DEFECTOR MEMOIR DISPUTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860019-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: June 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860019-7
7"1:1
ARTri
V.
ON
Defector
Memoir
Disputed
Shevchenko Spy Story
Called a 'Fraud'
By David Remnick
Washington Poet Staff Writer
Arkady Shevchenko, the highest
? ranking diplomat ever to defect
from the Soviet Union and the au-
thor of the bestselling memoir
"Breaking With Moscow," fabri-
cated sections of his book with help
from the CIA, according to an ar-
ticle in The New Republic that is to
appear tomorrow.
Edward Jay Epstein, author of
the article, "The Spy Who Came In
to Be Sold," said in a telephone in-
terview, "Shevchenko's book is a
fraud on the same level as Clifford
Irving's fake about Howard Hughes.
He creates sources and events that
never happened."
The Washington Post reported
on June 6 that publishing sources
and sources who had helped Shev-
chenko write the manuscript after
his defection in April 1978 said
Shevchenko might have "juiced up"
certain scenes to make the book
more commercial. CIA sources also
said that Shevchenko's information
both as a "mole" before his defec-
tion and after was of limited value.
In his article, Epstein writes,
"What is fabricated here are not just
car chases, meetings, conversa-
tions, reports, dates, motives and
espionage activities, but a spy who
never was."
He claims that American intel-
ligence created a myth of a "super
mole" to make Shevchenko's role
seem more important than it actu-
ally was.
. WASHINGTON POST
27 June 1985
Shevchenko's saga of working as
a CIA mole while serving as an
undersecretary general in the Unit-
ed Nations secretariat caused a sen-
sation last February, appearing as a
two-part Time cover story, in a "60
Minutes" segment and, finally, as a
best seller for Alfred A. Knopf, a
subsidiary of Random House. Shev-
chenko has become something of a
media star in the United States,
appearing on the lecture circuit for
at least $10,000 an appearance.
Film rights to his book will report-
edly sell for as much as $500,000.
Epstein says Shevchenko made
up incidents, details and dialogue
throughout the book ranging from a
car chase described in the dramatic
opening chapter to a scene describ-
ing Nikita Khrushchev aboard a
boat. Shevchenko tells of spying in
1976 on the New York head of the
KGB, Boris Aleksandrovich Solo-
matin, and provides a verbatim ac-
count of a dinner party at Soloma-
tin's apartment. But Epstein says
records show that Solomatin was in
Moscow at the time.
"The whole thing is a falsification
of history," Epstein said.
Time magazine spokesman Mike
Luftman, however, said staffers
rechecked Shevchenko's story yes-
terday with new and original
sources and found it accurate. He
called Epstein's piece "off the
mark."
Ashbel Green, the editor at
Knopf who was largely responsible
for the shape of the final manu-
script, reacted strongly to The New
Republic piece, saying Epstein had
"gone extremely wrong."
"I have to be skeptical right from
the beginning because of the person
who wrote the article. He's a well-
known conspiracy theorist."
Epstein is the author of several
books, including "Inquest," a cri-
tique of the Warren Commission's
report on the assassination of John
F. Kennedy, and "Legend: The Se-
cret World of Lee Harvey Oswald,"
which raised questions about anoth-
er Soviet defector.
Neither the CIA officials nor
Shevchenko were available for com-
ment.
The Post article described how
Simon & Schuster had originally
paid $600,000 for the Shevchenko
manuscript but then rejected it be-
cause it was lacking in detail. Simon
& Schuster editor Michael Korda
said he was "slightly suspicious"
when he read the published version
issued by Knopf.
"It wasn't just because he never
mentioned the CIA [to Simon &
Schuster] and the espionage mate-
rial," Korda told The Post. "The
material changed, too. . . That kind
of thing makes me believe that
Shevchenko's experience with [Si-
mon & Schuster] made him and his
people think they'd better juice it
up a bit."
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860019-7