The thrilling story of two Cold War spies, CIA case officer Jack Platt and KGB agent Gennady Vasilenko -- improbable friends at a time when they should have been anything but.
Two dedicated agents of opposing counter-intelligence agencies who become friends - a buddy story. Who were these men. On the one hand we have Gennady Vasilenko, a dedicated KGB and on the other, "Cowboy" Jack Platt of the CIA. Both were given the task of trying to turn the other into a double agent - this was, we are told, was never going to happen as both were strongly patriotic and dedicated agents.
After a series of carefully structured meetings, it was found that both shared the same interests and so continued to meet on a regular basis (under the cover of work) until Vasilenko returned to Moscow three years later. When Vasilenko is then posted to Guyana, Platt goes out of his way to make contact, even after Platt retires from the CIA. All the while both agencies are wondering why these men are still in contact as it is blatantly obvious to one and all that neither had any intention of turning. As as result, it is Vasilenko who comes under closer scrutiny by the KGB and is arrested then fired from the KGB. Vasilenko suspects Platt has betrayed him, whilst outwardly Platt seeks revenge on those that did.
Despite knowing that both are under the ever watchful eye of the KGB who want him brought down a peg or two, Vasilenko continues to tempt fate by either reaching out to Platt or accepting Platt's overtures (which seem to come with some sort of request for assistance). Against the back-drop of the mole hunting activities of the CIA and FBI (1990s), Vasilenko continues to reach out to Platt and takes risks, which only raises the KGB's suspicions that he was turned afterall.
It was during this mole hunt that Platt reaches out to Vasilenko for assistance which would lead to the arrest of one of the US's more notorious spies - Robert Hassan. For Vasilenko, this turns out to be a fateful decision, and when he discovers he inadvertantly played a role in this, he is quite naturally furious as despite his statements to the contrary, he comes across in this episode, as working for the CIA. This will come to roost a few years later when - after a small paragraph in a 2002 book written by David Wise reaches Russian authorities -Vasilenko is arrested.
"... Gennady's relationship with Jack had been insanely reckless and had provoked the Russians into taking an understandable, if draconian, retalitory actions.."
Platt's frequent attempts at intercession through various channels made it look like Vasilenko was guilty of the charges brought against him. Vasilenko is finally released in a swap for the Russian illegals discovered in the US - but the kicker - he has to admit to being the one thing he strenuously denied being through those years of imprisonment and torture - a US spy. Vasilenko and family come to the US and the rest is history.
 |
| Jack Platt (left) and Gennady Vasilenko (right) |
Whilst obviously written for the mass market, I found this to be a conflicting read for me. I was interested to know how the two men - Jack Platt and Gennady Vasilenko - managed to become close friends. Yet both men come off as arrogant, self-absorbed, renegades, who both thought themselves untouchable and assumed that everyone else saw them as they saw themselves, and whose respective agencies seemingly put up with despite going totally against the grain, that I felt no empathy with either of them.
For me, the striking thing to come out of all of this was how one-sided this friendship seemed to be. Valisenko seems to be taking all the risks and makes all the overtures (after Platt's initial contact), and appears to have come out of it all extremely worse for wear - used even by Platt. In Michael Smith's "Anatomy of a Spy", he discuss the "unwitting agent" - and this to me sums up Vasilenko's position.
There's a lot of school boy hi-jinks and very little espionage - except for the revealing of two spies, but by this stage both men were actually no longer members of their respective agencies but still, somehow, managed to stay in the game.
The more I read this book, the more I wanted to slap Vasilenko across the head with it or throw it at Platt that is how much both men infuriated me. Either that, or it was the writing style of both authors (journalists, documentary producers) that just failed to convey any sense the personal to attract me to wanting to know more of their stories beyond what was written here.
If you are interested in this genre, you will no doubt pick it up and read at some stage.
see also
No comments:
Post a Comment