The operation, depicted in the film Argo, used a fake sci-fi movie scout team to smuggle six American diplomats out of Tehran during the hostage crisis.

Surgeons implanted a microphone in a cat's ear and a transmitter in its skull to eavesdrop on Soviet officials, but the project was deemed a failure by 1967.

Located inside the active intelligence compound in Langley, the museum holds thousands of declassified spy gadgets but can only be visited by agency personnel.

Under the cover of deep-sea mining, the Hughes Glomar Explorer ship was custom-built to lift the K-129 nuclear sub from a depth of 16,000 feet.