What I want to talk about today is the story of the two of them ↓
The one on the left is gennady Vasilenko, who was once a spy for the KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency.
The one on the right is Jack Platt, who was once a spy for the U.S. intelligence agency, the CIA.
During the Cold War, the two wanted to recruit each other,
As a result, in the recruitment process, no one was recruited, but they became good friends for a lifetime.
Before 1976, their lives did not intersect at all.
Born in San Antonio, Texas, Jack is a brilliant former Marine.
He loves guns, is known as "Cowboy Jack" and has a good reputation in the industry as a dedicated agent.
Growing up in Western Leah, Genardi was a child of a pure warrior nation with no electricity or gas at home, he began drinking at the age of 3, skating 3.2 kilometers a day on an icy river to go to school, and his first pet was a bear cub.
Originally, Gnardy's dream was to become a volleyball star and enter the national team for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
But after a shoulder injury, sports dreams were shattered.
He then found himself guided into a KGB training course.
Later, because of his outstanding performance, he eventually joined the first bureau of the KGGB elite, and in 1976 was assigned to the KGGB's most important overseas station, the "KR Line" in Washington, or counterintelligence.
While stationed in Washington, he had at least one major success.
Ronald Pelton, a former U.S. Security Agency employee, is one of Moscow's most important spies in the United States.
And Gnady was his first recruiting officer.
In 1980, Pelton entered the Soviet Embassy in Washington and volunteered to work for the KGB.
Gnady dressed him up in disguise, then let him slip into a bus packed with Soviet embassy employees, bypassed FBI surveillance, and smuggled him out.
Eventually, Pelton exposed the U.S. "Operation Ivy Bell," in which the U.S. Navy and NSA installed wiretaps on the Soviet Union's underwater communication lines.
Gnady and Jack met in a similar operation.
Disguised as a Soviet diplomat, Gnady's most important mission in Washington was to recruit CIA and FBI agents to become Soviet spies.
In order to get close to these people, he would use his athletic expertise to approach them.
At the time, one of his tennis partners was Jack's colleague.
Jack actually already knew the true identity of Gnardy through the CIA's intelligence.
He intends to take the initiative.
Through colleagues, he invited Gnardy to watch a game of basketball on harlem in an attempt to lure him into becoming an American spy.
However, the two looked at the ball for a while and actually saw each other's good feelings!
"When it came to intermission, I found that I really liked this person." Jack recalled.
Although Gnardy has no interest in becoming an American spy, Jack does not give up.
"I never gave up recruiting him, but he never crossed the line."
The biggest proof was that he never revealed a word about Pelton to Jack.
Instead, Gnady, in turn, tries to convince Jack to work for KGB, though to no avail.
Jack remembers asking Gnady, "What can you give me?" ”
In this awkward mutual recruitment, the two gradually discover that they are soul mates.
They grew up as highly survivable adventurers, both loved spy games, and sneered at the old men sitting in the headquarters office.
Recruitment stalled, but their friendship escalated rapidly.
They often eat and drink in Cafes in Washington.
They also went hunting in the forests of West Virginia.
Later, Jack even bought a new car for Gnardy and went to his house to eat with his wife and two children.
In 1981, when Gnadi was to be transferred back to Moscow, Jack knew that continuing to keep in touch with him could put his life at risk.
So I said to him:
"You go back and enjoy your life in Moscow, and when you come out again, I'll go find you."
In 1984, Gnadi had another chance to go abroad.
He was assigned to the KGB station at the Guyana Embassy in South America.
Jack had been patiently watching the signs of Gnady's re-emergence from the Soviet Union.
When he found out that Gnardy was now in Guyana, he immediately asked the C.I.A. executives for instructions to fly to Guyana to restart the plan to recruit Gnady.
The reason why he insisted on recruiting Genadi was also because he thought it was a better choice for him.
"I know how corrupt the Soviet system is, and I know he's not a good fit. If he can come to the United States, he can become a good volleyball coach or have other very promising jobs. ”
Soon, the two met again in Guyana and easily renewed their friendship.
After that, Jack flew to Guyana twice a year, and they went to shoot together and drink together as before.
But there was no progress in the slightest. Gnady was never recruited by Jack.
At the same time, however, in Moscow, danger is creeping closer to Gnadi.
At the time, a KGB spy named Ames had infiltrated the CIA.
Under his intelligence, from 1985 to 1986, 10 KGB spies who secretly worked for the U.S. CIA were executed.
Neither Jack nor Gnardy knew all this at the time.
In the fall of 1987, Jack flew to Guyana, and before leaving, he agreed with Gnardy to come back to Guyana next year to celebrate his birthday with him.
The following year, however, before he was ready to leave, he suddenly found that Gnadi had disappeared without a trace.
"There was a dead silence, like the kind of silence we heard in 1985 when all of our agents were arrested. I felt a pang of nausea. ”
In fact, at that time, Gnadi had been arrested for 1 month.
In January 1988, Gnadi flew to Cuba to meet a friend of the KGB.
But when he arrived in Cuba, he was not seen by friends, but by local KGB security officials.
As soon as he stepped into the room they had prepared, he was immediately grabbed and thrown to the ground, and his head was broken.
"They asked me if I knew Jack."
After that, he was crammed into a Soviet cargo ship and sent to the deepest black hole in the KGB.
"After getting on the boat, I was thinking, do I want to jump ship and commit suicide?" I knew that no one could help me when I got to Moscow. I know some people were executed there. But then I thought about my family. ”
During the first interrogation at KGB's LubicaYan Prison, interrogators told Gnardy that Cuban agents had discovered the guilty recording of his last meeting with Jack, who had accidentally left the recording in his hotel room.
The interrogator snapped: We know you're a spy. Confess your sins!
But Gnady didn't believe them.
On the way back to the cell, he remembered the conversation jack had promised him that he would never record them.
In that desperate moment, he chose to believe in Jack and believe in their friendship.
"If Jack says there's no recording, these interrogators are lying."
In the end, his trust in Jack saved his life.
In fact, Jack didn't record their conversation. The so-called "hotel discovery recording" is actually a lie made up by the KGB.
The purpose was to cover up their real source of intelligence — almost certainly from Ames.
Ames stole a whole bunch of material from the CIA.
One of them may have been a document that Jack reported contacting Gnady in Guyana.
Fortunately, Jack never exaggerates his relationship with Gnardy in these reports, saying only that the two had an unauthorized meeting.
Looking at this information alone, it is impossible to conclude that Gnadi is a spy.
After KGB failed in its first move, it continued to lock up Gnardy for 6 months, during which he found various informants to do his inmate set messages.
Gnady never admitted.
Eventually, kgb finally believed that Gnady had not defected.
However, after his release, Gnady was expelled from the KGB for illegally importing shotguns.
He didn't have a KGB pension, was banned from going abroad, and had a hard time living.
On the other side of the world, Jack in the United States has lived in self-blame and guilt for so many years.
"I fear his disappearance could be related to my actions.
I kept looking for him, but there was no news, and I thought he was dead. ”
It wasn't until 1991 that Jack learned through a common acquaintance that Gnardy was alive!
He was about to get to the phone of the Gnady Moscow apartment and plucked up the courage to dial the number:
"Hello, I'm Chris (Jack's pseudonym)"
After a long silence, a word came from the other side: "Hello, Chris, I have been waiting for your call." ”
"I want to cry." Jack recalled.
Jack and Gnardy's friendship survived the Cold War and Ames' betrayal.
In 1992, Gnardy was allowed to travel to the United States.
Jack is determined to spend the rest of his life helping this friend who has lost his livelihood for this friendship and almost lost his life.
Both have founded a security consulting firm in Russia and the United States.
In 1993, they set up a joint venture to work together, share contacts together, and make a deal together.
In 2010, Gnardy moved to the United States. He bought a house next door to Jack's house.
Since then, they have seen each other almost every day. The two children are also very close.
Until January 2017, 80-year-old Jack died of esophageal cancer...
After Jack's death, Gnady kept his cowboy hat on a shelf in the garage.
He told his children that when he died, he would be buried next to his old friend.
Later, their story was written into a book.
Before Jack's death, Dezenhall, who wrote the book for them, asked him and Gnady,
"You have not won so many battles in the end, is espionage futile?"
A few weeks later, Jack gave the answer:
"We won!"
"Who are we?"
"Gnady and me. We won. How many people can have friends like Gnardy? ”
"He never asked if I had betrayed him. He only said one thing to me: I know it's not you. ”