203. A Diplomat’s Journey in Cold War Romania with Ernest Latham

*Ernest joined us via telephone call, so some parts of this interview may be difficult to understand due to unreliable audio quality. We apologize for the inconvenience.Today's guest is Ernest Latham. Ernest is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Roosevelt University. During his career with the US State Department, Ernest worked all over the world, including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and West Germany. From 1983 to 1987, he was assigned to the US Embassy in Bucharest, Romania as a cultural attache where he was under constant surveillance by the Romanian Securitate Intelligence Organization as a suspected CIA case officer.Following his retirement from the State Department and the collapse of the Romanian government at the end of the Cold War, Ernest was able to get access to the counterintelligence file compiled by the Securitate in the 1980s. This was an incredibly rare opportunity to find out just what a foreign intelligence organization learned and surmised about an American government employee in their country. He's here today to discuss his years with the State Department in Romania.Connect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.History by MailWho knew? Not me! Learn something new every month. Use code JUSTIN10 for 10% off your subscription.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.