No victory (Beware - contains spoilers)

You bring up an interesting point. Smiley was not at the West Berlin bridge to be in on the "kill" but rather as a sense of duty to his old adversary...he HAD to be there. There was not the slightest bit of satisfaction.

Frankly, leCarre has Smiley so world-worn and profoundly uneasy about the whole Cold War spygame by this time, one has to wonder what does make Smiley happy. Was it the devotion to "Moscow Rules" by the General that Smiley was able to retrace his steps and find the "treasure" in the crook of the oak tree on Hampsted Heath? Or was it how easily his old friend and protege Peter Guillam picked up the bridle on very short notice to assist him in Paris? Or maybe that "Senior Bernardi" still sells art of...how we say..."dubious" provenance?

Think of Richard Burton at the end of another leCarre spy thriller, "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold." That was an operation that Smiley had been in on as a younger man. That last look on Burton's face in the last scene...it's on Smiley's face 25 years later, also at a Berlin Wall crossing.

I think that Smiley had the biggest inner pleasure revealed time and again, the old adage proven true during this latest Cold War battle...the more things change, the more they stay the same.

It's a great story and I return to it every six months or so like an expensive bottle of cabernet...to savor every moment.

Best regards.

CmdrCody

Yes, it was an empty victory. Like CmdrCody, I think Smiley was tired, as also witnessed by his actions regarding Ann (if I remember correctly).

You're right regarding the method of the victory. Le Carré has often had this discussion in his novels about the end justifying the means. Most Westerners think that their own intelligence agencies are lily-white, and the Soviets were monstrously evil in their methods. He has often tried to open the eyes of his readers to show them what espionage really entails: that the West is just as unsympathetic and sinister in their methods as the East, and both will sacrifice and do anything to win.

Smiley realizes what many Westerners don't: the Soviets are just normal people too, both stoop to the same tactics to achieve their goals, both are defending flawed/justifiable ideologies. Also, just like uncovering the mole in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy didn't guarantee British victory, so too Karla's defection will only deal a temporary blow in the grander scheme of Cold War espionage. If the two sides can't resolve their political differences, it will never end for the spies, the real soldiers/casualties. Not much to celebrate about.

The only second chance you get is to make the same mistake twice. - David Mamet

Smiley's restrained reaction at Karla's defection is due to the fact that he knows that each man has finally succeeded in destroying the other. Smiley's professional life and personal life are in ruins. Now, Karla is finished, too. And it was all because Karla had a heart where his daughter was concerned. Karla's Achilles Heel was the same as Smiley's: his humanity.

The one moment of pleasure I remember Smiley expressing (silently) was during the meeting with Saul Enderby. There is a moment when Saul says something to Guillam that signals his willingness to go along with Smiley's plan. Smiley picks up on that, gives a faint smile of satisfaction, and lets the meeting continue.

"I think Smiley would have been happier if he decided to come of his own volition rather than blackmail over his daughter, who is only a pawn in their game".

Well, I don't think Smiley thinks that this "fanatic" as he keeps calling him in this and Tinker, Tailor - would EVER come of his own volition - but I agree that he feels a deep sense of pain at using the Soviets' tactics to bring him over through this blackmail. For Smiley (and I think LeCarre) the use of such means is greatly troubling because it indicates to them that the moral difference between the systems is not as great as presumed.

This is one of the things I most dislike about LeCarre - whom I think a wonderful writer -- the difference between the systems was ENORMOUS. Whatever means were used in spycraft -- couldn't possibly diminish the chasm between the system pertaining in the West in the 20th century -- and that pertaining in the Soviet Union that resulted in deliberately starving 14 million to death in Ukraine and another 1 million in Kazakhstan, resulted in gulags throughout the century that killed further millions and simply ruined the lives of an estimated 18 million who passed through them, resulted in another 5 million killed in purges, a quick 100,000 rapes of German women in the invasion of Germany, resulted in the conquest of the Baltic Republics, resulted in the deportation to Siberia of huge numbers of people of different nationalities - Estonians and Chechnyans, Muslims of every nationality and Lithuanians, Romanians and Latvians, resulted in a half century long censorship, in an official bigotry against Jews, in the prevention of any true elections, in the proscription of denigration of religious worship, etc. To use blackmail once to stop a mass murderer from continuing his evil - hardly makes the two systems equivalent - it's just childish to think so.

Throughout the LeCarre novels there are moments when characters grant that nobody will "win" their dirty little war. The point is always to maintain balance between the contenders.

Within the confines of the Smiley trilogy, the Russians certainly win on points. For years the Haydon/Karla operation pulls the pants down of MI6. When the fiasco is eventually discovered, the British must further damage themselves by rolling up irrevocably contaminated assets.

The real life equivalent, of course, was Philby/Burgess/McClean/Blunt and that 5th bloke whose name always escapes me. The Russians irrevocably humiliating both sides of the Atlantic alliance. Discovering and stopping it did not unwrite the CI and espionage Russian triumphs. For whatever they were worth.

Yes, Smiley seems resigned, not triumphant, but I feel it comes from a different source: that the great project of his career is finally finished -- so what is left for him to do? Kind of like when a writer finishes a long and difficult work -- the feeling might not be triumph, but a kind of empty feeling: now finally, the great project that has motivated me all these years, is done.

I felt the same as most of the posters here, but I notice no one has brought up that sensitive topic: age.

Smiley is a nuanced, under-stated character thanks to the writing and the acting. It wasn't necessary to the story, but deliberately sprinkled through the ending are references to Smiley's age. His estranged wife mentions them being a retired old couple together. He is described as a rogue elephant, officers point out how methods have changed in the service, and he requires a nap twice.

Similarly, when Karla is walking across the bridge, his limp is noted. Someone notes he has probably had a stroke.

These characters are old adversaries, but they are also old. Smiley didn't shut down Karla when either were at their peak and the threat of new, younger English members of the circus is felt, to say nothing of the younger Soviet spies.

Le Carre was inviting us to be cynical; while Karla may have been a great spy conquest for someone, both he and Smiley had become pawns in rapidly changing cold-war game. How can Smiley feel closure? The circus changed upon his departure, the Soviets will surely recover too. It was too little, too late, like his wife's offer at reconciliation.

Smiley's method of getting Karla to defect was not as cruel as people make it out to be. Smiley appealed to Karla's love for his daughter. Karla's love for his daughter was not a *beep* in his armor. It was rather the evidence of Karla's humanity. As a result, Smiley did't pull any dirty strings in order to coerce Karla to defect. Smiley appealed to Karla's humanity, to his fatherhood and the fact, in choosing his daughter over the state, Karla was renouncing the principles that he had been living by all his life. The ground Karla had been standing was being cut away.

Karla would not resent being coerced out of Russia like this. He realized he had to choose his child over the state, and as such love for one's family trumps any political allegiance to a state. Karla would cooperate in interrogations. Smiley was Karla's archenemy and Smiley had won, and Karla had to respect that.