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A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid To Save His Country. By Benjamin Weiser. New York: Public Affairs, 2005 [2004]. ISBN 1-58648-305-6. Photographs. Notes. Index. Pp. xv, 383. 816.00.
Espionage is the staple of intelligence fiction. In reality, espionage provides a very small part of intelligence collection, much more of it coming from technical sources. But the right spy in the right place with good access can be crucial. And, as most intelligence practitioners will acknowledge, the most useful spies tend to be "walk ins," spies who volunteer rather than being recruited. Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, and several others "walked in" to the Soviet Union; Oleg Penkovsky and Ryszard Kuklinski "walked in" to the United States.
Kuklinski, a Polish General Staff officer, became convinced that he was on the wrong side in the Cold War and that Poland was a poorly treated Soviet...