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Critchfield moved on to the Middle East, one of the great Cold War battlegrounds. Records show he was instrumental in the military coup in Iraq that paved the way for Saddam Hussein's rise to power. State Department records declassified last year showed he also worked with the Dalai Lama on the "Free Tibet" movement, which was aimed at Communist China's claim to the region. From Hollywood to Harvard Square, that cause remains dear to the hearts of many.

Gehlen retired in 1968 to his home in Bavaria. Critchfield and his wife, Lois, a CIA veteran herself, continue to keep in touch with the man's family. Gehlen even dropped by the Pentagon after his retirement, much to Kelly's surprise.

"He came by to thank us," Kelly said with a chuckle. "Boy, we're talking old times now."

In reams of paper, a historical portrait

While Gehlen left behind a dubious legacy that is still being sorted out, the declassified files also uncovered a much lesser-known spy, a clerk in the German Foreign Ministry who fed Washington secrets that only Hitler's inner circle knew about, from the development of the V-2 rocket to a British security leak that threatened plans for the Normandy invasion.

Yet Fritz Kolbe wanted no money or fame, says his old CIA handler, Peter Sichel. Kolbe only wanted his old job back, but he implicated so many German officials - including one who committed suicide as a result - that he had to flee the country, settling in Switzerland on a modest CIA stipend.

"I had to get him out of the country because his life was in danger," Sichel said. "But he was very stubborn, very determined. He insisted on testifying for the Nuremburg trials. He was a man who just despised the Nazis."

Kolbe's legacy has a purity of purpose that few spies can match, particularly when war went from scorching to chilling, though any interpretation is subject to change. History is more about the present than the past, because each generation looks back with a hindsight shaped by the mood and morality of the moment.

The declassified files - more than 3 million pages and the most sensitive spy records ever opened to the public - cover every aspect of World War II and the onset of the Cold War, including the names of sources and the details of operations. Among the data are 300 of the agency's ultra-secret "name files" on specific individuals, including the dossier on Hitler himself.

"The stuff that's being released is terrific, and it's not just stuff related to war crimes . . ." said Steve Garfinkel, head of the Inter-Agency Working Group. "Once it's fully opened, I think people are going to be getting their PhD theses and novels from this [collection] for years to come . . . It reads like fiction."

The files probably will start more arguments than they settle as historians follow the trail back to some quick, but monumental decision made by people who had little idea what tomorrow would bring.

The passage of time has left even those who staked out the crude perimeter of the Cold War a bit perplexed.

"We're all asking ourselves, `What the hell good did it do?' " Kelly said. "It was a hell of a lot less romantic than people wanted to make it."

Mark Fritz's email address is mfritz@globe.com