck when it attempted to duplicate the homing device used in Goldfinger — apparently, the CIA's version had "too many bugs in it" and stopped working when enemies entered crowded cities.
On the PR front, Fleming included a swath of glowing references to the CIA in his later novels — purportedly out of respect for his close friend Dulles. The relationship went two ways, though, as Dulles was known for gushing about Fleming in the American press — saying on one occasion that the organization "could do with a few James Bonds."
See also: The CIA Invests in Robot Writers
The early 007 novels (from the 1950s), per Moran, introduced readers to the CIA for the first time with the agency's character Felix Leiter. The American agent is portrayed favorably, but readers are left in no doubt that MI6 is the superior intelligence service.
"In Live and Let Die, for example, Leiter comes across as a bit of a bungler, unable to blend in with the locals and forced to rely on paid informants," Moran said. "But in the later books, as the friendship between Dulles and Fleming deepens, a far rosier picture of the CIA emerges."
In Thunderball, Bond's boss, a.k.a. M, praises the CIA, and Dulles is the literal subject of several honorable mentions in later books.
What do you think about the CIA-007 relationship? Discuss in the comments.
Images: Keystone/Getty Images; Youtube, jb00784
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario