He now claims it was part of the process which led to the dismantling of the Communist empire.

No handful of men in the world are smart enough to run this vast Communist empire.

With the fall of the Communist empire, the genre - and the nostalgia - have taken on a new lease on life.

"One day the collapse of the Communist empire would confirm this."

But what has been the national interest once the cold war ended and the threat of a growing Communist empire evaporated?

Theirs was the construction of a vast Communist empire.

And so, at the end of the cold war - just as the Communist empire was crumbling - we had no secret agents in Moscow.

With the Communist empire breaking down, there may be an opportunity to rebuild the global system in larger terms.

In the days of the Communist empire, it was committed by the left and the stupid.

With growth prospects like that, the world's last Communist empire could create more than its share of 21st- century tycoons.