Since the last post was on James Bond 007 and the area of government espionage field agents, I decided that this post was appropriate to follow suit. It seems that about 8 years ago the british security and intelligence agency MI-5 decided to impose a height restriction on potential applicants who decide to go into active field duty.
We see articles from sources like The Telegraph UK , a 007 forum, another James Bond 007 website, and also CNN who basically use the source as their story. We get the small entire story from source #1.
From source 2…
Alec 006 wrote:
The short/tall thing is a funny consideration.
Because MI5, and unofficially MI6 have height restrictions on officers, they do not want their people to be too tall. Standing out in a crowd is a disadvantage in the real world of the Secret Intelligence Services.
This is not strictly correct. Whilst there is a restriction on the height of surveillance operatives (frequently referred to as ‘Watchers’ in novels) so as not to stand out in a crowd, 5′ 11″ if you’re interested, this does not apply to intelligence officers which 007 would be classed as.
From source 3…
New guidelines for MI5 – the UK`s domestic intelligence service (whereas James Bond `works` for MI6) – stipulate that Britons applying to be field agents should be no taller than 5ft 11ins (1.8 m) so they don`t stand out, Britain`s Sunday Telegraph reported.
“You should be able to blend into the background. Applicants would ideally be no taller than 5ft 11ins for men and 5ft 8ins (1.73 m) for women,” the application form reads.
Britain is recruiting 1,000 new spies over the next few years to MI5 to bring the service`s numbers up to 3,000
Personal thoughts: From an intelligence and security point of view, I would say that it may be a reasonable idea to keep applicants below a certain height. As most people realize, many countries in the world have height average below what you would find in man European nations. If you were to bring a male at 6′ 3″ who would be considered tall in the USA or UK to a place like Bolivia, Mexico, Pakistan, or Turkey who is supposed to be in hiding, it would probably be not such a good idea since most people in developing countries, especially in south american or asian countries are on average shorter. This would make the person trying to blend in look extremely big and draw more attention to themselves. In general, when people walk down the street, there is four types of first impression qualities which would cause people who have never seen you before and just walking by you to stop and want to do a possible 2nd or 3rd take on your face, body, or clothing.
1. You are in the extremes of stature, too tall or short. – I know that every time I see a really tall or really short person I have a momentary focus on them.
2. You are extremely attractive. Being attractive and trying to blend into a crowd is close to impossible. – I would recommend that potential espionage agents who are in the filed trying to blend in be average in facial attractiveness.
3. You are of a different color or face than the people you are surrounded by. ie. If you are a white caucasian in a crowd in North Korean, which is around 99.999% pure blood korean.
4. You have some clear disfigurement which makes people stop. ie. a limp in walking, a missing arm, a missing eye, a big scare across the face.
The requirement the MI-5 set was for people to be no more than 1.80 meters tall which is 5′ 11″ which is probably the exact height of the average native caucasian UK male. This means that they are most likely to be overlooked if in a crowd. While obviously it is not a big deal in the UK to maybe find agents who are up to the 6’0-‘6’1″ range, I would say it is not a good idea to find anyone taller if they plan to try to blend in with locals if they are going to go into the field in many developing nations.
