INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTOPHER BOYCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301740010-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: June 7, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEW CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
Good Morning America
WJLA-TV
ABC Network
DATE June 7, 1985 7:00 A.M. M Washington, D.C.
Interview with Christopher Boyce
DAVID HARTMAN: The Walker family spy case has once
again raised a question that most of us find absolutely
mind-boggling. How could any American ever sell American secrets
to the Soviet Union?
Now, the Walkers, of course, have not been tried yet,
let alone been convicted. And none of them is talking publicly
at this point. But one American who has been convicted of
espionage is talking. His name is Christopher Boyce. He is the
so-called Falcon in the "Falcon and the Snowman" espionage case.
Boyce started selling secets to the Soviets in 1975,
when he was 21 years old. He was working for one of the big
defense contractors. He is currently serving a 68-year sentence
for both espionage and for escaping once from prison.
Now, last month Christopher Boyce testified about his
spying activities before the Senate Investigating Subcommittee.
Yesterday I talked to him. He was at a federal penitentiary in
Marion, Illinois. I asked him what he remembered most about
working for the KGB.
CHRISTOPHER BOYCE: Well, they never let go. They're
always there. When the things begins, you realize that you've
committed a total act of folly because they're going to want to
stay with you for the rest of your life. And when you're a young
man and all those things that are important to you in life, they
just become suppressed by this monkey that's on your back. And
there isn't anything that's really yours anymore. Everything is
theirs. Like -- well, your girlfriend isn't even yours. You
can't marry her. You can't have a family. How can you have a
future? What could you offer her?
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HARTMAN: Mr. Boyce, you say that KGB just gets involved
in every aspect of your life. Give me an idea. How do they do
that?
BOYCE: Well, sir, it's just a horrendous thing to know
that at any moment you could be arrested and your life will be
torn apart. It just weights you down and it colors every aspect
of your life. And even if they're only on the telephone five
minutes a month, their presence is with you the whole rest of the
time. It just never goes away. And everything that was ever
important to you before just pales to insignificance. It's like
having a cancer.
HARTMAN: Do they threaten you? Do they get with you
and tell you what the consequences are if you screw up?
BOYCE: They scared me to death. It was in the basement
of their embassy down there, you know, in Mexico, Mexico City.
And what they wanted me to know was that I didn't have any
choice, that I had trapped myself, that I had brought myself down
into that place, and that this was forever, that for the rest of
your life to know that, that you are just never going to get away
from it, and that they're always going to be there, that at any
time they can show up and -- all wholesomeness in your life just
evaporates.
you?
HARTMAN: Did they say or imply that they would kill
BOYCE: No, sir. There are so many worse things that
you can do to a person than just kill them, you know. There's
shame, you know. And then you have your family to work about.
They don't want to -- they don't want to kill you or to
-- as long as they can keep on exploiting you and using you up
and controlling you like a puppet.
HARTMAN: Mr. Boyce, let's go to the problem now. How
can our government authorities cut down on the amount of stealing
by the Soviets of American technology and secrets and to keep the
number of incidents of espionage down?
BOYCE: Well, Mr. Hartman, I don't think that the
government's best weapon against espionage are elaborate,
improved and costly security systems. No, sir. I think that the
best defense that the United States has against espionage and the
KGB is to honestly convey to the four million Americans who have
security clearances exactly what it would mean to them person-
ally, as individuals, to be under the thumb of a KGB control
agent, how it would poison their life and how -- it's just
something that no one wants to do, and it's just not what you see
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And if the government could convey that to people so
that they knew what espionage would mean to them personally, then
I think espionage in this country would dry up like a corpse.
And, you know, there's an epidemic now, and it's going
on, and it's because people don't really know what espionage is
going to do to them as individuals while it's going on.
HARTMAN: Is there any way you can, in your own mind,
make amends for what you did?
BOYCE: Well, that's the problem. You really can't.
There is no doubt in my mind, Mr. Hartman, that out of the four
million Americans with security clearances, that there are
literally hundreds of young bored people who are toying with the
thought of espionage. And perhaps, sir, there might be some of
them listening now. And they should know, because I know what
I'm talking about, that is just something that they do not want
to do. Because whatever is wrong with their lives, whatever is
bothering them, whatever their troubles are, after they become
involved in espionage their lives will be a hundred times more
miserable than it is now.
It's not what they think it's going to be. It's like
walking into a dark room and falling down a hole. You will be so
surprised, I warn you.
HARTMAN: Christopher Boyce from prison yesterday.
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