All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E17.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Tonight on
"Secrets Declassified,"

genius spy gadgets
designed to give agents

an unbeatable advantage,

from a medical student's
invention

that hides spies
beneath the waves--

- If you can keep spies
undetected underwater,

that could change
the course of the war.

- To Vietnam,
where the U.S. military

tracks the enemy's scent with
help from an electronic nose--

- This must be
thousands of men.

This is exactly
the confirmation

command has been waiting for.

- And the attempt
to create a flying soldier

that's straight out
of science fiction.

- The pilot is literally
riding a column of fire.

- These are the astonishing
gadgets and tech

created by governments

and the people
who work for them.

It's time
to bring them to light.

♪ ♪

In 1943,
the world is at war,

and the U.S. is looking
for a way for their spies

to move underwater undetected.

The solution isn't born out of
a top secret government lab.

It comes from the mind
of a medical student

on summer break.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem]
At the start of World War II,

America launches a brand new
intelligence agency,

the Office of Strategic
Services.

The OSS is the first version
of the CIA.

And its job is
to find creative ways

to gather intelligence
and sabotage Axis forces.

And one of its
biggest obsessions

is finding ways
to put spies underwater.

- If you can keep spies
undetected underwater,

you could slip into
enemy harbors,

sabotage vessels, and disrupt
entire naval operations.

[Duchovny]
There's just one problem.

At this time,
breathing underwater

is anything but stealthy.

- There's one device
called the Aqualung,

but it releases air bubbles.

- This is a problem
for covert operations.

You might as well send up
a signal flare.

[Duchovny] The solution comes
from an unlikely source,

a young student at the
University of Pennsylvania.

- Christian Lambertsen is
an undergraduate student,

and he's studying physiology.

He's absolutely fascinated
about breathing underwater.

- Every summer,
Christian Lambertsen

heads down
to the New Jersey Coast.

But he's not chilling
on the beach.

He's in the water
experimenting

with breathing contraptions.

[Duchovny] One day,
Lambertsen has a breakthrough.

The equipment that helps
patients breathe in hospitals

could be modified to help
divers breathe underwater

without producing bubbles.

[Hakeem]
Anesthesia equipment contain

absorbent materials
that remove carbon dioxide

from the air that
patients breathe

while they're unconscious.

Lambertsen figures
he can use similar materials

to remove the carbon dioxide

from the air
that a diver exhales.

That way, a diver's air
can be rebreathed

rather than being breathed
back out into the water

and creating bubbles.

[Duchovny] After years
of trial and error,

Lambertsen perfects his idea.

- Lambertsen
builds a prototype.

He calls it the Lambertsen
Amphibious Respirator Unit,

LARU for short.

[Duchovny]
LARU funnels exhaled air

through a canister
lined with soda lime

so oxygen can be rebreathed
over and over.

[Don]
It's pretty remarkable.

It's silent,
doesn't weigh much,

and, best of all, no bubbles.

[O'Keefe] So Lambertsen
shows this prototype

to his professor,
who immediately

understands
the possible implications.

[Hakeem]
He realizes,

this is a potential tool
for spies.

[Duchovny]
Seeing the possibilities,

Lambertsen's professor
makes some calls,

and eventually, the OSS
hear about this invention.

They ask Lambertsen
down to Washington, D.C.

for a demonstration.

- He straps it on, drops into
the pool and stays under.

No bubbles, no noise,

just smooth movement
beneath the water's surface.

- Needless to say,
the OSS are absolutely

fascinated by what this
prototype could do,

so they hire Lambertsen.

- A dip in the pool
is one thing.

What the OSS really
wants to know is whether

this homemade spy gadget
can perform

in a real combat mission.

[Hakeem]
Lambertsen is given the job

of training the very first
unit of combat swimmers

for a live test.

- The OSS want Lambertsen
and his team

to infiltrate
a heavily-defended harbor

and plant dummy explosives
on a target ship,

and then get out of there
undetected.

It has underwater sound
detection systems,

patrol boats,
and security nets.

This place is locked down.

It's essentially
a make-or-break,

high-stakes underwater heist.

[Jack]
They're trailblazers.

This hasn't been done before,

so they're having to invent
the tactics and procedures

and the technology
at the same time

to enable this
kind of operation.

[Duchovny] The test mission
is given the name

Operation Cincinnati.

- The training is
absolutely brutal.

The divers have to learn how to
operate in freezing cold waters

and in complete darkness.

[Duchovny] After a year
and a half's training,

Lambertsen's new team
are ready.

♪ ♪

- Under cover of night,
the divers slip into the water.

They're armed
only with the LARU's

waterproof compasses
and dummy explosive charges.

They glide past
the patrol boats

and navigate around
the underwater nets.

- The LARU allows a diver
to stay submerged

at a depth of 50 feet
for up to 90 minutes.

- The Navy's state-of-the-art
sound detection equipment

hears nothing.

♪ ♪

They reach their target,

plant the charges,

and get away
without a sound,

or a single ripple
on the surface.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] The operation
is a stunning success.

- The OSS immediately deploys
a new unit of combat swimmers

equipped with the LARU
on covert missions

all around the globe.

[Duchovny] Lambertsen's
device opens the ocean

to millions
of recreational divers,

but its covert
military origins

and its make-or-break test
remain buried

in classified files
for another 40 years.

[Sami] In 1995, the CIA
declassified the files that

revealed the LARU's origins
as a cutting-edge spy gadget.

And we get to learn how a
medical student on summer break

invented a device that changed
underwater espionage forever.

- The LARU gives U.S. agents

the ability to stay hidden
underwater.

Our next gadget gives
allied agents the ability

to call home from
behind enemy lines

by keeping them
one step ahead

of the Nazi spy hunters
on their tail.

♪ ♪

- By the summer of 1940,

the Nazis have
steamrolled across Europe.

To fight back,
Winston Churchill greenlights

the formation of
a brand new clandestine force,

the Special Operations
Executive, or the SOE.

The SOE has a mission--

to infiltrate
Nazi-occupied territory

and just make life hell
for the occupiers.

[Duchovny]
The SOE sends a vast network

of agents behind enemy lines.

But these operatives
need to constantly

receive orders and send
their intelligence back home.

And that's no easy task.

- The best technology to do
this is a radio transceiver,

but there's a problem.

- The German secret police,
the Gestapo,

hunt allied spies
throughout occupied France

using detector vans.

They are packed
with antennas

that sweep the airwaves
for illegal signals

and pinpoint their origin.

They're cleverly disguised
to look like

laundry trucks
or baker's vans.

[machine beeping]

[Duchovny]
Any agent who uses their radio

for too long
or from the same place

risks being caught
and executed.

- In 1942,
the average life expectancy

for an allied radio operator
in occupied France

is around six weeks.

That's how dangerous
this job is.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Desperate
to protect its agents,

the SOE orders its engineers
to come up with

a new way to phone home.

- In 1942,
SOE engineers deliver

an ingenious solution,
a new type of radio

known as the Type B Mark II.

The spies just call it B2,
and it is a masterpiece

of wartime engineering.

- The B2 is a cleverly
condensed transceiver

with a range of 1,000 miles,

powerful enough to reach
all the way back to Britain.

[Duchovny] Then they hide it
in the perfect place

for an agent who needs
to stay on the move.

[Don] From the outside,

the B2 looks like an ordinary
traveler's leather case.

Hidden inside is just enough
room for a layer of clothes.

So if a German soldier
stops you and opens the case,

all he sees is luggage.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
The ordinary-looking case

also hides a steel frame
to protect its secret cargo,

which comes in handy for
getting it behind enemy lines.

- Many times, these will be
delivered to SOE operators

through an airdrop.

They make it tough
because it's gotta be able

to withstand some damage.

[Duchovny]
But the feature of the B2

that will really save lives
is its power source.

- It has a 6-volt D.C. plug
that can connect

to a wall outlet
if you're in a building,

or a car battery
if you're out in the field.

The B2 even has
a built-in dynamo

that you can power
with a bicycle.

- Spies can transmit
from anywhere,

then pack up the equipment
and vanish

before the detector vans
even know where to look.

- The B2 changes the game,

allowing allied operatives
to move covertly

behind enemy lines
to fight the Nazis.

Then, in the months
before D-Day,

it lands in the hands
of the SOE's top agent

for its biggest test yet.

[Sami] Virginia Hall
is a formidable

American SOE agent.

She lost a leg in a hunting
accident before the war,

so she walks
with a prosthetic,

which she has lovingly
nicknamed Cuthbert.

- Hall's mission is to arm
and train resistance fighters,

coordinating attacks
on German supply lines

to deliver maximum disruption
ahead of D-Day.

[Duchovny] Armed with
the new B2, Hall gets to work.

- She uses her B2
to orchestrate missions

from barns, attics,
convents, even brothels.

Hall taps out a coded message
coordinating operations,

and then she packs up
and disappears

before the German detector vans

can triangulate
her hidden location.

- Hall disguises herself
as an elderly milkmaid

and stays on the move
all the time.

[Duchovny]
Just before D-Day,

she unleashes her most
devastating strike.

- Hall coordinates
the destruction

of four strategic bridges.

♪ ♪

Her resistance teams
hit all four bridges

and blow them to kingdom come.

German forces are
thrown into chaos.

Thousands of troop
reinforcements

can't reach the front
at Normandy.

It's a crippling blow
to the Nazi's defense

against the Allied invasion.

[Duchovny] For her work
behind enemy lines,

Virginia Hall is recognized
and awarded by the British.

And when her final report
is declassified in 1991,

it reveals the full scale
of the damage

the clandestine B2 radio
let her wreak.

♪ ♪

[Jack]
Throughout World War II,

the Allies produced about
7,000 of these B2 radios,

the Allies produced about
7,000 of these B2 radios,

and they had a profound effect
during the war.

- Spies can hide
a listening device anywhere--

a bug in a lampshade,
a wiretap in a phone.

But in the 1960s, the CIA
takes that idea to an extreme,

hiding a cutting-edge gadget
at the summit

of one of the world's
most dangerous mountains.

♪ ♪

- In 1964,
intelligence arrives that

Communist China
has just detonated

its first atomic bomb.

[Hakeem]
For the White House,

this is a nightmare scenario.

Suddenly, there's a new
nuclear power on the board,

and it's arguably
more unpredictable

than the Soviet Union.

[Don] Some of
President Lyndon Johnson's

military advisors consider
the threat so severe,

they actually recommend
an immediate

pre-emptive nuclear strike
against China.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] The president
demands intelligence

on China's atomic program
instead.

The problem is,
the CIA have none.

- The CIA is in the dark.

China's nuclear test sites
are all buried

deep inside the Himalayas.

Those mountains are remote.

They're usually
covered in clouds.

And that means that U2 spy
planes can't get clean images.

[Duchovny]
The CIA's solution

is to build
a cutting-edge new gadget,

not to photograph
the Chinese test sites,

but to listen to them.

[O'Keefe] The U.S. wanna build
something that can listen in

to the radio chatter
that is emanating

from the Chinese
nuclear test sites.

The problem is,
they're in the Himalaya range.

And the range acts like
a 20,000-foot stone wall

that is just impenetrable when
it comes to radio signals.

- For this spy device
to detect anything,

it basically has to be placed
on top of that wall,

at extreme altitude.

It will have to survive

some of the harshest
conditions on Earth.

[Duchovny]
The highest Himalayan peaks

are 29,000 feet tall.

Temperatures can drop as low
as -76 degrees Fahrenheit.

And winds can reach
over 100 miles per hour.

So the CIA create one of
the toughest bugs ever made.

♪ ♪

- CIA engineers construct
a reinforced box

with hypersensitive
radio sensors inside it.

And then whatever it hears,
it relays that audio

to a distant
CIA listening post.

[Hakeem]
The big issues they face are

how to power this gadget
and how to keep it running

for years without
ever recharging

or changing the batteries.

[Duchovny] The solution
comes from outer space.

[O'Keefe] The CIA turns
to a new type of technology

that was originally designed
for deep-space exploration.

It is known as the radioisotope
thermoelectric generator,

or RTG, for short.

[Dan] At its core,
there are seven capsules

of highly radioactive
plutonium 238.

It generates a ton of heat.

And that heat
gets converted into

a steady electrical current.

That can power a device
pretty much indefinitely.

[Duchovny] This extreme
nuclear listening device

is now mission-ready.

But one obstacle remains.

It's 125 pounds,
and it needs to be placed

on top of one of the world's
highest peaks.

For that, the CIA doesn't need
undercover agents but climbers.

[O'Keefe]
To install its spy device,

the CIA recruit a team
of elite mountaineers

to haul the contraption
into position.

- The team can't risk
entering Chinese territory,

So they choose a mountain
just across the border

in allied India.

It's called Nanda Devi.

It's 25,000 feet tall.

Nearly a dozen climbers have
died here over the years.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
In October 1965,

the team of 30 climbers begins
the treacherous ascent.

♪ ♪

- It's exhausting,
it's dangerous, and it's slow.

But by mid-October, they're
finally reaching the peak.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
Then disaster strikes.

- A blizzard rolls in
without warning.

Visibility drops to zero.
The temperature plummets.

The team leader realizes
they are facing certain death.

So he makes the call.
They have to retreat.

But that means the team
has to take a huge gamble.

They hide the gadget
in a rocky crevice

and get themselves
out of danger.

♪ ♪

The plan is to return
and finish the job

as soon as the weather clears.

[Duchovny] Eventually,
the following spring,

the weather finally relents.

And the team gets
their chance to retrieve

their hidden spy device.

[Amy] They make the
brutal climb a second time,

only to realize
that an avalanche

has ripped through the area
over the winter.

- And that means the gadget,
along with its plutonium,

is buried somewhere under
thousands of tons of ice.

[dramatic music]

[Duchovny] The CIA has
just lost a nuclear device

on one of the highest peaks
in the world.

But they still desperately
need intelligence

on China's nuclear program,
so they build a new one.

And in 1967,
the mountaineers

attempt to install it
one last time.

[Dan] This time, they
choose a slightly lower peak,

Nanda Kot.

I mean,
it's still 22,500 feet,

but the climb
is marginally less deadly.

[Duchovny] The climbers once
again braved the elements.

And after climbing for hours,

they managed to bolt down
this new device

and activate
its plutonium power source.

- The new device
starts working immediately.

And it starts intercepting
the radio traffic

coming from
the test facilities.

And from there,
it relays it back to

a CIA listening post
in India.

What they learned is
a relief to Washington.

China doesn't yet have
ballistic missiles

capable of reaching
the United States.

The military threat,
for the moment,

remains regional, not global.

[Duchovny] This operation
on the roof of the world

remains one of the CIA's
most closely-guarded secrets.

Each climber is sworn
to lifelong silence

until 1978,
when the expedition leader

speaks to an
investigator anonymously.

speaks to an
investigator anonymously.

- More than a decade
after the mission,

a journalist exposes
the story in an article

for "Rolling Stone" magazine.

High up in the Himalayas,
a piece of Cold War spy craft

has left a radioactive legacy
indefinitely.

- Spies use tech
to eavesdrop on the enemy,

to secretly photograph them,
and even to kill them.

But what about smell them?

When the U.S. needs
to find enemy troops

in the Vietnam jungle,

they build a machine
to do just that--

hunt soldiers by their scent.

♪ ♪

[helicopter whirring]

[Hakeem] By the mid-1960s,
the United States

is struggling to monitor enemy
troop movements in Vietnam.

The Viet Cong are masters
of hide and seek.

They have tunnels,

spider holes,
jungle camouflage.

[Martin] The enemy
has become so masterful

in the use of concealment that
there are cases where GIs

are 3 feet away from the enemy

and they don't even know
that they're there.

- You can't fight an enemy
that you can't find.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
The thick jungle canopy

makes aerial reconnaissance
useless.

So the U.S. needs
a new type of technology

to pinpoint
the invisible enemy.

Their incredible solution
is a device

that will sniff them out,
literally.

- The natural process
of producing sweat

releases ammonia.

A large formation of troops

will consist of men
who are releasing

invisible ammonia gas.

If you have the ability
to detect that,

you can fix the exact position
of the enemy force.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] To seek out
the enemy's sweat,

the army approaches
General Electric.

They're already building
chemical detectors

to trace the exhaust fumes
of enemy submarines.

Now they're given
this new mission.

- Technicians
at General Electric

come up with a scent sensor
they call

the XM-2 manpack
personnel detector.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] The troops will
call it something simpler,

the people sniffer.

[Hakeem] The XM-2
is meant to be carried

on a GI's back like a backpack.

It has a tube that
attaches to the muzzle

of a soldier's weapon with
a probe that sucks in air.

The air passes over
hydrochloric acid.

If there's ammonia present,
the acid reacts with it.

[Duchovny] This will be
turned into a beeping sound

in the operator's earphones.

- The gadget is basically
an alarm bell that tells you,

hey, just so you know,
I can smell

that the enemy
is pretty close right now.

[helicopter whirring]

[Duchovny]
In August 1965,

200 people sniffers are sent
to Vietnam for field testing.

♪ ♪

But the jungle is a big leap
from the laboratory.

[machine beeping]

[Sami] The field results
are mixed, at best.

The XM-2 does work sometimes.

But it doesn't have much range,
300 yards at most.

And even worse, if the wind
shifts and blows back at you--

[machine beeping rapidly]

You'll get a false positive
from your own sweat.

♪ ♪

- But the U.S. Army
doesn't shut down

the people sniffer project.

Instead, they'd double down
on the technology.

Only this time,
they sent it into the sky.

[Catherine] The army realizes
that ammonia

is lighter than air,
and it always rises,

so they decide to put
the sniffer on a helicopter.

The result is the
airborne personnel detector.

- They lengthen the probe so
it hangs outside the aircraft.

Plus, they put two
XM-3s in each aircraft

so they can double
their sniff power.

This sniffer bird
flies low and fast,

maybe 50 feet over the trees.

When it gets a hit,
the operator

radios in the location,
then they call in the cavalry.

[Duchovny]
In the fall of 1967,

this unusual new gadget

suddenly faces
a make-or-break test.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] U.S. intelligence
reports rumors

of an ominous buildup
of North Vietnamese troops

near a strategic outpost
called Dak To.

Dak To is home
to a critical camp

where the CIA trained
civilian militias.

The U.S. suspects that a major
offensive on Dak To is coming.

They need to confirm
whether this force of VC

is really hiding in the jungle.

[Duchovny]
This crucial mission

is given to
the airborne people sniffer.

- So the sniffer helicopter
is flying

perpendicular to the wind
just above the tree tops.

♪ ♪

[Martin]
You have an operator.

He detects, at first,
a faint beep.

The beep continues
to get louder.

The aircraft sweeps
back around to the area

where they detected
the beep to begin with.

And it gets louder
and louder and louder.

And they finally realize,
we're on to something here.

- It's ammonia.
This must be thousands of men.

This is exactly
the confirmation command

they've been waiting for.

[Duchovny]
Thanks to the people sniffer,

the U.S. launches
a massive preemptive strike

on Viet Cong positions
outside Dak To--

♪ ♪

--safeguarding
their critical base.

But this battle will be
the sniffer's high point.

The enemy soon learns
how to deceive it.

- The North Vietnamese
come up with a way to mislead

that flying sniffer by hanging
buckets of mud and urine

in the trees
to create false positives,

ultimately sending the
Americans on wild goose chases

to empty patches of jungle.

[Duchovny]
Outwitted by buckets of waste,

the people sniffer
fades from use.

Its full story remains
a secret for decades

until 2000 when a review of
the project is declassified,

finally revealing
the strange history

of a gadget that used
classroom chemistry

to fight jungle warfare.

- Super gadgets can
give agents superpowers.

In 1953, the U.S. military
embraces science fiction

to give its soldiers
the one we all want,

the power of flight.

♪ ♪

- In the early '50s,
the U.S. is fighting on

all types of fronts,
on all kinds of battlefields.

So the military thinks,
what if there was a device

that a soldier
could use to jump,

or even fly, over any obstacle
they encounter?

[Duchovny] The U.S. military
asks Bell Aerosystems

to see what
they can come up with.

♪ ♪

They propose
a personal rocket belt,

better known as a jetpack.

- The jetpack has been
in the public consciousness

ever since "Buck Rogers"

from the space adventure
comic strip in the 1920s.

Even German engineers in
the final days of World War II

were rumored
to be working on one.

But no one's ever been
able to get it to work--

♪ ♪

--not yet.

[Duchovny]
Bell gives the challenge

of turning human flight
into a reality to one man,

Wendell F. Moore.

- Moore is the star engineer
at Bell Aerosystems

and the visionary mind
behind the Bell X-1,

the first ever plane to
break the sound barrier.

If anyone can build a jetpack,
it's him.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Moore's design
is not a jet engine

in the traditional sense.

It's more like
a controlled explosion.

- Bell's jetpack is powered by
concentrated hydrogen peroxide

that's stored in tanks
mounted on the frame.

So when the pilot
triggers the system,

this triggers
a violent chemical reaction,

creating a jet
of superheated steam

that can hurl a man
into the sky.

- To keep from incinerating
his own legs,

he has to wear
a special heatproof suit.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
If this gadget works,

it could revolutionize
modern warfare.

But who is brave enough
to test it?

♪ ♪

[Dan] Moore insists on

being the first one
to try the prototype.

And you can kind of
understand why.

It looks super fun.

In February 1961,
they start the secret testing,

away from public eyes
and tethered for safety

to the ceiling of a hangar.

And it works--kind of.

- Steering the jetpack
is done with hand levers

that angle
the scorching jets of steam.

It's unpredictable.

[Dan]
And it's super loud.

It's about 130 decibels.

That's like jackhammer loud.

[Duchovny] It might be loud,
but it flies,

and Moore is getting better
at controlling it.

♪ ♪

Then, disaster strikes.

- During one flight, the belt
suddenly lurches sideways,

snapping the safety tether.

Moore is thrown 10 feet
to the concrete floor,

fracturing his knee.

[Duchovny] To keep
the project on track,

Moore needs another
fearless pilot.

♪ ♪

He finds it
in Harold "Hal" Graham.

[Dan] Hal Graham
is Moore's protege,

and he's fearless.

For weeks, he endures
dozens of jarring,

unforgiving tethered flights
just trying to figure out

how to control
those bucking rockets.

- On April 20, 1961,

he conducts the first
official test flight

that's outside and untethered,

in front of an audience
of reporters

and military top brass.

♪ ♪

[Dan] Graham straps himself
into the jetpack.

[jetpack whirring]

And for 13 seconds,
he defies gravity.

[whirring]

Graham is achieving pure,
unencumbered flight.

♪ ♪

He travels 112 feet before
touching down smoothly.

[Duchovny] It's the first
of many test flights,

each one getting
more controlled and ambitious.

Bell decides it's time
to introduce the jetpack

to the world
in a public display.

- Basically,
Bell wanna show off

their brand new
superhero gadget.

[Duchovny] Overnight, the
jetpack is a global sensation.

But while the world is wowed,

this gadget has a fatal flaw
for any top secret mission.

♪ ♪

- The military looks,
and it does not see anything

that would be of use to it
on the battlefield.

The user of the rocket pack
is only going to have

21 seconds of powered flight.

And that 21 seconds
is going to consume

5 gallons of an
extremely expensive

and difficult-to-produce fuel.

- They also can't solve
the sound problem.

With that 130-decibel roar,

any kind
of stealth infiltration

is completely out the window.

- In terms of this being
a useful military technology,

it's a dead end.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
After spending the equivalent

of $16 million
in today's money,

the dream of the flying
soldier is grounded.

The planned
military applications

of the jetpack stay
locked up for 40 years

until they are revealed
in 2009.

- William P. Suter,
a Rocket Belt pilot,

- William P. Suter,
a Rocket Belt pilot,

comes clean in a memoir
on the project,

and the public finally gets to
know about the army's attempt

to have a man fly into war.

- Ever received a gift
you wish you hadn't?

At the end of World War II,
the U.S. ambassador in Moscow

is handed a stunning piece
of art from his Soviet hosts.

But hidden inside is a piece
of spy tech so ingenious,

no one notices
until it's far too late.

♪ ♪

[Sami] In the late 1930s,
Stalin's secret service,

the NKVD, is ramping up
every kind of espionage

activity that it can.

It wants cutting-edge
surveillance technology

to do it.

So they need the very best
engineers and inventors.

[Duchovny] But at this time,
in the USSR,

great inventors
are in short supply.

- Many of the brightest minds
in the Soviet Union

have either been killed
in Stalin's pre-war purges,

or they've been locked up
in the Gulag system.

[Sami]
To counter the brain drain,

the NKVD trawled
the Gulags and select

a very lucky few inventors from
across a variety of fields.

They're set up in scientific
prisons called sharashkas,

where they're forced to work
for the Soviet regime.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
One bright mind to be selected

is a pioneer of sound
who invented

the world's first
electric instrument,

named Leon Theremin.

Theremin is ordered to invent
a new spy gadget for the state

or go back to the Gulags.

So he gets to work.

- Theremin develops a type
of passive listening device

known as a
Resonant Cavity Microphone.

It's this tiny metal cylinder
with a thin vibrating membrane

inside it,
attached to a short antenna.

[Duchovny] This is
the perfect microphone

for a Soviet spy to eavesdrop
on a secret conversation

from a safe distance.

- When Soviet agents wanna
listen in to what that device

can hear, they beam
a high-frequency radio wave

at the device from nearby,

and that makes the membrane
inside vibrate.

Any conversation sounds
will alter the vibrations

of that membrane so that,
when the radio waves

reflect back to
the listening station,

they're changed a little bit.

And when you do the math
between the frequency

you sent in and the frequency
that came back,

you can calculate what the
sounds that were made inside.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
Even better, because this bug

requires no power source,
it's almost untraceable.

♪ ♪

- As long as the frequency
is not being directed at it,

it won't set off
the type of device

that you use to
search for a bug.

[Duchovny] By 1945,

Theremin has perfected
his invention.

Now the NKVD needs to place it
in the perfect spot.

At the dawn
of the Cold War,

one target
sits above all others.

[Sami] The best location
for Theremin's bug

is in the U.S. embassy
in Moscow.

It's a place that's filled
with top secret conversations.

But it's also the most
secure place in Moscow.

So they need an inspired plan
to get the gadget into place.

- They come up
with a simple plan.

They're just gonna give it
to the U.S. ambassador

as a gift.

They hide Theremin's device
in a three-foot replica

of the Great Seal
of the United States.

And to make sure
the U.S. embassy accepts it,

it's delivered
by school children

in a ceremony meant to promote
friendship and cooperation.

[Duchovny] The U.S. ambassador
receives the gift,

unaware that this carved eagle
is really a Trojan horse.

♪ ♪

- The bug winds up on the wall

in the ambassador's
personal residence.

For the Soviet spies, this is
just as good as the embassy.

And it hangs there for years,
a silent witness

to the most secret
diplomatic chats

of three consecutive
American ambassadors.

[Duchovny] Theremin's device
is so effective,

its discovery only comes
through pure chance.

- In 1951,
a British radio operator

is monitoring
Soviet Air Force chatter.

He stumbles across
a stray signal.

He can clearly hear
the voice of the visiting

British Air attaché
speaking from inside

the ambassador's residence.

It can only be a Soviet bug.

- The U.S. security teams
launch a frantic

counter-surveillance sweep,
and they find nothing.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] A year later,
it happens again,

but no bug is found.

So embassy security staff
set a trap.

- The plan is to trick
the Soviets into activating

their mysterious bug
and keeping it on

long enough to
pinpoint its location.

[Dan] So the ambassador
starts reading this dispatch

that sounds exactly like
a classified document,

something that would be
very interesting

to Soviet eavesdroppers.

And as the ambassador's
reading,

this agent is sweeping the
room for radio transmissions.

- Suddenly, his headphones
crackle to life.

It's the ambassador's voice.

The bug is active.

- So this agent
is probing the walls,

probing the furniture,
probing the floorboards.

And as he gets closer to
that great seal on the wall,

the signal screams
in his ears.

Bingo!
He found it.

♪ ♪

- The CIA never figures out
how the Soviets knew

exactly when
to turn this bug on.

Was it at random, or was
there a mole in the embassy?

Either way,
the CIA decides not to let on

that they found
the Soviet secret gadget

until the perfect moment.

[Sami] In 1960,
Soviet Premier Khrushchev

calls an emergency session
of the UN Security Council.

He is outraged at American spy
flights over the Soviet Union

and is demanding
accountability.

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the
head of the CIA at the time,

has a response ready.

- In front of the
entire Security Council,

he pulls out the wooden seal
and holds it up.

Then he dramatically
pulls it apart,

revealing the device
hidden inside.

- And here is the--here is the
clandestine listening device.

♪ ♪

- Lodge is essentially saying,
you wanna talk about espionage?

Let's talk about this.

♪ ♪

- The CIA has spent
billions on the most

technologically advanced
spy planes imaginable.

But in the 1970s, one of
their most secret operations

relies on a very different
kind of bird,

the pigeon.

♪ ♪

[Dan] In the mid-70s,
aerial reconnaissance

has given America a powerful
edge in the Cold War spy game.

The U.S. has these
incredible spy planes.

They've got the U2, the SR-71.

And those are equipped
with cameras

that give us a whole new
window on our enemies.

♪ ♪

[Don] This tech comes
with a catch.

They operate tens of
thousands of feet in the air.

This is an era before super
high resolution photography,

so the pictures just don't
get the crucial detail needed.

- As a result, the CIA
starts looking for other ways

to develop reconnaissance,

particularly
photo reconnaissance,

of sensitive sites.

[Duchovny]
To get a closer look,

the agency turns to
a new kind of secret agent,

one with wings and feathers
and that was first employed

by British intelligence
in World War II.

- Back in World War II,
the British

parachuted pigeons and
containers over occupied Europe

with questionnaires
attached to them.

And the idea was
to get intelligence

from French civilians who
were sympathetic to Britain.

[Hakeem] Over a thousand birds
made it back with answers,

revealing information
on V1 rocket sites

and German ground
radar stations.

[Duchovny] Now the CIA
wonder if the pigeon

could make a comeback.

[Don] No one looks twice
at a pigeon.

It can get as close as
it wants to enemy targets.

If you can attach
a tiny camera to it,

you can get
surveillance images.

- The CIA is thinking,
maybe the pigeons

could get granular images
of Soviet military sites.

They could find
things like details

of vehicles or personnel
or other equipment.

[Duchovny] Once these spies
have snapped their photos,

they're hardwired
to always return home.

- Homing pigeons are
one of those incredible

miracles of nature.

They have the ability
to essentially detect

where they are on the Earth
and move towards the place

at which they were hatched.

And they do that
automatically.

So you can take them
anywhere around the planet

and release them.

And if you wait long enough,

they will come back
to their birthplace.

[Duchovny]
So in 1976, the CIA decides

to combine this
amazing avian ability

with cutting-edge technology.

- The agency's R&D teams
miniaturize a camera

so that it weighs about
as much as an egg.

It's about 40 grams,
and that means a pigeon

can carry it
strapped to its chest.

Inside, there's this
battery-powered motor

that works the shutter
and advances the film.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] After several
training flights,

October 18, 1976,

the CIA gives the pigeon
its first big test.

Can this feathered spy cam
do better

than the million-dollar
spy planes?

- Essentially, they're gonna
test these homing pigeons

against a sensitive
American site

and see what kind of
photographs are the result.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] Nine pigeons,

each equipped
with a tiny camera,

are released over Maryland.

Their flight path back
to their home loft

is plotted to pass directly
over Andrews Air Force Base.

It's just the type of facility
that the CIA wants to

photograph in enemy territory.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
As the pigeons head home,

their cameras start clicking.

♪ ♪

The snaps they take remain
top secret for over 40 years.

♪ ♪

Then, in 2019, a report on
this project is declassified,

and the results
are surprising.

- Declassified report
reveals pigeons are

actually surprisingly
good photographers.

The level of detail
from the pigeon cameras

is stunning,
especially compared to

what intelligence is used to
getting from their spy planes.

I mean, you can see vehicles,
you can see people,

you can see buildings,
all with crazy fine detail that

high altitude reconnaissance
would definitely miss.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] But the report
also reveals

not everyone at the CIA
was a fan.

[Dan] Now, a pigeon might
have an amazing sense

of direction when
it's time to come home,

but there are some drawbacks.

You can't order it to fly
over one specific building.

You can't say,
go over this missile silo

at a specific time.

- Ultimately,
the pigeon spy program

is an interesting artifact
of the Cold War.

But it's not anything that
has substantial success to it,

and the program
gets shut down.

- From the depths of the ocean
to the heights

of the Himalayas,
secret gadgets

have changed the rules
of the spy game.

And no invention is too strange
or too impossible

to be given a shot.

♪ ♪