The American traitor John Walker Jr. once said the best way to hide a lie is by wrapping it in layers of truth. It’s a trick that not only serves spies, but also clever Hollywood scriptwriters. Such is the case with The Good Shepherd, a cloak-and-dagger thriller that purports to tell the story of the Central Intelligence Agency’s early days as seen through the eyes and career of Edward Wilson, the movie’s main character. Played by Matt Damon, Wilson is patterned after the legendary spy-catcher, James Jesus Angleton.
But how much of the movie is true and how much is Hollywood sizzle?
Few CIA spooks have received as much attention as Angleton. None has ever been as controversial. His critics claim his paranoid-fueled hunt for a Soviet KGB mole burrowed inside the CIA almost destroyed the agency when Angleton ran its counter-intelligence operations from 1948 until he was forced to resign in 1975. His admirers insist Angleton’s unflinching eye kept the CIA from being penetrated by skilled KGB agents during the height of the Cold War.
A tall, stooped chain-smoker, who usually dressed in black and whose hobbies were writing poetry and growing orchids, Angleton was known by the codename “Mother” and has been the inspiration behind characters in numerous spy novels. His controversial career has been recounted in a half dozen nonfiction books too, so it is not surprising that veteran scriptwriter, Eric Roth, turned to Angleton’s life story when penning The Good Shepherd.
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