A Letter From the Publisher: Apr. 20, 1987

The trench coat is the unofficial uniform of two professions: foreign correspondent and intelligence agent. TIME National Security Correspondent Bruce van Voorst, who reported on this week's cover stories about the Marine spy scandal and the state of high-tech surveillance, knows intimately the wardrobe of both jobs. In 1955, fresh out of the University of Michigan with a & master's degree in Soviet studies, Van Voorst mulled over offers from the State Department and the CIA. The lure of the trench coat won out.

Even though he was hired as a political analyst, Van Voorst, like all other new CIA officers,...

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