SOVIET COLONEL CALLED A HERO IN CUBA CRISIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600250049-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2000
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: November 12, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

DA11I.Y N 1 S
Approved For Release 200SM 7129 1$WRDP75-001
~iet Colonel
Called a Hero
In Cuba Crisis,
Soviet Col. O leg Penkovsky,
shot by the Russians for spying
in 1963, was described yesterday
as a cold war hero who sacrificed
his life to get vital information
to President Kennedy durinng the
1962 Cuban missile crisis.
"If it hrad not been for Penkov-
sky," said British businessman
Greville Wynne, "you would have
had more than a blackout in your
city."
Wynne, the colonel's contact
man in the West, was convicted
in Russia along with the Russian,
intelligence officer and later ex-
changed. He flew here yesterday
A Crucial Answer: "No".
Penkovsky, said Wynne, an-
swered "no" when Kennedy asked
if Khrushchev were ready to be-
gin a nuclear war.
The Penkovsky Papers contain
most of. the 5,000 secret docu-
ments and manuscripts the Rus-
sian colonel smuggled out to the
West between 1960 and early
1963.
Wynne said Penkovslcy's in-
formation was also important in
undermining Nikita Kfirushchev's
strategy in the Berlin crisis of
1960.
Says Death Was 1lelay d
The Soviet Union announced
the execution of Penkovsky on
May 5, 1963. Wynne told a press
conference he felt certain that
Penkovsky was now dead.
"But he certainly wasn't shot
when they said he was," he added.
He believes that the Russians de-
layed the execution to assess the
for the publication of the "Pen- damage his intelligence work.had
kovsky Papers" by Doubleday. done.
Wynne said that Penkovsky Penkovsky was described by.
had ignored elaborate safeguards Wynne as a man sickened by top
to answer Kennedy's questions level intrigues that he was con-
about Russian nuclear readiness vinced were driving the world
during the crisis. toward nuclear holocaust. .
Greville Wynne
Contact with the West
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600250049-9