In order to understand why the Americans insisted on keeping him in prison, it is important to bear in mind the vehemence with which Caspar Weinberger described the case, even going so far as to say that Pollard should be shot. Indeed, the Pollard Affair went beyond that of simple spying between the two countries, as such cases of espionage had already been revealed before. Instead, it must be seen in the context of the time: in the 1980s, the Israelis were doing everything they could to ensure that Soviet Jews were allowed to emigrate to Israel. Among these Jews were highly skilled people, such as senior scientists, and others who were of great interest to the Israelis. But Moscow was not interested, and so the idea of a trade formed, whereby Israel could use the information provided by Pollard, which included military information that might in turn have been of interest to the Soviets, such as the range of techniques used by the US Navy to detect and track Soviet submarines. Information such as this could prove vital in case of any conflict. The Israelis presumably communicated this information with Moscow and in return, many Soviet Jews were suddenly given permission to go to Israel. However, one way or another the US intelligence agencies had got to the bottom of the case and Jonathan Pollard had to pay the ultimate price.
The famous American journalist, Seymour Hersch,102 claims to have been told by certain CIA officials, furious at the idea that the White House might one day bow to Israeli pressure and pardon Pollard, that they planned to block any such pardon by revealing that he had, in fact, caused serious harm to the USA. This damage was far worse than might previously have been imagined, as some of his information had actually ended up in the hands of the Soviets.
Chapter 19
The Polyakov Mystery
The greatest spy of the twentieth century? Perhaps. Whatever the case, Dmitri Fyodorovich Polyakov was certainly one of the most mysterious and even today, many American intelligence experts estimate that the CIA has never possessed such a valuable resource in the heart of the ‘Evil Empire', to use Ronald Reagan's expression. Yet there are also other experts who claim that General Polyakov was actually a double agent responsible for poisoning the Langley headquarters. So why was this high-ranking Red Army spy shot in the mid-1980s? His death sentence was revealed by Pravda in 1990, at a time when the USSR still existed and was thus information directly orchestrated by the Kremlin. This is why these same experts, who questioned Polyakov's loyalty, believe that there must have been some form of subterfuge and misinformation: a classic KGB manoeuvre.
What was the truth? It is fair to say that the fall of the Red Empire had done little to unravel the mystery of the Soviet secret services, which remain carefully protected by their existing avatars; the FSB and the SVR. Yet this is not surprising when the Russian leader is a former KGB man who has placed many of his former comrades at the top of his government.
The Americans gave Polyakov the curious codename of ‘Top Hat', as well as another aristocratic alias, ‘Bourbon', showing that they clearly held Polyakov in high esteem. Senior CIA officials considered him to be the prototype ‘fake defector', a spy who pretends to switch sides so as to better misinform the enemy. This highlights one of the most tortuous aspects of intelligence: a grey area where any form of certainty seems to have been abolished.
Was Polyakov a genuine defector? A preliminary remark must point out the fact that he was never actually a ‘physical' defector. Unlike other Soviets, he never chose ‘the free world', to use Kravchenko's famous expression. Instead, even though he often lived outside of the USSR, he never officially broke with his home country. When the time came for him to retire, he did not try to flee to the West and, much to his misfortune, chose to stay in the USSR. However, the official announcement of his death sentence and execution does not mean that he was actually shot, although even this is not the only uncertainty in this particular case.
Dmitri Polyakov was born in the Ukraine in 1921. The son of an accountant, he was a brilliant student and was admitted to the prestigious Frunze Military Academy, where the officers of the Red Army were trained. He was naturally mobilised during the Second World War and as an artillery officer, led his men with courage, which resulted in him being decorated several times. After the war, he continued his military training and was quickly assigned to the Red Army's intelligence agency, the GRU. His private life was very normal: he married a military nurse who gave him two sons.
In 1956 the young officer was given his first foreign posting to the United States. He was to be entrusted with a special mission: to work as a member of the Soviet delegation to the UN that was responsible for coordinating the work of ‘illegals' in the United States, that is, those spies without diplomatic cover. Polyakov's work was clearly satisfactory as he was appointed as a colonel. After a brief return to the USSR, he went back to New York and resumed his post.
The beginning of the 1960s marked a real turning point in Polyakov's life as it saw the start of his career as a double agent. However, before looking at the details of his betrayal, we shall continue to follow the path of his official career in the GRU. After New York, Polyakov once
