I think there have been some successes, but part of their schtick is the drama that they alone can know of those and never get the public adoration they think they deserve ... sort of a, " I self-sacrifice and make myself holy thereby ".
Their organizational attitude very likely morphed over the generations. And decades of conflict with psychotics from the KGB and the Chinese MSS probably didn't do anything positive for the outlook of their field personnel.
Something to note here, however. There is no shortage of videos like this on Youtube etc. about the CIA. I would guess there are comparatively fewer about Russian organizations and probably next to none about the MSS. Point being the people generating these videos seem to happily overlook the f*kery of all the other countries out there. Absence of coverage doesn't mean they aren't getting up to evil of their own.
Their organizational attitude very likely morphed over the generations. And decades of conflict with psychotics from the KGB and the Chinese MSS probably didn't do anything positive for the outlook of their field personnel.
Something to note here, however. There is no shortage of videos like this on Youtube etc. about the CIA. I would guess there are comparatively fewer about Russian organizations and probably next to none about the MSS. Point being the people generating these videos seem to happily overlook the f*kery of all the other countries out there. Absence of coverage doesn't mean they aren't getting up to evil of their own.
Fire In The Hole