According to former CIA officer Haviland Smith,Hoffman (2015), p.19: Smith was COS in Prague 1958-1960. "[Blee] was the architect of the program that turned the clandestine service back on target against the Soviets after all the years of Angleton."The New York Times, quote, ¶ 7. Smith and other CIA agents, particularly Burton Gerber and David Forden, had worked to innovate a new generation of spy tradecraft. It made success more likely for American espionage activity in the "hostile, surveillance-heavy environment" behind the iron curtain. The new Gerber rules for espionage in the Soviet block also meant "check out a volunteer, don't dismiss him out of hand."Hoffman (2015), pp. 17-24 (new tradecraft), p.19 ("surveillance-heavy" quote), p.48 (Gerber rules), pp. 19-22, 55 (Smith), p. 22 (Forden), pp. 17-19, 22-24 (Gerber). In January 1980, Gerber became COS in Moscow (p. 102-103).
