The Saga of the Swinging Spies | True Life Spy Stories

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Karel and Hana Koecher arrived on American shores in December 1965. The Czechoslovakian nationals had fled to America to start a new life. As Soviet emigres, they set out to live the American dream. For Karel, this was by climbing the ranks of academia. For Hana, it was a lucrative career in the diamond trade. Both had become naturalised US citizens.

But all this was a smokescreen. Karel was in fact a sleeper agent deployed by Czechoslovakian intelligence to spy on the United States. He achieved what no other before him had managed - to infiltrate the CIA as an illegal Soviet spy.

This is the story of Karel and Hana Koecher, the last of the Cold War super spies.

Primary sources (afiiliate links):

Further reading/viewing:

#philipthompson #truelifespystories #karelkoecher

[cattymajiv]

I agree the narration is excellent in 99.% of the video, but people need to take note that the dates stated need to be listened to very carefully. The events that occured in the 1930s are stated correctly, but the pronunciation makes it easy to mistake them for being said as 1953, 1954, 1955, etc.

People have complained below that the narrator has the dates wrong. He doesn't. It's just hard to hear whether he is saying 1933 or 1953, and 1939 or 1959, etc. But now that you know to listen more carefully, you can understand it correctly, because it's not really possible to rerecord an entire video just to fix a couple of words.

[AlbatrossCommando]

It's kind of funny how in these stories double agents are only ever really caught through the reports of other double agents.

[ScepticPJ]

Excellent. We especially like the lack of pointless, noisy interjections and your own, human narration. Well done.

[crimony]

The swinger parties included several private residences in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, not just the "clubs" listed. After all, the clubs were public. The private residences could be accessed only by invitation or court-approved search warrant. Hana was known as, essentially if not specifically, a nymphomaniac. Therefore, once she got started, she wouldn't stop, and she is not a bad looking woman.

[robinwells]

British Foreign Office on the ball as ever. Lets employ this person without any checks to see if she is a world famous spy’s wife. 😂

[humbleguy]

I think this the best spy documentary i have watched so far, really well put together it had my attention all the way through. Thank you for posting it, you are very talented.

[dhmacher]

Love your work! Your narration is 100x better than the AI, for what it’s worth.

[aryabastani]

Hanna got a job at the British Embassy post her husband being outed as a spy? You couldn't make this sxxt up.

[noisepuppet]

The algorithm finally shows me this channel

[GaryPritchard]

Fascinating as usual. Superbly narrated and illustrated. Can’t wait for the next one

[annehersey]

Dubcek forgot the lesson of how to effectively change things when surrounded by people who want things to remain the same-more or less like Gorbachev tried to do. You start with a baby step, then when that change seems normal, you make another change and wait until that is absorbed and repeat and realize it’s going to take you years. What you DONT do is announce it! I really don’t like that the FBI reneged on the deal!

[vince]

This reminds me of the finale of the show The Americans. **Spoiler Alert** In the series finale, the Russian spy couple are exfiltrated home to Russia with the FBI closing in. After so many years of integrating themselves into American society, making friends, living a comfortable middle-class life, they are suddenly back in Russia, their kids have decided to stay in America and you can feel their regret as they realize their lives will never be as good as when they were in the U.S. And they're asking themselves what it was all for in the end.

[newhorizons]

Excellent production. Well edited, great footage. Worth watching and enjoyed. Thanks, keep up the good work.

[goingoutonmyshield]

Another brilliant documentary masterfully put together and presented. Bravo Sir, Bravo.

[adambane]

These people have no loyalty except to money

[peterpluim]

This is an interesting and very well made video. Thanks.
I subscribed.

[yacan]

I greatly appreciate your narration to the AI man. It's hard for me to understand the story when the tone isn't changing to what's happening in the story. I appreciate you

[fekkyb]

As others did too. I enjoyed this story.

[indigocheetah]

Thank you, Phillip, for an excellent story on espionage. Your narration is on point that I have no need for subtitles.

[Trav]

Another awesome piece of work. Great job