A lot of doubters in this thread, but the linked interview [1] answers most of the questions. Wikipedia corroborate the story with links to New York Time [2] -

A lot of doubters in this thread, but the linked interview [1] answers most of the questions. Wikipedia corroborate the story with links to New York Time [2] - USSR had opened up for tourists in cars as long as they stayed on designated highways (not unsimilar to North Korea and their guided tours) - Makinen had already visited the USSR before being contacted by the CIA I don't think it is unreasonable to believe a young man would greatly underestimate a risk and do something crazy just because he is patriotic. I do think it is absolutely irresponsible of the CIA to recruit young people like this, and someone in the CIA ought to go to prison for it. I also think the file on Makinen is absolutely lovely, and I wish the article would link to a full copy of the file. [1] https://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i7/Chemistry-Spy-Story.html https://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i7/Chemistry-Spy-Story.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Makinen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Makinen