Foreign Policy Expert Recalls Cold War Spy Trades and Scandals
March 23, 2021
On March 18 the Washington Foreign Law Society and the American Society of International Law wrapped up its two-part series on attorney-diplomats with a conversation with Jeffrey H. Smith, former general counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency.
Interviewed by Mark B. Feldman of Georgetown Law, Smith talked about his involvement in a series of spy trades conducted in East Berlin; his observations of the 1980 court martial of Kim Dae-jung, opposition leader-turned-president of South Korea; and his participation in the joint congressional committee investigation into the Iran-Contra scandal.
Smith, now senior counsel at Arnold & Porter, recalled a series of negotiations leading to the release of Anatoly Shcharansky, a Jewish dissident held in Soviet prison. In 1978 the United States traded Robert Thompson, a convicted American spy for the Soviets, for Alan Van Norman, an American student imprisoned by the Soviets for helping to smuggle people out of East Germany. The exchange was brokered by East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel.
Smith said the U.S. Justice Department indicated that it would be happy to parole Thompson, transport him to JFK Airport, and turn him over to Smith, but that it would not provide security detail beyond that point. Smith described making the flight arrangement with Pan Am so that Vogel and Thompson would sit directly in front of him. Concerned about what might happen if Thompson drank too much alcohol, Smith said he boarded the plane with 20 feet of nylon rope in each suit pocket, ready to subdue his charge if necessary.
The mission’s success laid the foundation for future exchanges, which would ultimately culminate in Shcharansky’s release in 1986. Smith said the trades helped assure those who act on the country’s behalf that the United States will act to recover them if they’re caught. Today, the risk that countries will snatch individuals simply to have bargaining capital has come to pass, particularly in the Middle East, he added.
In 1980, following a military coup in South Korea, Kim was brought before a military tribunal on charges of sedition for calling for an end to martial law. Smith, who was sent to observe the trial because of South Korea’s strategic importance to the United States, recalled Kim bowing to him while being led out of the courtroom in shackles after being sentenced to death.
The trial came at the transition between the Carter and Reagan administrations. Smith said that both parties recognized the tenuous nature of the situation in South Korea and, in a bipartisan effort, determined that a deal would be preferable to public chastisement over the trial. Chun Doo-hwan, the army general behind the coup, would be the first foreign visitor to meet with President Reagan at the White House in 1981; in return, Kim’s sentence was commuted and he was allowed to leave South Korea for the United States in 1982. He was elected president in 1998. Smith’s report condemning the military tribunal would never be published.
The conversation with Smith closed with a discussion of his involvement in the congressional investigations into the Iran-Contra affair. Tasked with supporting Senator Sam Nunn, Smith was privy to discussions about U.S. involvement in weapons trade with Iran and the diversion of funds to support rebels in Nicaragua. “It was one of the more frustrating things I’ve worked on,” Smith said. It was a large committee that was given less than a year to conduct its investigation. “It was an absolute zoo, just a complete circus.”
Lack of preparation, lying witnesses, clever defense attorneys, and many other factors contributed to a messy and largely unproductive investigation, added Smith. In the end, only one individual ended up serving time, Smith said, and many of the other participants received pardons from President George H.W. Bush.
Smith said he came away from the hearings with a renewed respect for the Founding Fathers’ understanding of politics as a struggle for power and the essential nature of balancing power. “We really are at our best when we adhere to the basic principles, especially the rule of law, respect for democracy, and decency and respect for each other. We haven’t seen as much of that as I’d like in recent years.”
In part one of “Inside the Room: Attorney-Diplomats at Work on U.S. Foreign Relations,” Smith interviewed Feldman, who discussed his involvement in policymaking related to the Vietnam conflict, his experiences interacting with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and his involvement with the Iran hostage crisis. A recording of the interview is available on the Washington Foreign Law Society website.
