'SUPERMOLE' OR CON MAN? THE ARKADY SHEVCHENKO MYSTERY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640043-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: August 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

~ Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403640043-1
PHOENIX ARIZOI~IA REPUBLIC
3 August 1985
`Su er ?
mole Or Con Man. The
p .
Arkady Shevchenko Mystery
Richard
Lessner
Editorial Writer
Ths Arizona Republic
Is he the highest-ranking Soviet
diplomat ever to defect to the West,
a "supermole" who for years pro-
vided the United States with a
veritable gold mine of information
on the Sov' Union's most closely
guarded ae re ?
Or is he one of the mogt
successful con men of all time who,
with CIA cooperation, fabricated a.
James Bond-type story convincing
enough to hoodwink CBS' 60 Min-
utes, Alfred A. Knopf book publish-
ersand Time magazine?
Despite the success and notoriety
of Arkady Shevchenko, who was
featured on 60 Minutes and whose
best-selling book, Breaking with
hloscoa?, was condensed in Time,
the jury is still out on the former
United Nations bureaucrat.
Although former U.N. Ambassa-
dor and now-Sen. Daniel Patrick
Aloynihan, D-IV'.Y., has touted
Shevchenko as the most important
intelligence source of the post-
World ~Var II era, there is some
reason to suspect the erstwhile
disinformation specialist is still
plying his old trade.
Ed~?ard Jay Epstein, author of
The [i'arren Commi~.cinn and the
Fstablrshment of Truth and Leg-
end: The Secret World of Lee
Hervey Oswald, has seriously ques-
tioned the veracity of Shevchenko's
claims in a recent detailed review of
the Russian's book.
It seems Shevchenko, who de-
fected in 1978, made his first
attempt to sell a book that same
year but could not find a publisher
because his manuscript was singu-
larly dull and lacking in any new or
startling information.
It was rejected by Simon and
Schuster and Reader's Digest Press,
in the latter case after many hours
of interrogation by Henry Hurt, an
expert on Soviet espionage.
By 1985, however, Shevchenko's
story had suddenly grown all Che
elements of an Ian Fleming novel -
car chases, dodging KGB agents,
clandestine meetings, CIA "dead
drops," sinister secret agents.
Shevchenko's book, which origi-
nally had no firsthand information
about the top Soviet leadership,
now miraculously includes page
after page of verbatim private
conversations with the likes of
Leonid Brezhnev and Nikita Khru-
shchev.
Moreover, Shevchenko's book
apparently has numerous errors of
fact and chronology that call seri-
ously into question his overall
credibility.
It is understandable why Shev-
chenko would want to pass himself
off as a deep-cover mole of amazing
importance -the best-selling book
and upcoming movie are reasons
enough for a Russian who report-
edly acquired very expensive tastes
in fine food, clothing and women
during his 20 years at the United
Nations -but why would the CIA
go along with such a scam if it knew
the defector was only slow-level
functionary?
Considering the demoralized
state of the U.S. intelligence com-
munity in the late 1970s, it is
understandable why the CIA has
done nothing to discredi~hev-
chenko's story.
The agency's image needed the
public relations boost gained from
supposedly besting the Russians at
every turn by means of a "super-
mole" in the very heart of the
Soviet government.
After the scandals, the damaging
revefa~ions 'of the Watergate era
and the scourging of the intelli-
gence services by the Church Com-
mittee in the Senate, the CIA in
Arkady Shevchenko justified itself
with a single stroke.
On the surface - if Shevchenko
is a liar -the only apparent loser
in the whole affair is the KGB.
A deeper look at the possible
scam, however, reveals that the
United States could come a cropper
if Shevchenko's fanciful revelations
lull us into a false sense of security
by making us believe that we have
bested the Russians at arms-control
agreements because of the advan-
tage our "supermole" gave our side.
So Shevchenko's possibly fictive
book may be not be the innocent
game it first appears.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403640043-1