IT'S HARD FOR FICTION TO TOP REALITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201260017-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: November 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201260017-4
~-' 0-r_ ~.rr Kt:
GNP;;GE 6 November 1985
WILLIAM S. COHEN
Guest columnist
It's hard for fiction to top reality
WASHINGTON - In the
world of spy and counterspy,
reality is outrunning Action.
When Sen. Gary Hart and I
were writing our novel, the
publisher questioned the plau-
sibility of a plot sequence in-
volving a U.S. senator being
kidnapped, drugged, and trans-
ported to Moscow.
We insisted it could happen.
We had what we thought was a
plausible story line in a circum-
stance of an individual trying
to protect other sources.
Now Vitaly Yurchenko, a se-
nior official in the KGB, alleges
something very similar hap-
pened to him. I wonder. Was
our book among the reading
material he had access to
while living in Virginia as the
guest of the CIA?
I used to think a lot of spy fic-
tion was so extreme that it
lacked plausibility. But the
longer I'm involved with over-
sight for intelligence matters,
the more I am aware that in
this field just about anything is
possible - and usually occurs.
In fact, I'm now convinced that
Action underestimates reality.
Whenever you step into the
world of international intelli-
gence, you descend into an infi-
nitely long hall of mirrors. The
multiplication of reflections
makes it virtually impossible to
distinguish image from reality.
You walk down that hail, trying
to touch something that looks
like the way out, but it never is.
There are layers upon layers
of deceit built into the system.
It is virtually impossible for
anyone outside to discern what
is true. Even on the inside,
there are so many compart-
ments, so many layers, one
doesn't have access to.
Was Yurchenko real? Was
Sen. William S. Cohen, R-
Maine, a member of the Intelli-
gence Committee and co-au-
thor of The Double Man, gave
his views in an interview,
he false? What real informa-
tion, if any, did he give us?
How credible is it? And if it is
credible, where does it lead? It
all brings yet more ambiguity
and opaqueness into a world
that is already quite murky.
There's a scene in Three
Days of the Condor in which
an older spy and a relative neo-
phyte are talking. The young
man asks, "Tell me, do you
miss the good old days?" and
the old man replies, "Not real-
ly, but I do miss the clarity."
Masters like John Le Carre
and Graham Greene have little
to fear, but amateurs like us
may be put out of business. I'm
going back to writing poetry.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201260017-4