the scope of KGB scientific and technical intelligence activities. An
official U.S. government report noted that Vetrov had alerted the West
to Soviet theft of highly classified aircraft technology and prevented
the loss of billions of dollars of critical scientific information.
Vetrov’s downfall came out of an illicit love affair. In 1982 on his
return to Paris, he was confronted by his mistress, who demanded he
leave his wife and marry her. Vetrov panicked and stabbed her. She
lived, but Vetrov was arrested and convicted of murder of one of his
mistress’s other lovers. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Later
in letters from his prison cell, he admitted his espionage to friends.
He was tried and executed.VIETNAM WARS. Soviet intelligence played a minor if not unimpor-
tant role in the Franco–Viet Minh War of 1946–1954. The reziden-
turasof both the MGBand the GRUin Paris collected information
from agents recruited from the French Communist Party, which was
passed to the Viet Minh. The most important source probably was
Georges Paques, who served as a senior civil servant in the Mayer,
Laniel, and Mendes-France administrations; Paques was recruited in
1946 and served as a Soviet agent until 1963. Soviet military intelli-
gence officers also served with Viet Minh headquarters near Dien
Bien Phu.
Both the KGBand the GRU saw the U.S. involvement in Vietnam
as an opportunity to gather information about the U.S. military. In ex-
change for billions of dollars of military equipment provided to the
Vietnamese, the Soviet intelligence services expected a free hand to
collect information. According to the Soviet archives, they were dis-
appointed. On at least one occasion a Vietnamese military officer was
prosecuted for providing a Soviet counterpart information about the
effectiveness of surface-to-air missiles against American aircraft.
North Vietnam was never a Soviet satellite, and billions of dollars of
military aid did not buy Moscow as much as it wanted.
The Vietnam War also provided the KGB with the basis for many
of its most successful active measures. Working through Eastern Eu-
ropean communist parties and their intelligence services, as well as
front organizations, the KGB planted anti-American issues in the
press of the world. The KGB saw the war as a golden opportunity to278 •VIETNAM WARS06-313 P-Z.qxd 7/27/06 7:57 AM Page 278