Scott Johnson, writing for the New York Times explains how his father’s era of spying was simpler and safer than how spies operate today. He reminisces of the walks he had with his father, in Belgrade. Johnson saw his father stop and watch trees. He later discovered his father was a CIA operative. 

Those trees were, in effect, the 1970s equivalent of the gmail draft folders that the former C.I.A. director David H. Petraeus and his mistress, Paula Broadwell, shared to hide — or so they thought — their lovers’ tracks from prying eyes.

Excellent read.