The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my

The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my

Aldrich Ames
22/09/2025
18/10/2025

The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?

(1 evaluate)
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my
Mục lục nội dung
[ẩn]

Yes — that quote is attributed to Aldrich Ames, the former CIA officer who became one of the most notorious spies for the Soviet Union and later Russia.

“The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my information inadequate to help them to victory, or did it play no particular role in their failure to achieve victory?”
— Aldrich Ames

Context and Meaning

Ames made this remark after his arrest in 1994 for espionage. It reflects his cynical and self-reflective attitude toward his betrayal and its consequences. Having sold sensitive U.S. intelligence to the KGB over nearly a decade, Ames’s espionage caused significant damage — leading to the exposure and deaths of several American assets in the Soviet Union.

In this quote, he questions whether his actions truly changed the course of the Cold War, implying that despite his extensive spying, the Soviet Union ultimately collapsed, and thus his betrayal may have been futile. It captures his detached, rationalizing tone, suggesting both an awareness of his moral failure and an attempt to frame it within historical inevitability.

Aldrich Ames
Aldrich Ames

American - Criminal Born: June 19, 1941

With the author

Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something or has something that you can induce them secretly to give to you. That almost always involves a betrayal of trust.

Aldrich Ames

The betrayal of trust carries a heavy taboo.

Aldrich Ames

The resistance of policy-makers to intelligence is not just founded on an ideological presupposition. They distrust intelligence sources and intelligence officials because they don't understand what the real problems are.

Aldrich Ames

Foreign Ministry guys don't become agents. Party officials, the Foreign Ministry nerds, tend not to volunteer to Western intelligence agencies.

Aldrich Ames

We had periodic crises in this country when the technical intelligence didn't support the policy. We had the bomber gap, the missile gap.

Aldrich Ames

I found that our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political or economic intelligence on the Soviet Union.

Aldrich Ames

There are so many things a large intelligence espionage organization can do to justify its existence, that people can get promotions for, because it could result in results.

Aldrich Ames

Our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political or economic intelligence on the Soviet Union.

Aldrich Ames

Same category

Cheerfully fessing up to our failures turns crazy mind off, humility and compassion on. I learned this in a karate dojo that had a strange tradition. Everyone there loved recounting failure stories, and after an evening of smacking one another, we'd sit and have a beer while the students swapped tales of martial arts disaster.

Martha Beck

Success is boring... failure is exciting and more entertaining.

Anupam Kher

You don't go into anything contemplating failure, because if you did, you wouldn't make it.

Simon Cowell

Most people are afraid of failure. I love failure because it tells me where to go next.

Bryson DeChambeau

Educational institutes can no longer be prizes in church politics or furnish berths for failure in other walks of life.

E. Franklin Frazier

Y'know, the real reason why I was such a failure in the sense of being unable to make any sort of a living was because I was really not motivated. I had no motivation.

Paul Twitchell

I have never described the time I was in Doctor Who as anything except a kind of ecstatic success, but all the rest has been rather a muddle and a disappointment. Compared to Doctor Who, it has been an outrageous failure really - it's so boring.

Tom Baker

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

Elbert Hubbard
Tocpics Related

Oliver Cromwell Quotes

W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Tom Peters Quotes

Amitava Kumar Quotes

Thankful Quotes

Dennis Hastert Quotes

Ethel Merman Quotes

Winston Churchill Quotes

Notable authors

Bhagat Singh

Rick James

Volodymyr Zelensky

Drew Pomeranz

Edward Everett Hale

Jalal Talabani

Wolfgang Paul

Tom Coburn

Have 0 Comment The Soviet Union did not achieve victory over the West, so was my

AAdministratorAdministrator

Welcome, honored guests. Please leave a comment, we will respond soon

Reply.
Information sender
Leave the question
Click here to rate
Information sender