Legendary Heads of the World's Intelligence Services

The profession of a spy is mysterious and romanticized. Special agents from adventure novels are always courageous, charismatic, able of doing the impossible, and a bit unhappy in their personal lives. But what are the prototypes of these fictional characters? Are those real heroes who consciously choose the profession of a secret agent?

Here is a closer look at the most famous special agents who became heads of secret intelligence services.

Sir Mansfield George Smith-Cumming, the first Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)

Source: Wikipedia.org

Born on April 1, 1859, Mansfield was the great-great-grandson of two prominent Englishmen: the wealthy merchant John Smith, director of the South and East India Company, and the son of Abel Smith, a Nottingham banker whose family business later became the National Westminster Bank, until now one of the largest in the UK.

At the age of 12, Mansfield joined the Royal Navy for training and service. Later he was appointed an acting lieutenant, and in 1877 he was sent to the HMS Bellerophon. Over the next seven years, Mansfield participated in special operations against Malaysian pirates.

In 1909, Mansfield Smith-Cumming was invited to take part in the formation of a new "Secret Service Bureau", which was needed amid growing British concern about the activities of German spies in the UK.

At first, a fifty-year-old man with a prominent chin, eagle eyes, and a mouth set in a stern manner did not seem like the best candidate. However, within a few years, under Mansfield's leadership, the Foreign Office, responsible for operations outside of Britain, became one of the most influential covert special forces on the planet.

Sir Mansfield was the stuff of legend. It was said that he cut off his leg with a pocket knife to save his son after a car accident. The Chief of British Intelligence even had a habit of shocking his interlocutors by unexpectedly sticking sharp objects in his leg - in fact, in his wooden prosthesis.

Sir Smith-Cumming also became known as "C" because of his habit of signing his name with this letter in green ink. By the way, this custom was inherited by his successors, the directors of intelligence. After all, "C" stood for "Chief," not his initials. Ian Fleming reflected this feature in his James Bond novels.

During the war, Cumming's Foreign Intelligence Service was renamed MI6 or the Secret Intelligence Service. Cumming and his officers managed to build an incredible system of spies around the world.

There were many intellectuals, writers, and artists among the agents. In particular, during the war, Augustus Agar, Paul Dukes, John Buchan, Compton Mackenzie, and W. Somerset Maugham were informants for British intelligence.

John Richard Simpson, the first President of Interpol

Source:United States Secret Service 

John Simpson began his career in 1962 as a special agent in the Boston office of the U.S. Secret Service. Ten years later, he was appointed Director of Interpol USA.

From 1984 to 1988, Director Simpson served as the first American President of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). During his tenure, he oversaw several major INTERPOL programs and worked with the organization's 142 member states to combat the growing threat of international crime.

Simpson was also the 16th Director of the U.S. Secret Service. It was he who modernized the service by introducing the latest computer technology at the time. This allowed the US Secret Service to accelerate its modernization and significantly expand its influence.

As the number of national and international branches grew, so did ties with the intelligence services of other countries. At that time, the work was coordinated around financial crimes, investigations of false identification documents and computer fraud.

However, one of John Simpson's most important innovations was the transformation of the system of equal and impartial access to the service. Under his leadership, the Secret Service increased the number of women and minorities in law enforcement by a revolutionary 64%.

Simpson's career in the intelligence services spanned the terms of seven American presidents: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.

Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

Source: Wikipedia

In 2016, a sabotage operation to destroy helicopters at the Dzhankoy base was conducted in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian Crimea. The operation in the backyard of the Russian special services could be seen as audacious, but the commander of the raid, Kyrylo Budanov, considered it realistic. During the retreat, the group under his leadership engaged in a battle with Russian special forces, killing several people, including a high-ranking officer. The event was of such significance that Russian President Vladimir Putin was forced to suspend his international visit to Azerbaijan.

Later, this raid by Budanov's group was called a "real challenge" for Russia.

On August 5, 2020, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Kyrylo Budanov as the head of the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. 

Since then, the DI MDU has carried out a number of special operations, some of which, such as the rescue of foreigners from violence-torn Kabul, have been listed as world-class intelligence operations.

The events of February 2022 brought Kyrylo Budanov into the public eye. His predictions about the Russian war are compared to those of an all-seeing oracle and are certainly checked.

The Ukrainian intelligence officer's characteristic laugh, as well as a photo of his cat Gunter, went viral online. And the creation of memes about numerous special operations in the rear of the Russian aggressor, which are often neither confirmed nor denied by the Ukrainian side, is already becoming a national tradition.

Despite his high managerial position and the rank of general, Budanov works outside the office whenever possible. For example, the Kraken Regiment reported that the head of Ukraine's military intelligence took part in the liberation of the Ruska Lozova village in Kharkiv region.

The basics of intelligence activities were described by the philosopher Sun Tzu in one of the oldest treatises on military affairs and its philosophy known to mankind - The Art of War.

Today, no country in the world can exist without special services. Every day, hundreds of thousands of agents quietly collect and analyze a wide variety of information, conduct special operations, risking their lives, and repel numerous cyberattacks.

It is often thanks to these seemingly ordinary people that we manage to achieve crucial results - saving the lives and peace of citizens in countries around the world.