Comment by halicarnassus

It's a boring stereotype of good and evil, which threw almost half the world's population from the wrong side of the iron curtain under the bus.

It chastises the behavior of those people while praising their own behavior, even though it's essentially the same.

It sees heroes in spies, even though they are villains.

Each side thinks, that they are on the right side.

Edit: Even though the novel tries to point this out a little, it still uses all of the above to great effect.