CIA copied fictional James Bond gadgets for its own agents during the Cold War ...

CIA chief Allen Dulles and Ian Fleming regularly wrote to each other The U.S. spy agency copied at least two of Bond's gadgets, it's emerged One was the tracking device 007 uses in to trace Goldfinger's lair The other was the flick-knife shoes seen in From Russia With Love

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 19:57 EST, 17 July 2013 | UPDATED: 20:28 EST, 17 July 2013

CIA bosses copied gadget ideas from James Bond books and films for its own secret agents in the Fifties and Sixties, new research has revealed.

In return, the boss of the American secret service may have persuaded author Ian Fleming not to pension off his most famous creation at the height of his popularity.

U.S. spy chiefs developed their own version of two Bond devices it had seen, one used by 007 in Goldfinger, the other used by one of his enemies in From Russia With Love.

The first is the pocket size, magnetic tracking device which, in the film, Sean Connery subtly slips into the boot of Goldfinger's Rolls Royce to track him down after their golf match.

The second is the spring loaded poison-tipped blades which flick out from the shoes of villainess Rosa Klebb as she tries to stab Bond in From Russia With Love.

The revelations come from newly declassified letters between Bond author Ian Fleming and CIA chief Allen Dulles, as well as published interviews with the legendary American spymaster.

And it suggests that the Americans successfully managed to produce their own version of Rosa Klebb's blades but were not so successful in making a Goldfinger-style tracking device.

Ironically, both were used at the height of the Cold War when there was very little love from Russia towards the West.

The letters and interviews have been analysed by Dr Christopher Moran of the University of Warwick for the specialist publication Journal of Cold War Studies.

And they reveal the relationship between Fleming and Dulles mirrored the warm friendship between Bond and his fictional CIA buddy Felix Leiter in many of the books and films.

The two got on so well that Dulles even managed to persuade Fleming to use his books to boost the CIA's image around the world, something which was also seen in the films.

Dr Moran said: 'There was a surprising two-way influence between the CIA and the James Bond novels during the Cold War, stemming from the mutual admiration between Allen Dulles and Ian Fleming.

'This ranged from the copying of devices, such as the poison-tipped dagger shoe in From Russia With Love, to the agency using the 007 novels to improve its public profile.

'It's even more striking that this was going on at time when mentioning the CIA was strictly off-limits for the US media and cultural establishment, whereas Fleming, as a British author, could say what he liked.

'For a long time, the James Bond books had a monopoly on the CIA's public image and the agency used this to its advantage.'

Fleming and Dulles communicated regularly by letter. Dulles was a fan of the novels and also spoke about them warmly in published interviews with magazines.

One letter shows Dulles persuading Fleming not to pension Bond off in 1963, just a year after the release of the first 007 movie, Dr No, had made the character a worldwide sensation.

Another has Fleming telling Dulles that the CIA needed to come up with more gadgets and devices if it wanted to take a lead in the Cold War.