Welcome to the International Spy Museum and the world of espionage. What interest brings you here?
Is it a love of spy "who-done-its" from film noir and the movies, or spy page-turners from literature? Perhaps a fascination with history and a desire to learn secrets behind world events? Or an urgency to understand the complexities of our world today and the need for solid intelligence now, more than ever? No matter what motives brought you here…leave your preconceptions behind.
Learn about the authentic tradecraft that has been used throughout time and around the world. Hear spies, in their own words, describe the challenges and the "game" of spying.
A spy must live a life of lies. Adopt a cover identity and learn why an operative needs one. See the credentials an agent must have to get in—or out, as in the case of six Americans exfiltrated from revolutionary Iran in 1979, courtesy of the Canadian Ambassador— and the CIA. Proceed directly to the Briefing Film where you'll come face to face with the real world of spying. Spies are motivated for very different reasons--what might motivate you? Patriotism? Money? A compromising situation? Your own ego?
What do you need to be a spy?
Examine over 200 spy gadgets, weapons, bugs, cameras, vehicles, and technologies. Learn about microdots and invisible ink, buttonhole cameras and submarine recording systems, bugs of all sizes and kinds, and ingenious disguise techniques developed by Hollywood for the CIA. Uncover the stories behind the spycraft, why and how these artifacts were developed, and by which side. Survey over 50 years of spy technology, developed by agencies from the OSS to the KGB, and still in use today.
Professional intelligence training, no matter the country or the era, focuses on developing innate skills, possessed to some degree by all of us. But in spies, these abilities must be honed to an extraordinary degree, to insure success, personal safety and expected results. Test your skills of observation, analysis, and surveillance at interactive stations. Can you do it? Do you have what it takes to be a spy?
Travel back through the centuries to trace the earliest moments of the second oldest profession. Uncover the stories of famous men and women, considered above suspicion, and doubly effective as spies. Be surprised by spymasters from Moses to Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth I to George Washington, Cardinal Richelieu to Joseph Stalin--all relied on intelligence to be effective leaders.
Track today's satellite technology back to its first stirrings. Photography and flight were both evolving--and a camera-carrying pigeon became a decorated World War I "veteran." Learn about the earliest codes--who created them and who broke them. Meet the Sisterhood of Spies, a select few of the many women who were capable and unsuspected agents from the U.S. Civil War through the first decades of the 20th Century. Track the evolution of Russian spying from its Chekist beginnings under the "Father of the KGB," Feliks Dzerzhinsky . You know the history, now you'll know the secret history.
See the storm clouds gathering as World War II draws near, and the fronts which concealed German and Russian spy rings operating right under our noses. Consider the unheeded intelligence that warned of Pearl Harbor. Learn about Ultra, the top secret Allied code-breaking successes--as close as Arlington Hall, and as secret as Bletchley Park. These efforts shortened the war and laid the groundwork for the development of the computer. Test your code-breaking skills while learning about how the Enigma worked and was eventually broken. Understand the brilliance of Navajo codetalkers.
Be amazed by ingenious deceptions, double crossed agents and properly placed propaganda that ultimately made D-Day a success. Recognize the celebrity spies, who traded on easy access and provided invaluable intelligence--such luminaries as chanteuse Josephine Baker, Oscar-winning director John Ford and pro ballplayer Moe Berg. Meet as well, the relatively unknown agents, who risked everything to work behind enemy lines--and who paid the ultimate price. Behold the biggest secret of the 20th Century--the atom bomb and how that secret was lost.
The war ended but an Iron Curtain descended--and with it came a modern conflict--the war of the spies. Step into divided Berlin to see world powers facing off with spies as foot soldiers, and their efforts to keep the Cold War from growing too hot.
Tune in on the Red Scare that suspected a Commie under every bed. Experience the pervasiveness of Stasi spying where neighbors spied on each other, children on parents, husbands on wives. Visit the Berlin tunnel that tapped Soviet communication lines. Follow the further advances in spy technology from spy planes to satellites. See how pop culture provided new heroes and villains and made sense of—by making light of—the crises of the Cold War.
Move through the "wilderness of mirrors"--a time defined by some of the biggest spy stories of the Cold War, some still unfolding today. Observe how spies from Kim Philby to Robert Hanssen operated; their covers, how they were caught, and what devastating consequences resulted.
The Berlin Wall came down, the Cold War ended, “the dragon” had been slain, but a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes emerged as new threats. In the Ground Truth Theater confront the contemporary challenges that intelligence faces today when it is needed by all governments more than ever.
