An Act of War?

Well I haven't seen the film, but I have just read the book - which I enjoyed enormously. Therefore my comments apply to the book, not the film (and may or may not constitute spoilers!)

As I understood it, the (unnamed) "Department" headed by Leclerc was indeed out of date, and operating (rather ineptly) on WWII principles. Unbenownst to them, they were being (at least partially) manipulated by the rather more modern and subtle Circus, headed by "Control" and Smiley. There is a suggestion that the Circus wanted the Department discredited and disbanded, as a rival organisation. Therefore they made sure that Leiser was unarmed and likely to be caught. Furthermore, they made sure he was using only archaic radio equipment, which would (a) be more likely to give him away (b) be an alibi - they could claim that it was an obvious "plant" by the Communists, and (c) not risk their latest technology.

It also seems that there never was a rocket site, and that the photographic evidence for it was provided by either an unreliable double agent, or a Circus stooge.

And Control got what he wanted - the Department would be subsumed into the Circus, and its intelligence made available to it. Leclerc and Haldane rather cynically accepted this, knowing they would have jobs in the new organisation. Meanwhile, Avery was left distraught and disillusioned by the cynicism that could sacrifice Leiser so casually.

It's a superb book, better in some ways (in my opinion) than its celebrated predecessor "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", and decisively laid to rest the James Bond school of spy fantasy in favour of a new cold war brutality.

It seems this sort of thing happened in the 1940s and 1950s if not later.
Several books about MI6 tell of agents being parachute dropped into the Baltic states and Albania and agents were placed in the Baltic states by former German E boats operating from British occupied northern Germany.
The Americans and the French did similar things.
Is it fair to say that the methods were out of date?,not in the late 1940s perhaps but probably by the late 1950s.
They stopped doing this sort of stuff because the Soviet Bloc police state organisation was a lot better than the nazi organisations in occupied Europe and I think also the fear of starting World War 111?


But the Soviet bloc did stuff like this.
There was a great BBC series years ago called SLEEPERS.
It was inspired by the find of a Russian radio in a field in Wales,there were spies and trained saboteurs in the UK and other Western countries.
Thank god for Harry Pearce.