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Epcot meets The Departed

The Departed

Image: Warner Bros.

Have you seen The Departed, the 2006 movie directed by Martin Scorsese that stars Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio? Since it earned a lot of money and won Best Picture at the 79th Academy Awards, the answer is likely yes. Just in case you haven’t, the central conceit of the film is that the mob and the police are always fighting.

Since both organizations are wary of spies, each one tries a new kind of infiltration. They train someone impossibly young to join the other side too early to seem like a spy. Since each group has the same idea and the two young spies know one another, they cancel each other out, leading to chaos, bloodshed, and a confused audience wondering aloud when Mark Wahlberg learned to act.

The whole conceit seems ludicrous, but it’s actually based in fact. One of the best ways for moles to become spies surreptitiously is by joining at such a young age that they avoid suspicion. That’s because their integration seems fluid and organic rather than forced. Does the premise sound comical? Of course. Still, if you’re professionally obligated to worry about everything, this sadly counts.

The security flaw of EPCOT Center

Epcot

Image: Kelly Walker, Flickr (license)

During the construction phase of Walt Disney World’s second gate, Disney hired 10,000 builders. The government had no cause to worry about any particular individual, yet they cast a wary eye on the entirety of the company’s hiring practices for the Florida Project.

From the perspective of a government agent, Magic Kingdom attracted 13.2 million guests in 1981. While there was a downturn to 12.6 million in 1982, that’s still a massive amount of people visiting the southernmost state on the East Coast. The introduction of EPCOT Center could theoretically double attendance for the region, which it did. In 1983, 22.7 million people visited Walt Disney World, and that number increased to 23.9 million by 1986. The second gate gave tourists twice as many reasons to visit Central Florida.

What’s scary about that notion? The distance from Miami to Orlando is 235 miles. The distance from Miami to Cuba is 330 miles. EPCOT Center opened only 21 years after the Bay of Pigs conflict. That’s roughly the same time gap from the release of the original Toy Story until today. Sure, it’s a great deal of time, but for something as unforgettable as the United States and Russia reaching the brink of nuclear war, it’s nowhere near enough time to forget.

So, from the FBI’s point of view, about 10 million more people were ready to visit a place where 10,000 construction workers were currently breaking ground on a revolutionary project, EPCOT Center. The government had no way to block people from going, and they had no way of knowing the intentions of any potential guests. Also, the location Walt Disney meticulously selected for Project X inconveniently happened to be one of the closest major cities to a communist country. And that wasn’t even the worst part.

No World’s Fair without China

China Pavilion

In culling the list shortlist of countries for a permanent World’s Fair, Disney executives quickly realized the obvious. After Greece and Africa, China provides the oldest, most fascinating civilization on the planet. They simply couldn’t build a structure like EPCOT Center then exclude China. It would render irrelevant everything they had done and were hoping to accomplish.

This decision was like waving a red flag in front of a bull to government law enforcement officials. Now, EPCOT Center wasn’t simply a security risk due to the population. It was also going to be authentic in tone, highlighting the ideals and beliefs of a people whose very way of life seemed decidedly un-American to the CIA and FBI in the late 1970s. What Disney proposed was the equivalent of not only embracing an enemy thousands of miles away but also inviting many of them into the United States as permanent guests. Sure, it’s the alarmist evaluation of the matter, but FBI and CIA employees are paid to do exactly that.

Border patrol

China merchandise

Beginning in 1979, the federal government took such an interest in Walt Disney World that they worried Disney employees might notice. Despite this concern, the local Tampa Bay field office for the FBI requested more manpower and authorized man-hours.

Initially, the most troubling worry was that Disney would select Russia as one of the first countries represented at EPCOT Center. After Disney decided to honor their founder’s wishes by resisting this possibility, the FBI saw a different shadow. They carefully studied Disney’s plans for the various international pavilions. Something jumped out at them. Actual residents of foreign countries would become de facto citizens of the United States.

Disney planned to host a series of student ambassadors in the various housing facilities onsite. In other words, the communists would have the ability to spread their dogma to people from other countries. Disney named their plan to have natives of each nation work at the pavilions as the World Showcase Fellowship Program. This innocuous idea, one largely involving authenticity, scared a lot of people.

The particular anxiety was that the Chinese who were invited guests of America would spend a lot of time attempting to indoctrinate citizens. The FBI now perceived Walt Disney World, the Most Magical Place on Earth, as one of the most dangerous security breaches in the continental United States.

 
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Comments

Makes you wonder if the FBI and Homeland Security is still keeping tabs on the China pavilion to this day.

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