FX's New Soviet Spy Drama 'The Americans' Is Great - But Is It Realistic?

Adam Taylor at the Business Insider asks former CIA officer Peter Earnest for his take on the TV spy program The Americans.

"The Americans," a Soviet spy drama currently airing on FX, has been earning plaudits since it debuted in January.

The show follows the lives of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, a seemingly all-American couple living in D.C. with two kids in the early '80s, who are really Russian-born Soviet spies.

It's a great story, but the question on everyone's mind after watching the show is whether anything like this actually happened.

To answer this question, we asked Peter Earnest, the founding executive director of D.C.'s International Spy Museum and a 35-year CIA spy veteran. He spent 25 years as a case officer in the agency's Clandestine Service, conducting intelligence collection and covert action operations.

He's also a fan of "The Americans," telling us he DVRs the episodes.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-realistic-is-the-americans-2013-4

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine interview with Peter Earnest on the myth, mystique and history of espionage via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum3.jpg