Escape from the CIA: How the CIA Won and Lost the Most Important KGB Spy Ever to Defect to the U.S.
This book charges that the Central Intelligence Agency was grossly negligent in its handling of KGB defector Colonel Vitaly Yurchemko, who simply walked away from a single CIA guard at a Georgetown restaurant in November 1985 and returned to the Soviet Union. This became a major scandal at a time of many similar incidents. Kessler, a former journalist and author of two other recent books on intelligence activities ( Moscow Station , LJ 5/15/89; Spy in the Russian Club , LJ 5/1/90) presents a sometimes humorous account of CIA mistakes. He makes it clear that the human element is very important in these matters. One question remains--was Yurchemko a bona fide defector or merely a Soviet ploy? We civilians will probably never know for sure. Recommended.- Daniel K. Blewett, Loyola Univ. Lib., ChicagoCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.