Ryszard Kuklinski
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Ryszard Jerzy Kukliński (June 13, 1930–February 11, 2004) was a Polish colonel and Cold War spy. Motivated by the desire to promote the Polish national interest, he passed top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA between years 1971 and 1981.
Career
Kukliński was born in Warsaw in a working class family with socialist traditions. His father was a member of the resistance during World War II who died in the Sachsenhausen camp. After the war, Kukliński began a successful career in the (communist) Polish People's Army. He took part in the preparations for the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.After the December 1970 massacre of Polish workers in Gdańsk by communist forces, Kukliński contacted the CIA and offered his services as a spy. (According to another version, he was approached by the CIA in Vietnam as early as 1967.) Between 1971 and 1981 he passed 35,000 pages of mostly Russian secret documents to the CIA. The documents described Moscow's strategic plans regarding the use of nuclear weapons, technical data about the T-72 tank and Strela-1 missiles, the distribution of Russian anti-aircraft bases in Poland and East Germany, the methods used by the Russians to avoid spy satellite detection of their military hardware, plans for the imposition of martial law in Poland, and many other matters.
Facing imminent danger of discovery, Kukliński was extracted from Poland by the CIA, along with his wife and two sons, shortly before the imposition of the martial law in December 1981.
On May 23, 1984 Kukliński was sentenced to death, in absentia, by a secret military court in Warsaw. After the fall of communism, the sentence was voided. Kukliński visited Poland again in April 1998.
He died of stroke at the age of 73 in a Tampa, Florida, hospital, in 2004. He was buried June 19, 2004 in the honour row of the Powązki military cemetery in Warsaw, Poland, along with his son Waldemar who died in the 1990s at the hands of persons unknown. His other son died several years earlier, also under circumstances not fully explained.
Viewpoints
Kukliński was the chief of a planning division of the Polish army, and was a liaison between the Polish army and the Russian military. He knew the Polish forces within the so-called "Warsaw Pact". While details of the general plans for the "Warsaw Pact" forces were known only in Moscow, Kuklinski could infer much from his contacts in Moscow.Kukliński found out details of Russian plans for attacking and conquering Western Europe. These anticipated that Poland would be sacrificed and would be expected to take from 400 to 600 nuclear hits from Western forces. He promoted an option for Polish army to work with NATO together to prevent it. Due to the de facto Soviet occupation and infiltration of Poland in communist times, Polish interests could only be promoted secretly at the time. For this reason, he approached the CIA out of his own initiative (was not approached by them), and they worked together.
Kukliński's information had a major impact on NATO's military plans in Europe, which were adjusted based on his suggestions; the changes would reduce the nuclear attacks on Poland during a possible war.
Opinion in Poland
Kukliński remains a very controversial figure for many Poles. Some consider him a national hero, some a traitor. Some are of the opinion that by revealing military plans to the Americans, he foiled a planned Soviet invasion of Poland in 1981 (resulting in the lesser evil of the martial law), and in this way may have helped prevent the start of a World War III that would have resulted in the nuclear destruction of Poland. This is difficult to judge, as the causes of the events surrounding the 1981 martial law are still hotly disputed by historiansKukliński is buried in the honour row of the Powązki military cemetery in Warsaw, and has been given honorary citizenship of several Polish cities, among them Kraków and Gdańsk.
The Polish political group Centrum (at the time headed by Zbigniew Religa, who is now the Polish Health Minister) asked the President of Poland in 2004 to posthumously award Kukliński the rank of general.
External links
References
- A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country, by Benjamin Weiser. ISBN 1891620541
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