The Farewell Dossier

Introduction

At least since the time of the Cambridge Five, the Rosenbergs, and Klaus Fuchs, the Soviet Union relied on espionage to provide it with technologies they were unwilling to develop themselves¹. This use of espionage as a replacement for research and development continued into the late 1970s and early 1980s with the collection of western technologies by Line X, the operational division of the KGB's Directorate T.²

Espionage and Counter-Espionage

Line X collected designs, schematics, working products, and other information using a combination of on-site data collection (e.g. sending a spy into a Boeing plant with adhesive on his shoes to collect metal samples, visiting semiconductor firms to observe their manufacturing processes, etc.), attempting to purchase airplanes from Lockheed, using a shell company to purchase embargoed computers, planting KGB officers into the Apollo-Soyuz space mission, collecting trade secrets and proprietary information, etc.³

The spy operation was revealed in 1981, when Colonel Vladimir I. Vetrov (code-name "Farewell"), an engineer working with Line X, approached a French intelligence agency with secret documents detailing Line X. The intelligence agency alerted François Mitterrand, who then alerted Ronald Reagan. Reagan had the intelligence sent to the CIA.

The documents Farewell provided included a "shopping list" of the technologies the Soviets wished to acquire, including semiconductors, computers⁴, and other equipment. US intelligence agencies long thought that we were subsidizing Soviet military and industrial R&D^{5 6}, and this shopping list supplied direct proof. Line X agents had already completed collecting about two-thirds of the technologies on that list, but for the technologies they didn't yet collect, the security agencies were able to feed faulty or outdated designs to the Line X spies.

One of the technologies supplied to the Soviets was faulty control software that resulted in a massive rupture in a Siberian pipeline. Other information included faulty microprocessor designs, rejected Space Shuttle designs, etc. The net result was to deny to the Soviets a great leap forward as an economic competitor and military threat. Investment in the faulty technologies was also put a significant strain on their economy and helped contribute to the Soviet Union's collapse.

Decisions that allowed this counter-espionage operation to be successful included:

1. Farewell's decision to alert the French, the French's decision to alert Reagan, and Reagan's decision to have intelligence agencies investigate
2. The use of the spy network to feed faulty technologies to the Soviets
3. Cooperation between the FBI, CIA, and the Defense Department, with the FBI working with domestic companies to create and supply defective equipment and designs
4. Systematic arrests of spies and complicit embassy employees that
   participated in Line X.

U.S. Space Shuttle vs Soviet Buran Shuttle

Footnotes

1. John Fialka, “While America Sleeps”
2. Gus Weiss, “The Farewell Dossier”
3. Ibid.
4. Bryan Leese, “The Cold War Computer Arms Race”
5. CIA, "Soviet Acquisition of Western Technology".
6. DTIC, "Soviet Acquisition of Militarily Significant Western Technology: An Update".

Bibliography

CIA. (April 1982). "Soviet Acquisition of Western Technology". Last retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP05C01629R000701490007-0.pdf

DTIC. (September 1985). "Soviet Acquisition of Militarily Significant Western Technology: An Update". Last retrieved from https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA160564.pdf

Fialka, J. "While America Sleeps". The Wilson Quarterly 21, No. 1 (Winter, 1997). https://www.jstor.org/stable/40259596

Leese, B. (2023). "The Cold War Computer Arms Race". Journal of Advanced Military Studies 14 no. 2. Marine Corps University. https://doi.org/10.21140/mcuj.20231402006

Weiss, G. (1996). "The Farewell Dossier: Duping the Soviets". Studies in Intelligence. Last retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/The-Farewell-Dossier.pdf