SMERSH (James Bond) V (the letter) in "Icebreaker". They return in a larger role in "No Deals, Mr. Bond", renamed Department Eight, Directorate S, a KGB sub-section. In the film series, Bond's archenemy became SPECTRE, which first appeared in Fleming's novel "Thunderball" (1961). SPECTRE is introduced in the first film, "Dr. No" (1962), in which Julius No explains to Bond that it is the acronym for the "SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion", the four great cornerstones of power. Film versions of novels where SMERSH appears substituted either SPECTRE or independent villains. Although twice referred to, SMERSH never appears in the
SPECTRE characters were at the centre of long-standing litigation between Kevin McClory and Ian Fleming over the film rights to "Thunderball" and the ownership of the organisation and its characters. In 1963, Fleming settled out of court with McClory, which awarded McClory the film rights to "Thunderball," although literary rights would stay with Fleming and thus allow continuation author John Gardner to use SPECTRE in a number of his novels. In 1963, Eon Productions producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made an agreement with McClory to adapt the novel into the fourth James Bond film, also stipulating that McClory would