Spy Museum Shows How Missions Become Possible

Forensic psychiatrists, espionage buffs, and those interested in getting inside the heads of some of the world's most daring, brave, and often devious individuals must carve out some time from the annual meeting to visit the International Spy Museum.

After all, one could argue that spies are high on the list of human enigmas. What exactly draws these men and women to high-stakes games of intrigue and deceit? Is it patriotism? Money? A love of danger? Or is it the chance to try on multiple personalities?

A visit to the International Spy Museum may bring some answers.

The museum, which opened five years ago, is a short stroll from the Washington Convention Center. Museum officials report that by virtue of its strategic location in the heart of the nation's capital, about 10,000 members of the U.S. intelligence community work within a block of the museum, starting with those at FBI headquarters.

Actually, the museum is a five-building, multistoried complex that, besides the museum, houses a substantial spy-oriented book and gift shop, café, and upscale restaurant. The five historic buildings that comprise the bones of the structure were all built in the late 1800s.

The mission of the spy museum is to present a “show and tell” history of spying through the true accounts of some of the most infamous“ known” agents and double agents of modern day and to visually examine their missions, spying techniques, and spying tools.

“The museum contributes greatly to the public's understanding of the critical role of intelligence in the world throughout history—right up to the present day,” said its executive director, Peter Earnest, in a written statement. “The museum,” he continued, “has tremendous potential to contribute to future research, publication, and public discussion about the world of intelligence including espionage, counterintelligence, tradecraft, covert action, counterterrorism, and the breakthrough developments in science and technology that have so characterized our times.”

The museum is compartmentalized into sections with cleverly revealing titles. Among them:

Among the features in “The Spies Among Us” are celebrities who worked as secret agents during World War II. For instance, dancer/singer Josephine Baker was a secret member of the French Resistance. Cookbook author and TV chef Julia Child processed secret documents for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor of the CIA. German singer and actress Marlene Dietrich recorded popular songs that the OSS broadcast to German soldiers as American propaganda.

For those enamored of books, TV shows, and films about spying, the museum showcases in real size one of spydom's most gadget-laden sports cars—one of the authentic Aston Martin models used in the James Bond film“ Goldfinger.”

Arguably the biggest crowd pleaser is the extensive collection of historic spy gadgets, reportedly the world's largest such display visible to the public—including clothing and disguises worn by spies, ingeniously camouflaged weaponry such as the one shot, tube-of-lipstick pistol, and hard-to-break code communications and sophisticated cipher machines.

But the museum creators weren't satisfied with just show and tell; they also wanted visitors to “live” and “feel” what spying is all about. So, in an intense, total-immersion experience, visitors can literally become a spy on a life-and-death mission. Well, almost.

The one-hour-long, you-are-there charade for visitors aged 12 and older is called “Operation Spy.” Visitors are whisked to an exotic city in a potentially hostile land to prevent a missing nuclear-triggering device from being obtained by black-market arms dealers. As fledgling spies, visitors find themselves in a nook of that city (actually a full-scale, detailed, movie-like set). The mission is to secretly retrieve the trigger and deliver it safely to U.S. intelligence authorities without letting the “enemy” know who did it. The experience involves having to take on a new identity, interacting with all manner of suspicious and nefarious characters, decrypting secret audio conversations, penetrating a high-security compound, and polygraphing a“ friendly” but suspicious agent—all while—ahem—trying to stay alive.

The vision and authenticity of the museum's overall design and presentation are not accidental. The founder and chair of the museum's board is Milton Maltz, a former National Security Agency employee. He is a cofounder of the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in Cleveland and founder and head of The Maltrite Co., an entertainment-oriented firm that develops, among other things, museum projects nationwide.

Executive Director Earnest is a former CIA agent whose 36 years on the job included 20 years working as a clandestine operative. He ultimately was awarded the agency's Intelligence Medal of Merit for a career of“ superior performance.” In addition to his Spy Museum responsibilities, Earnest works part time as a consultant at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies in Alexandria, Va.

The museum's advisory board is top heavy with former high-ranking intelligence experts, including retired KGB agent Gen. Oleg Danilovich Kalugin of the former U.S.S.R, the youngest Russian general during the Cold War and now a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies in Alexandria, Va.