Peter Sichel in The Last Spy

THE LAST SPY
Directed by Katherina Otto-Bernstein
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆☆

THIS extraordinary story of an extraordinary man is more than a documentary. It is an observation post from which we can see the paths we have travelled to reach where we are today – and perhaps be reminded about the easy step there is from Capitalism to Fascism.

Peter Sichel was the Berlin chief of the CIA and while it is fascinating to hear the origins of the Cold War, much of this is already documented. What makes this all the more interesting is Sichel’s musings on how good intelligence was used for nefarious means.

The elevation of the Dulles brothers in the American political sphere is unpicked: John Foster was the secretary of state while Allen was head of the CIA. They employed a muscular, evangelical Christianity and saw Communism as an evil sect they were on a crusade to destroy.

Sichel shows how this madness infected American politics, and the parallels between the Christian / Fascist axis at play in the USA today cannot be ignored.
Peter was born in Germany and his family established a successful wine business: they had offices in Bordeaux, London and New York.

Their Jewishness was traditional rather than religious: synagogue was for New Year and Yom Kippur.

The family escaped to New York as war began, and Sichel’s mastery of French and German saw him enlist and become an intelligence officer.

As head of the CIA in Berlin, and we watch as the CIA shifted from a tool to safeguard democracy to subverting democracy: for example, the CIA made sure that Italy did not vote for a left-wing government in the immediate post-war years. They not only meddled with elections, they took out democratic governments.

We follow Peter’s career and his take on the failings of politicians to process intelligence and act on it in a sensible manner.

It’s not so much a case of excusing the spooks for their damage they cause, rather than shifting the blame upwards to the political heads who saw the CIA as a tool in the ideological struggles between Commun­ism and Neo-Liberalism.

And like all good spy films, this documentary comes with a wonderful twist.

Peter is lucid, thoughtful and funny: the personification of a warning from history.

This is a sobering piece on missed opportunities to practice what we preach in liberal democracies, and the warnings we have ignored and continue to do so today about how to craft a safe and equal world for all.