The Long and Ugly Reach of the CIA

The 2002 film, Agent of Influence, is now available on Amazon Prime.

It stars Christopher Plummer as John Watkins.

It is the true story of
Watkins who served as Canadian Ambassador to the USSR. Both Watkins and Canadian External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson worked doggedly to ease tensions with the Soviet Union and the West during the Cold War.

In 1955 Watkins organized a historic meeting between Pearson and Russian President Nikita Khrushchev. He, along with Pearson, was also a vocal objector to the US involvement in Vietnam.

In 1964 Watkins was secretly detained in a hotel in Montreal, Quebec, by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the US Central Intelligence Agency who accused him of being a Russian spy.

He died several days into the interrogation. However, the official obituary claimed Watkins had suffered a heart attack in the company of friends during a farewell supper celebrating his illustrious career.

This is a good one, well worth a watch.

 -RW