LYNN NEARY, Host:
And it all culminated yesterday on an airport tarmac in Vienna. The U.S. traded 10 Russian agents for four Russians accused of spying for the West. The echoes of the Cold War were inescapable, including a kind of espionage code of honor.
JEFFREY SMITH: If a person agrees to be an agent for the U.S. intelligence community, we have an obligation to him or her to try to get them out. This is a moral obligation.
NEARY: Former State Department lawyer Jeffrey Smith. During the Cold War, Smith negotiated half a dozen spy swaps, though he says all those involved were not necessarily spies.
SMITH: But the Soviet Union would always try to assert that people we were getting out who were genuine dissidents like Natan Sharansky, for example, were, in fact, spies when they weren't. So it was always a bit of a dilemma for the United States and the West as to whether we would include dissidents in exchanges where there were real spies being traded.
NEARY: Well, during the Cold War, how did this work? I mean, how did the decision get made about who would be exchanged?
SMITH: So we would be talking about one name, but pointing to another. It was a way of him signaling to me what his bottom line was that he had gotten and his negotiating instructions. So we began to engage in the dance of the two pens.
NEARY: What kind of personal relationship did you have with him, friendship (unintelligible)?
SMITH: Oh, a very - a good friendship developed over time. We would bring one another gifts. I remember one Christmas, we took him some frozen Butterball turkeys, because they were hard to get in the East. And we developed a friendship.
NEARY: Wow. Now I know you were present at some of the actual exchanges...
SMITH: Yes.
NEARY: ...when the - you know, from a distance, we are reading about it on paper or hearing it on the radio or seeing it on TV, it always seemed very dramatic. You know, stuff of spy novels. Was it as dramatic as it seemed from a distance?
SMITH: But what was exciting was when people would come across. The sheer joy of coming into freedom in the West was what made it worthwhile.
NEARY: Was there one in particular that you remember?
SMITH: Soretzky came bounding across and we got in the car and I said we're taking him to the hospital for checkup and treatment. And he said, why. And I said, well, Vogel had told us that you had all of these maladies. Oh, he said, I was malingering. He said, I am a Prussian and I agreed to work for your government because I hated the Russians and I was doing this for patriotic reasons. And so, his whole term of imprisonment, he faked these injuries in order to maintain his own discipline, but also as a way of continuing to protest what he saw as Russian occupation of his country.
NEARY: Jeffrey Smith, thanks so much for joining us.
SMITH: You're very welcome.
NEARY: Though this week's spy exchange drew worldwide attention, the White House has had little to say about it publicly. But last night, Vice President Joe Biden broke the silence during an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO")
JAY LENO: Now this Russian woman here, let me ask you, and you would know this, Mr. Vice President. Do we have any spies that hot?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
JOSEPH BIDEN: Let me make it clear, it wasn't my idea to send her back. Wasn't mine.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
NEARY: Vice President Joe Biden speaking with Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show."
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