'BREAKING WITH MOSCOW': AN EXCHANGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860007-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: August 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860007-0
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'BREAKING WITH
MOSCOW':
AN EXCHANGE
Editor's note: In his best-selling memoir,
Breaking with Moscow, the former Soviet
diplomat Arkady Shevchenko describes a
colorful career spying for the United
States before his defection from a high
United Nations post in April
1978. In our issue of July
15622, we published an arti-
cle by Edward Jay Epstein
asserting that many of the
details in Shevchenko's story
are demonstrably false, and
casting doubt on Shevchen-
ko's claim to have been a
valuable spy for the United
States.
In addition to the follow-
ing letters from Shevchenko's
editor and from the producer
of a "60 Minutes" presenta-
tion of his story, an anony-
mous representative of the
Central Intelligence Agency
telephoned TNR and several
other news organizations
with the following statement:
"Shevchenko provided in-
valuable information to the
U.S. government. The CIA
had nothing to do with
writing the book." Finally,
on July 31?a month after
the article was released?
Shevchenko himself held a
press conference at the Na-
tional Press Club in Wash-
ington, denying Epstein's
charges.
To the editors:
Edward Jay Epstein's "review" of Ar-
kady Shevchenko's Breaking with Mos-
cow is so riddled with errors, misrepre-
sentations, and leaps of judgment that
one scarcely knows where to begin a re-
joinder. But having talked to the author,
as well as to knowledgeable authorities,
we are convinced that Shevchenko's
memoir is reliable. . . .
The New York Times on July 1, 1985, ef-
fectively demolished several of Ep-
stein's charges; others of his accusations
reflect attempts to strip Shevchenko of
his verisimilitude. For example, Epstein
writes: "The book details a wealth of es-
pionage coups [Epstein's word] Shev-
NEW REPUBLIC
26 August 1985
chenko accomplished before the end of
1975." It is illogical to assume that Shev-
chenko would not discuss what the So-
viets had done in the months before his
defection. Epstein further claims:
"There is no real evidence that whatever
valuable information supplied came be-
fore rather than after his defection." But
several people in positions of knowl-
edge, including Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan and Admiral Stansfield
Turner, have refuted that allegation,
ct
not have considered approaching John
Scali about his defection in late 1975, be-
cause by then Scali had been replaced as
U.N. ambassador by Moynihan, but
that he thought about revealing himself
to Scali early in 1975, and not as he had
written.
What Epstein omits is equally instruc-
tive as to his line of attack. He disre-
gards Moynihan's published and broad-
cast support of Shevchenko. When
asked on "60 Minutes" of
his evaluation of Shev-
chenko, Moynihan said:
"For the first time we got
an understanding of how
Soviet foreign policy is
made and how it is oper-
ating." Your readers are
free to choose the more
reliable authority. . . .
It is only fair to ask
what Epstein is trying to
prove. That the CIA
wrote Breaking with Mos-
cow? (The agency officers
are portrayed as manipu-
lative and sometimes in-
sensitive.) That the book
is a piece of CIA disinfor-
mation? (The hawks in
this administration might
not appreciate Shevchen-
ko's conclusion that we
must continue "to seek
reasonable and practical
accommodation" with the
Soviets.) That Shev-
chenko was not a CIA in-
formant for more than
two years? (Various
American officials whom
Epstein apparently didn't
interview have attested to
Shevchenko's bona fi-
des.) Or is Epstein trying
to connect Shevchenko to his favor-
ite espionage subjects, Yuri Nosenko,
Fedora, and Top Hat, all of whom
manage their way into his article,
and all of whom will presumably people
his own book on disinformation
that he is writing for Simon and
Schuster?
However much Epstein has tried to
damage Shevchenko, he has not made a
case. Breaking with Moscow stands as an
extraordinary memoir, and it will sur-
vive Edward Jay Epstein's bizarre
fulminations.
ASHBEL GREEN
Agil Editor-in-chief, Alfred A. Knopf
DRAW
INC BY MICHAEL C WITTE FOR THE NEW REPL B
and the CIA has issued a statement that
Shevchenko "provided invaluable intel-
ligence to the United States
government."
Of Epstein's many charges we have
been able to find only two with any va-
lidity, both minor confusions in chro-
nology. He is correct that the dinner
meeting between Shevchenko, Boris So-
lomatin, and Georgy Arbatov could not
have occurred in 1976, but Shevchenko
told me after reading the Epstein article
that it did take place in 1975, at a time
when Arbatov was certainly pondering
the 1976 elections, especially given the
political fallout after Watergate. Shev-
LIC
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860007-0