ESPIONAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260008-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: February 21, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260008-0
6
5
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEW CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
FOR
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM
CBS Evening News
STATION
WDVM-TV
CBS Network
DATE
February 21, 1986
7:00 P.M.
CITY
Washington, D.C.
SIB.IECT
Espionage
DAN RATHER: New developments tonight on the
international spying front and the complicated web running East
to West and back again.
Defense Department correspondent David Martin reports
this evening the United States has new evidence that Vitaly
Yurchenko, the high-ranking KGB man who defected to the United
States, then redefected to Russia, was the genuine article, not a
KGB plant. How does the United States think it knows this? The
newest KGB defector, Viktor Gundurov (?), says so. Correspondent
Martin has been told by a Reagan Administration source that
Gundurov, now hiding out in this country, says he served in the
same KGB unit as Yurchenko.
Gundurov is one of three Soviet intelligence officers to
defect recently in Athens, and they are said to figure into yet
another web of intrigue, this one in London today. There, a
retired U.S. Navy commander who once worked in a highly
classified unit developing submarine tactics to be used against
the Soviets, John Bothwell, was charged with espionage. Sources
told correspondent David Martin that Bothwell, now revealed to be
a spy for the Russians, once also worked for the CIA in Athens.
Now, in the shockingly long list of recent cases
uncovered of spying against the United States, another new shock
tonight. And Rita Braver has been investigating that one.
RITA BRAVER: U.S. officials say that Larry Wu-Tai Chin,
a former CIA analyst convicted two weeks ago of spying for Commu-
nist China, put a plastic bag over his head today and killed
himself. The Justice Department sent an investigating team to
the Virginia prison where it happened, trying to assess if a
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965ROO0504260008-0
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260008-0
closer watch should have been kept on the man the U.S. hoped
would provide valuable information about Chinese espionage
techniques.
Ever since his arrest last November, Chin had claimed
that he had merely been trying to improve relations between
China, where he was born, and the U.S., where he'd become a
citizen.
LARRY WU-TAI CHIN: When your father and mother were
fighting, which side would you stand for. You do not want to
stand on any side, but you want them to reconciliate.
BRAVER: The FBI said Chin began giving information to
the Chinese during the Korean War, when he worked for the U.S.
Army. But Chin claimed he first began passing classified
documents in 1970, when he had access to information proving that
President Nixon was serious about making friends with the
Chinese. In fact, Chin took credit for the U.S.-China thaw.
CHIN: My information was taken so seriously by the
leadership of China and was so -- attached so much great
importance. And, of course, it's foreign policy and its domestic
policy would be adopted in a way corresponding to what I
provided.
BRAVER: But the government rejected Chin's claim,
saying that money was his motive. He liked playing the Las Vegas
casinos and buying up real estate with $180,000 he got from the
Chinese.
He was facing a life sentence. But in this interview
just three days ago, Chin told CBS correspondent Charlie Rose he
was not afraid of prison.
CHIN: Being in jail for the balance of my life doesn't
scare me at all, in view of the contribution I made to the two
countries.
BRAVER: But he apparently changed his mind.
No suicide notes have been found, making Chin a man as
puzzling in death as he was in life.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504260008-0