Allen Dulles’s 73 Rules of Spycraft
“Some Elements of Intelligence Work” — better known as Allen Dulles’s 73 Rules of Spycraft — is an eight-page, single-spaced typewritten list of seventy-three precepts on tradecraft, security, and agent handling, written by Allen W. Dulles and published posthumously in Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies (Fall 2009) with an introduction by biographer James Srodes. 1
Allen Dulles and the document
Allen Dulles (1893–1969) was Director of Central Intelligence 1953–1961 — the longest-serving DCI and the first civilian to hold the post — after a wartime OSS career running operations against Nazi Germany from Bern (including the celebrated Fritz Kolbe / “George Wood” source). When he died in January 1969, Agency colleagues (Richard Helms, James Angleton, L.K. “Red” White, among others) searched his home and boxed his sensitive papers into the classified archives. Buried in the pile, Srodes later found the eight pages titled Some Elements of Intelligence Work — seventy-three precepts Dulles apparently used as the basis for informal lectures to young training officers, written in an unpolished, conversational voice. Srodes, whose biography Allen Dulles: Master of Spies was named AFIO’s Best Intelligence Book in 2000, published them with commentary in 2009. 2
The precepts as tradecraft folklore
The rules range from the minuscule to the philosophical. Organized roughly by theme:
- Security (1–13) — “the greatest of them all is security”; security as a habit of tiny daily disciplines (“the little things… oftenest give the game away”); the two greatest vices are carelessness and vanity; beware booze and romance.
- Personal discipline & communications (14–21) — the job “is lived,” never off-duty; treat every telephone conversation as listened to; avoid open post; “make a day’s journey rather than take a risk.”
- Safe houses & meetings (22–31) — be unremarkable (“looks draw looks”); punctuality; rendezvous after dark; never make initial contact in restaurants or bars; cemeteries, museums, and churches are good meeting grounds.
- Cover & tradecraft (32–40) — never overwork cover; recruit through indirection (“make the suggestion of possibilities come to him”); never take anyone for granted; “we live by deceiving others. Others live by deceiving us.”
- Agent handling (41–54) — be a real friend to agents but never let friendship outrank duty; compartment groups (“keep your lines separate”); the useful fiction of a harsh “They” in the background; never let an agent know he is indispensable.
- Organization & living the life (55–72) — groundwork before action; cover that fits your own character; “overestimate the opposition… never underestimate it.”
- Coda (73) — “Lastly, and above all — REMEMBER SECURITY.” 3
What makes the document distinctive is its provenance: unlike most tradecraft aphorism lists, this one has a named, senior author — the DCI himself — which makes it the documented anchor of the genre.
The opsec-folklore triangle
The 73 Rules sit in a triangle with two other lists in this wiki:
- moscow-rules — anonymous Cold War field folklore (no declassified source promulgates “the” Moscow Rules); popularized by Antonio and Jonna Mendez. Where the Moscow Rules are communal and unattributed, Dulles’s precepts are the same genre written down by a single senior author — overlapping doctrine (assume nothing / suspect everyone; keep options open / never irrevocably commit yourself; blend in / be the calm quiet person).
- ten-crack-commandments — the same opsec logic in an illegal market under hostile observation: compartment identity, never reveal capability or intent, vet trust. The structural parallel across espionage doctrine, field folklore, and street discipline is the point of collecting all three: they are independent solutions to the same defection-prone game.
Related
- moscow-rules — the anonymous counterpart
- ten-crack-commandments — the street-market counterpart
- cooperation-and-defection — the game-theoretic frame
- unknown-knowns — rule 1’s epistemology, shared with the Moscow Rules
- blockchain-c2-infrastructure — the dead drop as smart contract: public, durable, only the operator can edit
Sources
- Allen Dulles’s 73 Rules of Spycraft (Some Elements of Intelligence Work)
- CIA FOIA Electronic Reading Room
- Srodes, J. — Allen Dulles: Master of Spies (introduction to the Intelligencer publication of the precepts, Fall 2009)