NBC REPORTS: SPYING FOR UNCLE SAM (TV)
Summary
One in this series of irregularly scheduled documentary programs. This edition focuses on the extraordinary lives of ex-Central Intelligence Agency case officer Caleb Bach and his family. Host Edwin Newman introduces Bach as a normal man who happened to find himself in a job that defines "treachery and deceit" as "good traits." Newman goes over the basics of Bach's main responsibility -- recruiting agents -- and then Bach breaks down the specific chronology of his work bringing someone onto the CIA team during his tenure with the agency. Bach would get close to a potential agent, he explains, and after establishing a certain level of confidence (quantifiable, according to Bach's training), he would give the person "the pitch." If the potential agent was interested, he or she (usually he) would be issued a "cryptonym" and would begin right away. While Bach was courting his charge, Bach's wife would extol the virtues of the "spy lifestyle" to the charge's wife and family. Bach and his own clan moved from Bolivia (where Bach was assigned after the assassination of revolutionary leader Che Guevara), to Mexico City, to Lisbon, to many points throughout the United States. Bach tells Newman stories of being courted himself, by Russian agents, to join the KGB, and he explains the differences between spies in different cultures; in some places, he notes, it is impossible to blackmail a man with evidence of infidelity as it is not seen as a sin everywhere. Eventually, he explains, he began to doubt the nobility of his work. Newman suggests, "The endless lying would present a danger to any person's sense of humanity, morality and self-respect." The program concludes with Bach's description of his exit from the service. Includes commercials and promos.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: March 28, 1978 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:58:40
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T78:0236
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries; News; Specials
- SUBJECT HEADING: U S Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); Espionage
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV, 1978
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - American Express traveler's checks
- TV - Commercials - Anacin pain reliever
- TV - Commercials - Breyer's yogurt
- TV - Commercials - Dristan sinus relief pain reliever
- TV - Commercials - Eveready Batteries
- TV - Commercials - Jaguar automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Radio Shack electronics store
- TV - Commercials - Rolaids antacid
- TV - Commercials - Shick razors
- TV - Commercials - Visine eye drops
- TV - Promos - "NBC Sports: Greensboro Open Golf Tournament"
- TV - Promos - "NewsCenter 4, WNBC - TV Evening News"
- TV - Promos - "Richie Brockelman, Private Eye"
CREDITS
- Robert Rogers … Producer, Director, Writer
- Rhonda Schwartz … Associate Producer
- Naomi Kaufman … Researcher
- Edwin Newman … Reporter
- Caleb Bach
- Claudia Bach
- Guevara, Ernesto "Che"