The Widow Spy

I Spy

Foreign Policy

History, News, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Martha Peterson handled one of the most valuable Soviet spies of the Cold War, code-named TRIGON—until the KGB got wind of the operation. Peterson was a young undercover officer working at the American embassy in Moscow in the mid-70s. She was the first female operations officers assigned the Soviet Union for the CIA. This season, there’s more I Spy with I Spy Plus. Get ad-free I Spy episodes and access to weekly bonus episodes right in your favorite podcast app, plus more exclusive espionage content. Subscribe to I Spy Plus today at foreignpolicy.com/ispy. Check out I Spy's merch by going to https://store.dftba.com/collections/i-spy Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code ISPY at checkout to claim this offer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is I Spy, the show from foreign policy, where spies tell their stories.
0:07.0	Trigon didn't want to face torture and execution which he knew he would get in a
0:20.3	bullet in the back of his head if they ever found out about him.
0:24.0	And so we decided to provide him with this poison inside a black fountain pen.
0:31.0	In the barrel of that pen we had put a reservoir of
0:37.2	of poison so he could bite down on it and die basically.
0:44.0	From foreign policy, welcome to I-SPI, real-life spy stories told by the people who were there.
0:55.0	Each week we feature one former intelligence operative from somewhere around the world
1:00.0	describing one operation.
1:02.0	I'm Margo Martindale.
1:04.0	On today's show,
1:06.0	CIA Officer Martha Peterson handled one of the most valuable
1:11.0	Soviet spies of the gold war.
1:13.8	Code name Trigon, until the KGB got wind of the operation.
1:20.8	Peterson was a young undercover officer working in the American embassy in Moscow in the mid-70s.
1:27.0	She was the first female operations officer assigned to the Soviet Union for the CIA.
1:34.4	Peterson begins the story about describing how the CIA recruited Trigon in Bogota Columbia.
1:40.8	The year was 1973.
1:45.0	In the mid-70s, the CIA was looking all around the world for Soviet officials who were interested in providing secrets from
1:57.8	the Soviet government to the US government. At that time, we had very little knowledge
2:05.3	about what the Soviets were doing around the world.
2:09.2	We would get glimpses.
	...

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