Currently on exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, California, Spies: Secrets from the CIA, KGB and Hollywood is the result of an extraordinary collaborative effort between the CIA Museum/Center for the Study of Intelligence, the National Archives and several private collectors, including espionage historian H. Keith Melton, to explore the subject of intelligence as an instrument in the Presidential decision making process. “This exhibit is a great way for visitors to get a behind-the-scenes perspective of how intelligence is used to assist the government in making informed decisions vital to national security,” said Reagan Library Director, Duke Blackwood. The exhibit offers an inside look at our nation’s history of intelligence gathering and clandestine operations.
The tools and artifacts of espionage from the Revolutionary War through the Cold War are displayed with artistic drama in the four galleries devoted to the exhibit.
The secret world of real spies meets the fantasy world of reel spies in the second gallery in the form of three costumed mannequins:
The largest artifact in the exhibit greets the visitor at the beginning of the third gallery.
As a contrast with the real story of espionage, examples of Hollywood’s version of secret agent tools are displayed in the fourth gallery in an entertaining look at how Hollywood viewed the world of intelligence during the Cold War. On loan from the Spy-Fi Archives of Hollywood Screenwriter Danny Biederman, after previously being displayed at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia in 2000, are:
Lloyd Salvetti, Director of the Center for the Study of Intelligence represented DCI George Tenet at the exhibit opening Saturday, 16 February 2002. In his keynote speech, Mr. Salvetti said, “…the examples of tradecraft displayed here are only some of the tools of our trade. What is more important to remember is that the CIA and the rest of the Intelligence Community exist to give accurate, timely and comprehensive intelligence to the President of the United States and to his national security team so that they can deal with threats to our nation’s security and to its values.” He observed that President Reagan “was a voracious consumer of intelligence. He set aside 30 minutes every day, from 0930 to 1000, for a national security briefing. At the end of each session, the President received a maroon, leather-bound book with the President’s Daily Brief, or PDB, in it.” For this exhibit, the PDB staff agreed to loan one of the blue leather binders it prepares for President Bush six days a week. The fact of the existence of the PDB was classified until the early 1990s. This exhibit provides the visitor with a rare glimpse of this unique item, the contents of which, of course, had to remain in the vault at CIA Headquarters.
The collaboration between the Presidential Libraries and the CIA Museum/Center for the Study of Intelligence is an initiative to share with the American people the pride we in the Central Intelligence Agency have for the role intelligence plays in helping the President achieve his national security objectives, and to impart a better understanding of the craft of intelligence. The exhibit will be at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, California through 14 July 2002.