I’ll bet more than a few of those agents were (or are) active Republicans. They could do a lot more damage in the GOP than with the Democrats.
Sure, if you were listening to defectors they said their primary goal was to recruit “conservatives”.
Well I watched the show “The Americans” on FX about this very topic, 2 KGB agents living as Americans. There was a character, ostensibly a Bernie Goldberg type former liberal turned conservative Reagan lover, he was a KGB asset. It’s just a TV show but it seemed pretty true to life.
I wonder if any of the original neocon leaders were Russian assets.