In many ways I liked the story, but I don't think it's MfU. If we go with the idea that Avallone only had the writer's briefing notes and the pilot to work from he did his best. But Uncle as it became didn't yet exist.
Putting him in context, Fleming still had 2/3 Bond books left to publish, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold had only just been published, Deighton was only just starting his series. And I think this is the style he worked in, a lone agent, the resources back in his own country and beautiful women throwing themselves at the hero. So he didn't have the concept of Uncle as truly international, with offices and its own resources distributed across the world.
I don't like Waverley being dependant on the US military, or having to bring the body back to NY like that. I would have prefered the post mortem to have taken place in Bonn. And I don't think he had freed himself from the idea that the Eastern Bloc is the enemy. There is no way I can see Thrush using a MiG in western Europe, it will bring all the authorities down on them. A French Mirage is a much more likely plane to use if they have to have a jet fighter.
But as I say, at the time he was writing, Uncle wasn't yet a fully developed concept. Less forgivable, in my opinion, is that he didn't update his ideas when writing his GfU book. He stayed with Waverley as part of the US intelligence world even though by then Uncle was fully established as international.
