Best of Enemies; The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War
New York, N.Y. Twelve, 2018. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. vi, [4], 342 pages. Illustrations. Dramatis Personae. Acknowledgments. Bibliography. About the Authors. Index. . Chapters include Apprentice Spies; All Roads Lead to Washington; Contact; Musketeers; The IOC; The Quisling; Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey; Havana Takedown; Sasha; An Old Enemy; A Second Reunion; Going Public; A Heavy Box of Caviar; Calm Before the Storm; You Don't Know Me; The Gulag Redux; Reset: The Red Button; and End Games. Inscribed on the half-title page by both authors. He is the author of Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK, a book which states that Lee Harvey Oswald alone killed the president in retribution for Kennedy's policies toward Fidel Castro and Cuba. Russo has also written books about the Chicago Outfit and cold war spies. Eric B. Dezenhall (born September 9, 1962) is an American crisis management consultant, author, and founder of Washington D.C.-based public relations firm Dezenhall Resources. His aggressive tactics on behalf of his clients have made him both a target of criticism and a quoted pundit on crisis communications. His 2018 nonfiction book (coauthored with Gus Russo) Best of Enemies: The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War chronicles the friendship between the KGB’s Gennady Vasilenko and the CIA’s Jack Platt. The book details for the first time Platt’s critical role in identifying the FBI’s Robert Hanssen as the mole inside the US intelligence community. This is 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 Best of Enemies. These two espionage cowboys reveal how they became key behind the scenes players in solving some of the most celebrated spy stories of the twentieth century, including the crucial discovery of the Soviet mole Robert Hanssen, the 2010 Spy Swap which freed Gennady from Russian imprisonment, and how Robert De Niro played a real-life role in helping Gennady stay alive during his incarceration. Derived from a Kirkus review: A rollicking tale of Cold War espionage focused on the improbable bond between a macho CIA agent and his KGB counterpart. Russo) and Dezenhall offer a well-researched account, addressing the CIA’s betrayal by Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen. The institutional pursuit of these turncoats, who caused “a staggering amount of damage,” involved many of the principals here. Previously, in both Washington and Moscow in the 1970s and ’80s, spies with diplomatic covers often became entangled in each other’s recruitment schemes. Rakish KGB officer Gennady Vasilenko became involved in the D.C. diplomats’ amateur athletics, making him a prime target of CIA officer Jack Platt, a larger-than-life, hard-living agency tactician. While neither agreed to “cross over” to provide their country’s secrets, they developed a genuine friendship. “Both men were patriotic risk takers,” write the authors. “Both loved their chosen professions and had no respect for the desk jockeys.” Although Platt participated in an operation to “turn” Vasilenko, he respected the Russian’s determination to remain loyal. But KGB suspicions of Vasilenko’s rule-bending ethos prevailed, and he was lured home, imprisoned, and expelled from the service. When the Soviet Union collapsed, his American connections enabled him to pursue business opportunities with Platt, as did many ex–Russian spies. However, the 2001 arrest of Hanssen led Vasilenko’s erstwhile colleagues to target him; he was arrested a few years later and again imprisoned over old allegations of collusion. Following five years of often brutal treatment, Platt’s CIA colleagues added Vasilenko to an exchange for the Russian “illegals” notoriously arrested in 2010 after years of deep-cover spying, finally permitting him a bittersweet American retirement. Russo and Dezenhall aptly capture this complex narrative, based on its protagonists’ long-classified recollections. An unusual, entertaining story of steadfast friendship amid governmental treachery. Condition: Very Good / Very Good.
Keywords: Cold War, Spies, Jack Platt, Gennady Vasilenko, Espionage, CIA, KGB, Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, Robert De Niro, John Denton, Sandra Grimes, Edward Lee Howard, Dion Rankin, Mike Rochford, Zaporozhsky, Zhomov, Tom Welch
ISBN: 9781538761311
[Book #80895]
Price: $75.00