The key is that the employment agency seems to be connected to British intelligence and they send Leamas to the Occulr Library to work alongside the beautiful, lonely Nan.
She is certainly meant to be the 'communist dupe' that she is but the Brits may have played on this from the beginning with Leamas.
I don't think the British could have known in advance that Nan would be interested in a relationship with Leamas. They simply took advantage of the relationship after it happened. Otherwise, they would have devised another plan.
Also, Leamas seems genuinely surprised after he finds out that Mundt is a double agent and realizes how he and Nan were manipulated.
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You got your mind right, Luke?
If I remember from the book, Leamas seems to remember the face of the employment agency fellow from sometime in the past (i.e. circus). This would mean the job was intentional and that they hoped for some kind of spark with the communist girl and Leamas. Maybe far fetched.
shareNot so far-fetched. Consider that the British surely had tabs on all Communist sympathizers in England. They simply narrowed the list down to the most vulnerable female and arranged a job for Alec wherever she happened to work, hoping that a relationship would develop.
Even if it didn't, Smiley could still theoretically call on her, make some sort of large payment, and then forward that information to Mundt to use later against Fiedler at the trial. All they really needed to do was establish that Leamas was still working for MI5 in some surreptitious manner after he claimed he had been fired.
I didn't think of that! Just that they were in proximity and then she received mone from Smiley would have set the plan in motion even if they hadn't had an affair. Very clever thinking. I will recommend you for a promotion from Control.
shareYeah, there was another thread which speculated that 'Mr. Pitt' at the employment agency was one of Control's operatives. I'd say it's a foregone conclusion. In fact, Mr. Pitt is really the lynch-pin of the whole operation. It was critical to establish some sort of thinly disguised compensation arrangement to Leamas so he could later be discredited to Mundt, and it was likely Pitt's job to facilitate that. Without a 'mole' at the employment agency, it would have been more difficult.
In fact, I would imagine that 'the Colonel' who apparently runs the library and "doesn't hold with the Communists" (as described by librarian Miss Crail) would have been involved in some minor way, as well, probably by making sure there was a job opening for Leamas. I would imagine that the library job itself had never been known to the real employees of the agency and was something known only between Control, Pitt, the Colonel, and Smiley.
The point is, the overall plot to discredit Fiedler and save Mundt was even more intricate and involved than would first appear.
The real question is how did Leamas come to go to the employment agency? Was he sent there by Control, or did he go on his own? I would imagine the latter since Mundt's lawyer said that Leamas had no money, only debts.
Agree with all you say and yes, Leamas DEFINITELY had to be sent or steered there.
shareThere was a chance (albeit a minute one) that Leamas might have beaten up the grocer Patmore before meeting Nan (or anyone else, for that matter). He would have been sent to prison and the East Germans could have recruited him before there would be anyone Control and Smiley could have cultivated to use to discredit Leamas later.
But that presumes that Leamas had sufficient funds to support himself (and keep him in liquor) between the time he left MI5 and the East Germans could get to him. While an unlikely scenario, one would think that after all the years of government service Leamas had put in, he'd have saved something.
It just one more facet of a very intricate plan.
In the book, it was specified at the end that his relationship with Nan was not planned, that Control/Smiley saw it and took advantage to their own gain.
sharele Carre has admitted that he never revealed any real secrets employed by MI6 in their operations in order for the book to be published. Never underestimate the complexity of a British run intelligence operation. The film "Where Eagles Dare" contains a masterful intelligence plot although too many Nazis allow themselves to be mowed down by Burton and Eastwood.
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