Suicide weapons

Throughout the Cold War, interrogation techniques reached ever-increasing heights of psychological, physiological and pharmaceutical sophistication. Despite the Hollywood fantasy of a heroic agent stoically refusing to answer questions under torture, it quickly became clear that no one could long withstand a technically skilled and ruthless interrogator.

Spies operating behind enemy lines might be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice and kill themselves to avoid giving up vital information or compromising the safety of fellow agents.

Suicide weapons, easily concealable and quickly lethal, were developed as a last resort should capture become inevitable. Fast-acting poisons that killed within seconds could be delivered in the form of a capsule, a glass ampule full of liquid poison, or a poison-tipped pin.

Suicide weapons are a less-than-perfect defense and are only as effective as the resolve of the operative; at the show trial of downed U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers, his poison pin was on display, debunking the U.S. claim that his was a weather flight.