The issue: As the Cold War fades into memory, this new war is getting hotter

Spy swaps, political dissidents, espionage and secret diplomacy. The summer of 2010 is starting to remind us of the frozen winters of the Cold War.

SO FAR, WEÕVE had 11 people arrested for conspiring to act as secret agents for Russia. A spy swap is how these things have often ended. Cuba, the Soviet UnionÕs Cold War partner in our hemisphere, is talking about releasing 52 people imprisoned for challenging the government.

The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted four decades, and although the two superpowers challenged each other through proxies such as Cuba, they never fought directly in a major ÒhotÓ war. The Cold War remained a chilly military standoff because each side could destroy the other with nuclear weapons.

Both sides prepared for tank battles on the plains of Germany and across Europe, but while the soldiers trained for a battle that never came, the spies from both sides were going at it every day, just out of sight.

THERE WERE unwritten rules for Cold War spying, and mostly the warriors undercover took secrets and not lives. They sought the shadows, not attention.

Our gauzy memories of those Cold War times make it easy to be nostalgic and joke about Spies in the Suburbs, Boris and Natasha or the Sexy Spy.

Now the distant Cold War enemy has been replaced by terrorism. The truly dangerous spies, if you can call them that, work for no particular country and they donÕt play by our rules. They are not interested in stealing secrets; they want mass casualties and 24-hour news coverage. They are suicide spies.

AS THE COLD WAR fades into memory, this new war is only getting hotter.

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