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Washington DC: The World of Espionage: "
In Washington DC, it appears, you should really trust no-one. According to the less-than-secretive International Spy Museum, there are more spies in the US capital than any other city in the world. And, going by the exhibits within the museum, this has long since been the case. It kinda goes with the territory – Washington has to be the most political city on earth, and espionage is as much a sport as point scoring in the Capitol and power restaurants.
Outside the International Spy Museum in DC
International Spy Museum
The International Spy Museum opened in 2002, the brainchild of a former CIA operative. And it’s one of those museums that manages to impart plenty of information whilst also being incredibly good fun. As you enter, you have to pick a fake identity for yourself, memorise details about your alter-ego and be prepared to stick with it throughout your visit. Periodic tests are carried out - both on screens asking questions with a rising “suspicion meter” for every one you get wrong, and by members of staff dressed as security guards.
I end up as New Zealander Gary Wozniak, a teacher going to Singapore for 90 days. I get my questions right, and am then given a mission that involves picking up a vital microdot package.
The set-up is part of the entertainment, but it’s not entirely necessary to go along with it – the museum has plenty to enthral those who won’t play ball.
Amongst a lot of silly stuff about ninjas, there is some genuinely useful detail on how CIA disguise experts have got their chaps out of sticky situations, and how the ordinary Joe can take on a different appearance too. It’s less about the changes in looks (such as fake moustaches and wigs) and more about changes in behaviour – putting a pebble in your shoe and taking longer strides to alter the way you walk.
We also get (perhaps slightly irresponsible) lessons in how to pick locks, plant bugs and hide someone in a getaway car.
Then we get to see all manner of clever Bond-esque gizmos. There are rollover cameras that can be used to sneakily scan documents, tear gas pens, guns hidden in a cigarette case and escape maps printed on rice paper so that they won’t make potentially fatal rustling noises when opened.
View of the White House from the W Hotel
History of Espionage
Amongst all the fun stuff, though, there are also some history lessons. Visitors are continually told (in a perhaps somewhat biased manner) that he or she who has the best spies is often the one that comes out on top. And that goes for how Elizabeth I of England’s spymaster, Francis Walsingham, got crucial information that helped defeat the Spanish Armada - as well as the disinformation passed on to the eventually defeated English by George Washington’s spy network in the American Revolutionary War.
A lot of the most interesting stuff relates to the Second World War. We learn how the Japanese spy who plotted the attack on Pearl Harbor posed as a tourist and a labourer during his lengthy reconnaissance and – more incredibly – how he relied on a photographic memory to avoid writing anything down.
There’s also the amazing story of Spaniard Juan Pujol Garcia, who invented an entirely fictional spy network in his head, and fed such convincing information to the Nazis on the back of it that they saw him as a key contact. When he told them that the D-Day landings in Normandy were just a decoy for the real attack – allegedly happening at Calais – they believed him and kept significant numbers of troops away from Normandy. He probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the process.
Washington Spy Tour
The Site of our Dead Drop
Entrance to the International Spy Museum is included as part of Viator’s Washington DC Spy Tour – and there’s an element of playing the game with this too. Realistically, it’s a bus trip around espionage-related sites in Washington, but there’s a ‘mission’ built in as well. As the coach heads around the city, a number of people pop up on video screens to give briefings. There’s also a secret message to pick up in a park – which provides something of a twist in the tale. I’ll not spoil it…
As part of the package, passengers are given a list of common spy terms, which explains lingo such as ‘dead drop’ (a secret location where materials can be hidden for another party to receive) and ‘Swallow’ (a Russian term for a female agent who uses her feminine wiles to obtain information or blackmail a target). We’re also given a list of characters whose stories we’ll learn about. These include traitorous double agents such as Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames as well as key players in the spy game such as FBI Director J Edgar Hoover and Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko.
Spy Sites
Sites visited include Chadwick’s in Georgetown, where Aldrich Ames switched a bag of secret documents for a bag of money from his Soviet handler. There’s also the Hotel George which, in a previous incarnation as the Bellevue, saw Soviet defector Walter Krivitsky found dead in his room. It’s still not known whether the gunshot wounds were self-inflicted or an assassination.
Then there’s the Willard Hotel, where secret negotiations to end the Cuban Missile Crisis took place, and the former Soviet Embassy, where key contacts were sneaked out of the back door. And, of course, there’s the most famous spy site of all – the Watergate building.
The tour offers a hugely enjoyable romp through a world of secrecy – but are you sure you trust your guide?
Watergate Building
Accommodation in Washington DC
All good spies will need somewhere to stay, of course. And for those wanting to keep an eye on what the head honcho is up to, the W Hotel is in the perfect spot. Many of the rooms and, in particular, the sensational rooftop bar have views out over the White House. Alternatively, if you want to stay undercover and not look quite so obvious, the Dupont Hotel is a classily understated alternative – and one that’s supercentral to all the action in the Dupont Circle area of town.
Editor’s Note: David Whitley was a guest of Destination DC.
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