INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTOPHER BOYCE

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP88-01070R000301740015-9
Release Decision: 
RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
3
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
April 23, 2010
Sequence Number: 
15
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
June 7, 1985
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP88-01070R000301740015-9.pdf125.22 KB
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Approved For Release 2010/04/23: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000301740015-9 RADIO TV REPORTS, INC. 4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 (301) 656-4068 FOR PURL I C AFFAIRS STAFF Good Morning America WJLA-TV ABC Network DATE June 7, 1985 7:00 A.M. SUBJECT Interview with Christopher Boyce Washington, D.C. 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 havo - r-, future? Approved For Release 2010/04/23 :CIA-RDP88-01070R000301740015-9 a v e a Approved For Release 2010/04/23: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000301740015-9 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 Approved For Release 2010/04/23: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000301740015-9 Approved For Release 2010/04/23: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000301740015-9 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. Approved For Release 2010/04/23: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000301740015-9