The Australian newspaper the Telegraph offers a piece on the friendship of thriller writer Ian Fleming (seen in the above photo) and CIA Director Allen Dulles (seen in the below photo).
New documents show that the CIA copied gadgets from James Bond films like Goldfinger, while Bond author Ian Fleming talked up the agency in his books.
The University of Warwick has poured over declassified letters and interviews that show a close relationship between Fleming and former CIA director Allen Dulles.
Dr Christopher Moran has revealed the love-in between the pair that saw the CIA copy gadgets like the poison-tipped dagger shown in From Russia With Love. The letters between Dulles and Fleming also show the 007 author agreeing to include some glowing references about the CIA in his books.
“For a long time, the James Bond books had a monopoly on the CIA’s public image and the agency used this to its advantage,” Dr Moran said.
In a 1964 edition of Life Magazine, Dulles describes his meeting with the ‘brilliant and witty’ Fleming in London in 1959 where the author told him that the CIA was not doing enough in the area of 'special devices'.
e You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/movies/a-close-bond-cia-copied-007-gadgets-due-to-friendship-between-ian-fleming-and-allen-dulles/story-fni0bom1-1226680445019
Note: What the piece does not cover is the bond the two men had as both of them served in intelligence in World War II. Fleming was a British naval intelligence officer and Dulles served in the American OSS.
The Director of British Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Godfrey, and Commander Fleming met Dulles' boss, General "Wild Bill" Donovan during the war. Fleming provided a memo that offered what British intelligence thought the Americans should do in order to have an effective intelligence service.
In response to the memo, Donovan gave Fleming a handgun with the graved inscription, "For Special Services."
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