SPY STORY: OUR MAN IN THE KREMLIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600250058-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2000
• Sequence Number: 58
• Publication Date: November 2, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 200 / /26!,:' 9N' R' 6 5-00149R000600250058-9
ROGERS REPORTS:
Spy !tar
by WARREN
T'"ASHINGTON: From time to time we learn that
side, iLis.just abad, if not worse, on the other side.
one of the latest reminders is the case of Oleg Pen-
kovsky, currerttly being highly publicized.
PenkoYSliY was a Soviet colonel, a much-deco-
rated war hero, a higp,-ranking
intelligence officer, an i`tsidcr in
Russia's missile program, n, anti-
mate of 'generals and m shals-
in short, seemingly an u egated
success in the Soviet UniO i hier-
He even married * b'oss's
archy
.
slaughter-that Is, the daugliter of
a general-and. thereafter quickly
trc.anie; in iii'-'own words, 'one of
t lw privilege
But in 1963 he was arrested,
t:rtod, convicted and executed as a ROGERS
for the United States and
Britain. By his own admission, in a remarkable auto-
biography which he somehow managed to write, he
was the West's man in the Kremlin-"Henceforth I
am your soldier, pledged to carry out everything
which Is entrusted to me."
The revelatigns in his "The Penkovsky Papers,"
being published this month in the United States,
sent tremors through the intelligence _ can1miW y,
here and inthe two other capitals'directlyy affected.
7P111zlicly, there will be no comment, as is traditional
with operators in the never-never land of sE'Jw1aPx.
1=3w, privately, the sources involved hrs. c iicr r
authentiei.tY, in. so f:ai as t,hr cdata Ieiit ii.,elf to
t sh vkin ;,
ROGERS
Penkovs y represents
disgusted with the Soviet system and with its poli-
tics. On our side, this is the kind of talk we are used
to hearing from Americans who take to the streets
with banners protesting in favor of civil equality or
against policies in Viet Nam. Yet it is astonishing
when a man of such stature goes round the bend
and into the chasm of treason. Perhaps this says
something for our tolerance of these irksome demon-'
strations as a safety valve.
From the West's point of view, his timing was
just about eH1 perhaps the worst
months of 1961 and 1962, years
of the cold war. That .was when Khrushchev built
the Berlin Wall, resumed nuclear testing and threat-
ened the world with nuclear war by sending missiles,
into Cuba,. There was no more fortuitious time for;
he United States and Britain to have a pipeline
into the,'Kreniliii, providing up-to-the-minute data.
on Soviet troop dispositions, nuclear capability and`
missile- strength.
We know now why Secretary of Defense McNa-
mara was able to talk so knowledgeably about such
matters. He. had it cold, straight *qm Penkovsky.
In great measure, this takes"ueh of the sting
out of the atomic "leaks," typified by the celebrated
Nunn-May and Fuchs defections, which have so
embittered the West. On the ourface at least, it
would. seen we got the best of the nasty bargain.
Ever r, the Soviets have been revising, reshuf-
1,1in7, Wig and hiring throughout their intelligence
or;'anizati on,
Beyond that; the incident demonstrates cocr
more how heavily the unscheduled and unexpected
fi;ure in the deadly game of intelligence. Both the
United States and the Soviet Union, .4s the 'leaden
of i.wo systems in conflict, spend billions of dollar.
ud risk untold lives trying to ferret out the other
secrets. In the end, one individual with his nose out
of joint, for reasons of his own, hands them ovo.r
on a platter.
Our Man in the Kremlin
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600250058-9