What is the name for a person who betrays their country? [closed]

Solution 1:

Simply a traitor.

traitor, NOUN
A person who betrays someone or something, such as a friend, cause, or principle:

If they co-operate with the enemy then they could be a collaborator aka a quisling (after Vidkun Quisling).

If they are secretly sympathetic to or working for the enemy (while appearing to be staunchly loyal) then they are a fifth columnist: the 'enemy within'.

If working directly for the enemy then they are a spy; if merely sympathetic to the enemy's goals then they are a fellow traveller; if they are naively fooled by enemy propaganda into promoting the enemy's goals then they could be termed a useful idiot ('useful' in this case means 'useful to the enemy').

If they change sides then you could describe them as a turncoat. Benedict Arnold is often mentioned in this context.

If you want to be really vehement then you could call a traitor a Judas.

If they give way to factionalism (rival groups within a larger movement) then they are a splitter.

If I display an excess of zeal in my hunt for traitors then I am conducting a with-hunt; you could accuse me of McCarthyism, and bestow upon me the sardonic title of 'Witchfinder-General'. See the Arthur Miller play The Crucible for an extended allegory of McMarthyism as a literal witch-hunt (the Salem Witch Trials).

When we believe that a spy works for us, but they are in fact they loyal to our enemy, then that person is a double agent; if they are embedded within our espionage agency (perhaps in a position of responsibility, or at least with privileged access to information) then they are a mole; we could 'flush them out' (cause them to come out of hiding) by conducting a mole hunt.

If our agent is captured by the enemy and becomes loyal to them then the agent has been 'turned' (and is a double agent); but if the agent secretly retains his/her loyalty to us then they are a triple agent. Agent ZigZag was one of WWII's triple agents; his almost literally unbelievable story is told in the excellent book by Ben Macintyre. (Original ZigZag documents at MI5).

If a spy who was originally on our side is 'turned' by the enemy, but pretends (to us) that they retain their loyalty to us, informing us that the enemy believes that they (the spy) have been 'turned' by them (the enemy), while secretly informing the enemy that we know that they (the enemy) know that they (the spy) are (notionally at least) spying for us, then that person is a 'quadruple agent'. And so on.

ZigZag was also a fake saboteur; a saboteur is someone with loyalty to us, usually located in our enemy's territory, who secretly sabotages assets which the enemy would otherwise have the benefit of (e.g. he or she may blow up bridges or factories).

A law enforcement officer who pretends to be a criminal is undercover; if they maintain this pretence for a long time and with great assiduity then they are in 'deep cover'. A spy can be in deep cover; if they are placed in deep cover with no particular mission in mind, just put there for their possible future usefulness, then they are a sleeper agent ('sleeper' because they are not actively engaged in a mission). The 'Illegals Program' was a network of Russian sleeper agents in the USA, exposed in 2010 (WashPo, NYT). (A group of spies from the same side working in concert, or at least aware of each other, are always termed a 'network').

If an espionage agency uses sexual seduction to recruit foreign nationals to become its agents (particularly through blackmailing them after the seduction has taken place) then it is setting up a 'honeypot' (the analogy is to bees).

An undercover operative who loses his or her original loyalties and becomes more loyal to the people whom he/she is fooling than to his/her original employer - in other words, an undercover agent who changes sides - is said to have "gone native".

A person who betrays a friend socially is a 'backstabber' ("they smile in your face, but all the time they want to take your place" [with your romantic partner]), while a person who betrays a secret misdeed to an authority figure such as a police officer or teacher is a snitch (US) or a grass (UK). There are a vast and entertaining set of synonyms for being an informant, many of them connected to the act of vocalising ('squeal', 'sing'), to money ('go green') or to the figurative rat ('rat out', 'squeal' again, and my favourite, 'to eat cheese').

If you betray a large criminal conspiracy to the police then you are a 'supergrass'.