Ryszard Kukliński
Ryszard Kukliński | |
---|---|
Birth name | Ryszard Jerzy Kukliński |
Born | Warsaw, Poland | June 13, 1930
Died | February 11, 2004 Tampa, Florida, U.S. | (aged 73)
Allegiance | Poland |
Service/ | Polish People's Army |
Rank | Colonel |
Ryszard Jerzy Kukliński (June 13, 1930 – February 11, 2004) was a Polish Army colonel and Cold War spy for NATO. He was posthumously promoted to brigadier general by Polish President Andrzej Duda.[1]
Between 1972 and 1981 Kukliński passed top-secret
Former United States
Biography
Kukliński was born in Warsaw to a working-class family with strong Catholic and socialist traditions. During
In 1994, Kukliński said that his awareness of the "unambiguously offensive" nature of Soviet military plans was an important factor in his decision to communicate the details of those plans to the United States, adding that "Our front could only be a sacrifice of Polish blood at the altar of the Red Empire".
Between 1972 and 1981, he passed 35,000 pages of mostly
He was the first foreign recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.[7]
Escape to the United States
Facing imminent danger of discovery from a denunciation by a secret Communist collaborator known only by his alias "Prorok",[8] Kukliński, his wife and two sons were spirited out of Poland by the CIA shortly before the imposition of martial law in December 1981. Though Kukliński and his family successfully defected, his past may have followed him to the United States as both of his sons later died in separate incidents. The older, Waldemar, was run over by a truck without a licence plate in August 1994 on the grounds of an American university. His younger son, Bogdan Kukliński, drowned on December 31, 1993, when his yacht capsized on a quiet sea. Ryszard Kukliński did not claim that they were assassinated, but never rejected such a possibility either.[9]
On May 23, 1984, Kukliński was
Death
He died from a stroke at the age of 73 in Tampa, Florida, February 11, 2004. The funeral Mass for Kukliński was held at Fort Myer with CIA honors on March 30, 2004. His remains were transported to Poland and on June 19, 2004, Kukliński was buried in the row of honour in the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw, Poland, along with the remains of his son Waldemar.[10]
Legacy
In June 1986, a spokesman for the Soviet-backed
My view has been consistently that in Poland there existed a real chance to avoid both Soviet intervention and martial law. Had he, together with
Stanislaw Kania, proved capable of greater dignity and strength, had they honestly adhered to the existing social agreements, instead of knuckling under to Moscow, present-day Poland would undoubtedly look completely different.[11]
Kukliński was the chief of a military strategic command planning division of the Polish army. He was very familiar with the layout of the Polish forces within the Warsaw Pact. While details of the general plans for the Warsaw Pact forces were known only in Moscow, Kukliński could infer much from his contacts at the Moscow high command headquarters.
According to President Carter's
In January 2013, Władysław Pasikowski began shooting a movie about Ryszard Kukliński. With Marcin Dorociński in the lead role, the script for Jack Strong (title taken from Kukliński's CIA secret-agent pseudonym), written by director Pasikowski, is based on new material from the Polish Institute of National Remembrance archives, CIA operating documents and statements by eyewitnesses including David Forden, the former CIA operations officer who was the liaison with Colonel Kukliński.[13]
Opinions in Poland
During his term as Poland's first freely elected president, a Solidarity leader, Lech Wałęsa, refused to pardon Kukliński and a poll taken in 1998 found that more Poles (34%) considered Kukliński a traitor than a hero (29%), with many undecided.[14][verification needed] The administration of US President Clinton nonetheless took the stance that it would oppose Polish membership in NATO unless Kukliński were exonerated.[15]
When all charges were dropped against Kukliński in 1997, the left leaning
According to some historians, it was possible that Kukliński was a
Kukliński is buried in the row of honour in the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw, and he has been given honorary citizenship of several Polish cities, including Kraków and Gdańsk. The Polish political group Centrum (at the time headed by Zbigniew Religa) requested in 2004 that the President of Poland posthumously promote Kukliński to the rank of general.
Since its unveiling in 2006, his monument in Kraków had been vandalized three times by 2014:[20][21] first on December 13, 2011, (the anniversary of martial law in Poland) and then on February 11, 2012 (the anniversary of Kukliński's death). In both cases, the terms such as: "Traitor", the crossed CIA name and "Death to the USA" were sprayed. On February 11, 2014, his statue was found splashed with brown paint or oil.[22]
See also
- List of Eastern Bloc defectors
- List of Poles
- Marian Zacharski
References
- ^ "Oficjalna strona Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej / Aktualności / Wydarzenia / Andrzej Duda nominował pośmiertnie płk. Ryszarda Kuklińskiego na stopień generała". www.prezydent.pl.
- ^ Keller, Michael (November 6, 2017). "Kukliński: How the CIA's Best-Placed Cold War Spy Escaped the Eastern Bloc". Culture.pl.
- ^ Benjamin B. Fischer (April 14, 2007). "The First Polish Officer in NATO". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
Notes: Warsaw PAP in English, 2148 GMT, 27 September 1992
- ISBN 978-83-11-13170-5, p. 70 (in Polish)
- ^ Rupert Cornwell, Ryszard Kuklinski: Cold War spy for the West Archived 2010-06-24 at the Wayback Machine The Independent February 13, 2004. Cached by info-poland.buffalo.edu.
- ^ Marat Miklszewski, "Colonel Kuklinski Speaks!", Tygodnik Solidarność, December 9, 1994, p. 12
- ^ "A Look Back … A Cold War Hero: Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
- ^ Edward Kotowski "Kim był 'Prorok'?" – Do dziś nie wiadomo. Leszk Szymowski utrzymuje, że był to arcybiskup Janusz Bolonek (see) Cezary Gmyz (February 2, 2009), "Pietro, specagent w Watykanie" reprint from Rzeczpospolita, September 21, 2011 (Aleksander Szumański), Portal Wolyn.
- ^ Jerzy Bukowski (May 20, 2009). "Niestosowne sugestie "Wprost"o synu śp.płk. Kuklińskiego (Rumours about Kukliński's son)". Salon24 (in Polish). Retrieved June 13, 2013.
- ^ "Ryszard Kuklinski memorial site". Kuklinski.us. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
- ^ Ryszard Kuklinski, "The Crushing of Solidarity," Orbis 32:1 (Winter 1988), p. 31
- ^ Andrew Nagorski, "All Is Forgiven, or Is It?," Newsweek, 27 October 1997, p. 40
- ^ "Władysław Pasikowski - Jack Strong". culture.pl. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
- ^ Jane Perlez, "Spy Recounts Passing Data to CIA," The New York Times, April 30, 1998
- ^ Benjamin Weiser, A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country (PublicAffairs, 2005).
- ^ Mieczyclaw Wodzicki, "Treason Rewarded; 'Learn from This, Poles'," Trybuna, September 25, 1997, p. 5
- ^ "Jeszcze raz o pułkowniku Kuklińskim | Komunikat z badań" (PDF) (in Polish). Warszawa, Listopad. 1997.
- ^ ISBN 978-83-7506-651-7, pp. 30–34 (in Polish)
- ^ a b Franciszek Puchała: Pułkownika Kuklińskiego udział w grze wywiadów wielkich mocarstw ("Colonel Kukliński's part in powers' game of intellingce"), "Przegląd Historyczno-Wojskowy" nr. 4 (242), 2012, pp. 164–184 (in Polish)
- ^ "Kukliński's monument devastated once again. Prosecutors are helpless". Wprost. February 13, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
- ^ "Kukliński's monument in Krakow devastated once again!". Rmf24. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
- ^ "Kraków: zdewastowano popiersie płk. Ryszarda Kuklińskiego". Onet Kraków. February 14, 2014.
External links
- The Political and Moral Dilemma by Jolanta JABŁOŃSKA-GRUCA -, Oslo, Norway, in (polish) Dylemat polityczny i moralny.
- Documents pertaining to Wojciech Jaruzelski and his collaborators
- Wojciech Jaruzelski and consisting of 20 other high-ranking military officers – WRON declared Martial Law *Cause of death of Colonel Kukliński (polish)
- CIA Release of 83 Documents on Kuklinski and Martial Law in Poland 1981–82, from the Cold War International History Project
- A Secret Life By Benjamin Weiser (Reviewed by Thomas M. Troy, Jr.) from the Central Intelligence Agency
- Statement by George J. Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence, on the Death of Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski from the Central Intelligence Agency
- A SECRET LIFE: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country
- The Spy Who Really Came in From the Cold by David R. Stokes
- SPY, podcast from Culture.pl's Stories From The Eastern West about Kukliński.
- Jack Strong (film), Polish political thriller. Also available in French