SMERSH (James Bond) Bond again squares off against SMERSH in "Goldfinger" after learning that Auric Goldfinger is the agency's treasurer. After "Goldfinger", SMERSH is mentioned only fleetingly, usually in reference to having been disbanded. In "Thunderball", three former members of SMERSH joined and became top members of the apolitical criminal organization, SPECTRE. In the continuation novels (and novelizations), however, SMERSH returns as an organisation essentially renamed and reorganised within Soviet intelligence. They are first mentioned again in the novelization of "The Spy Who Loved Me", although replaced by KGB in the film. In John Gardner's series of Bond novels, SMERSH is renamed Department
Goldfinger (novel) villain to date" and Fleming gives him a number of character flaws that are brought out across the novel. Psychologically Goldfinger is warped, possibly because of an inferiority complex brought on by his shortness, in contrast to a number of Fleming's other oversized villains and physically he is odd, with a lack of proportion to his body. As with a number of other villains in the Bond novels, there is an echo of World War II, with Goldfinger employing members of the German Luftwaffe, some Japanese and Koreans. For Operation Grand Slam, Goldfinger used the poison GB, now known as