Although I find "Tinker, Tailor..." to be a fine thriller, Le Carre's self-loathing, anti-American, anti-Western views increasing cheapened his novels. I found his last two novels to be just awful.
I could intially overlook his view that there are no differences between the East and West Cold Warriors, and just go with the story and his writing, but it was tough going on the last two.
William F. Buckley, who briefly served in the CIA in the 1950s, disagreed with Le Carre. He said that the KGB thru little old ladies in front of a car, while the CIA pushed little old ladies out of the way of the car.
Hence - to Le Carre and others like him - both the KGB and the CIA were throwing little old ladies around...
Buckley believes, as do I, that the CIA and British intelligence were, and are, forces for good. The KGB, the GRU, and the other communist intelligence/secret police agencies, were forces that maintained the evil empire.
Although there were historical abuses by the CIA, all were ordered by the sitting presidents - LBJ, JFK, and so on - and not by the CIA officers themselves.
The idea that Le Carre wanted at one time to defect is of course nonsense, a lefty conceit. And yes, Frank is right, the large checks for his books (which would have been banned in the Soviet Union, despite their left-leaning slant) kept him on safe and sound on this side of Check Point Charlie.
Although I find "Tinker, Tailor..." to be a fine thriller, Le Carre's self-loathing, anti-American, anti-Western views increasing cheapened his novels. I found his last two novels to be just awful.
ReplyDeleteI could intially overlook his view that there are no differences between the East and West Cold Warriors, and just go with the story and his writing, but it was tough going on the last two.
William F. Buckley, who briefly served in the CIA in the 1950s, disagreed with Le Carre. He said that the KGB thru little old ladies in front of a car, while the CIA pushed little old ladies out of the way of the car.
Hence - to Le Carre and others like him - both the KGB and the CIA were throwing little old ladies around...
Buckley believes, as do I, that the CIA and British intelligence were, and are, forces for good. The KGB, the GRU, and the other communist intelligence/secret police agencies, were forces that maintained the evil empire.
Although there were historical abuses by the CIA, all were ordered by the sitting presidents - LBJ, JFK, and so on - and not by the CIA officers themselves.
The idea that Le Carre wanted at one time to defect is of course nonsense, a lefty conceit. And yes, Frank is right, the large checks for his books (which would have been banned in the Soviet Union, despite their left-leaning slant) kept him on safe and sound on this side of Check Point Charlie.
Le Carre is an old fraud.
Paul Davis
daviswrite@aol.com