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well, for anyone who read le carré philby here confirms one of the key failings of british intelligence services - the utter disbelief that anyone from their top-universities/upper echelons could ever be a communist.

tinker tailor soldier spy is basically all about that. they hired students who had openly joined leftist groups and never really followed up on that.

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and Le Carré has said that he sexed even that up from his experience working as a spy.

He wasn't communist, and that nonsense worldview is why they missed the problem. He was an opportunist, like many people in all governments. He sold info to russians while others just sold contracts to friends or embezzled directly. It's not us vs a foreign them, there are selfish and power-hungry monsters throughout all sides.

He was not an opportunist, he was vindictive; when he did not get certain things or recognition, he sought out the Russian government's approval.

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