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Summary
Summary
The thrilling story of two Cold War spies, CIA case officer Jack Platt and KGB agent Gennady Vasilenko -- improbable friends at a time when they should have been anything but.
In 1978, CIA maverick Jack Platt and KGB agent Gennady Vasilenko were new arrivals on the Washington, DC intelligence scene, with Jack working out of the CIA's counterintelligence office and Gennady out of the Soviet Embassy. Both men, already notorious iconoclasts within their respective agencies, were assigned to seduce the other into betraying his country in the urgent final days of the Cold War, but instead the men ended up becoming the best of friends-blood brothers. Theirs is a friendship that never should have happened, and their story is chock full of treachery, darkly comic misunderstandings, bureaucratic inanity, the Russian Mafia, and landmark intelligence breakthroughs of the past half century.
In Best of Enemies , two espionage cowboys reveal how they became key behind-the-scenes players in solving some of the most celebrated spy stories of the twentieth century, including the crucial discovery of the Soviet mole Robert Hanssen, the 2010 Spy Swap which freed Gennady from Soviet imprisonment, and how Robert De Niro played a real-life role in helping Gennady stay alive during his incarceration in Russia after being falsely accused of spying for the Americans. Through their eyes, we see the distinctions between the Russian and American methods of conducting espionage and the painful birth of the new Russia, whose leader, Vladimir Putin, dreams he can roll back to the ideals of the old USSR.
Author Notes
Eric Dezenhall is the author of ten books, including Glass Jaw: A Manifesto for Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal , and Damage Control: Why Everything You Know about Crisis Management Is Wrong (with John Weber). He has written for publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, New Republic , and Huffington Post .
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this real-life thriller, Russo (Live by the Sword) and Dezenhall (Glass Jaw) recount the relationship between legendary CIA officer Jack Platt and KGB officer Gennady Semyovich Vasilenko, who remained loyal to their countries while forging a deep personal and professional connection. The authors base their story on extensive interviews with the two protagonists and others who served in the intelligence community, as well as unclassified information regarding CIA-KGB encounters during the Cold War. The two officers were at the center of many important Cold War intelligence confrontations, culminating in the CIA and FBI hunt for a mole who virtually destroyed American intelligence capacity in Russia. Platt was instrumental in the 2001 capture of Robert Hanssen, the most notorious internal spy in U.S. history, and Vasilenko was wrongfully imprisoned by the Russians as a result. Vasilenko's imprisonment and torture highlights the brutality and corruption that makes the modern Russian judicial system a fitting heir to the Soviet gulag. In an ironic twist, Vasilenko-a KGB agent who had been loyal to the U.S.S.R. and Russia throughout his career-was traded to the U.S. in exchange for captured Russian spies in 2010. This is an informative and exciting history for the general reader and for the espionage expert alike. Agent: Kris Dahl, ICM, and Jeff Silberman, Folio Literary Management. (Oct.) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A rollicking tale of Cold War espionage focused on the improbable bond between a macho CIA agent and his KGB counterpart.Russo (Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers, 2006, etc.) and Dezenhall (Glass Jaw: A Manifesto for Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal, 2014, etc.) offer a well-researched account, intersecting with the CIA's betrayal by Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen. The institutional pursuit of these turncoats, who caused "a staggering amount of damage," involved many of the principals here. Previously, in both Washington and Moscow in the 1970s and '80s, spies with diplomatic covers often became entangled in each other's recruitment schemes. Rakish, outgoing KGB officer Gennady Vasilenko became involved in the D.C. diplomats' amateur athletics, making him a prime target of CIA officer Jack Platt, a larger-than-life, hard-living agency tactician. While neither agreed to "cross over" to provide their country's secrets, they developed a genuine friendship. "Both men were patriotic risk takers," write the authors. "Both loved their chosen professions and had no respect for the desk jockeys." Although Platt participated in an operation to "turn" Vasilenko, he respected the Russian's determination to remain loyal. But KGB suspicions of Vasilenko's rule-bending ethos prevailed, and he was lured home, imprisoned, and expelled from the service. When the Soviet Union collapsed, his American connections enabled him to pursue business opportunities with Platt, as did many ex-Russian spies. However, the 2001 arrest of Hanssen led Vasilenko's erstwhile colleagues to target him; he was arrested a few years later and again imprisoned over old allegations of collusion. Following five years of often brutal treatment, Platt's CIA colleagues added Vasilenko to an exchange for the Russian "illegals" notoriously arrested in 2010 after years of deep-cover spying, finally permitting him a bittersweet American retirement. Russo and Dezenhall aptly capture this complex narrative, based on its protagonists' long-classified recollections, though the focus on their outsized personalities can be repetitive.An unusual, entertaining story of steadfast friendship amid governmental treachery. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Review of Books Review
WHEN JACK PLATT, a maverick C.I.A. agent, and Gennady Vasilenko, a K.G.B. officer stationed in Washington, D.C., met in 1978, each marked the other as a potential recruit. But neither betrayed his country. Instead they embarked on a deep friendship that crossed cultures, borders and ideologies, one for which Vasilenko would eventually pay a terrible price. The two spies, as Gus Russo and Eric Dezenhall explain in "Best of Enemies," had reputations as "cowboys." In a world of staid agency bureaucrats, they were "spooks who played by their own rules, kindred spirits who validated each other's quirky approach to their strait-laced profession." Platt had run the C.I.A. training program for officers working under deep cover. Vasilenko, tall and gregarious, was "all open-faced charm," a veteran womanizer who had perfected his ability to seduce while still a teenager. Both men loved the tools of their trade, especially guns and drinking. And it was guns that would cement their friendship. One weekend in 1979, Platt picked up Vasilenko and the two drove deep into the Maryland woods. Once at the isolated site, Platt revealed the arsenal in his trunk, including a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver, popularized by Clint Eastwood in "Dirty Harry." The piece de resistance, however, was hidden in a violin case: a Thompson submachine gun. Platt and Vasilenko spent the next few hours happily obliterating tin cans, grapefruits and watermelons. The next gambit went less well. Vasilenko and Platt met for drinks with an F.B.I. agent, known as "Johnny Disco" for the white suit he wore when teaching disco dancing, and a C.I.A. code clerk, known as "Captain Dougie," at a waterside restaurant. Unfortunately, Johnny Disco couldn't hold his liquor. "This here is real vodka, this here is a real K.G.B. guy," he loudly declared at one point, adding, "Those are real C.I.A. guys and I'm F.B.I.!" Platt threw $100 on the table and ordered everyone to leave. Unfortunately, two men at nearby tables were colonels in Air Force intelligence. After they reported the incident, Platt managed, just barely, to salvage his career. Russo's previous books include "The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Making of Modern America," and Dezenhall is the co-author of "Damage Control: Why Everything You Know About Crisis Management Is Wrong." The fact that neither is a historian brings a certain freshness to their narrative. Fast-paced and lively, "Best of Enemies" is suitable for the general reader with an interest in Cold War espionage, although its chatty tone and the authors' evident admiration for their subjects can become tiresome. Platt played a key role in the 2001 capture of the former F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen, one of the most notorious traitors in American history. Moscow wrongly blamed Vasilenko for the loss of their agent, since his friendship and business links with Platt made him a prime suspect. Vasilenko was arrested in August 2005, the start of a five-year nightmare odyssey through the brutal Russian penal system, until he was traded for several captured Russian spies, including the glamorous Anna Chapman. Platt died in 2017 and Vasilenko now lives in the United States. "Best of Enemies" can be read as a lament for a world in which mutually assured destruction brought a strange kind of stability. The two nuclear superpowers may have fought proxy wars, but they always stepped back from the brink. The Cold War was a dangerous time, but it was a time with rules. It's almost inconceivable to imagine a Soviet leader authorizing the kind of slapdash operation that took place in Salisbury, England, when a deadly poison was used in an attempted assassination, then left in a perfume bottle to kill an innocent bystander. "It was a world of rowdy soldiers, jocks, lotharios, Machiavellians, venal cops, bitter bureaucrats wearing porno mustaches and aviator frames," Russo and Dezenhall tell us. That world is long gone, leaving in its wake something much more perilous. ADAM LEBOR'S latest Budapest noir crime novel is "District VIII." 'This here is rezil vodka/ shouted Johnny Disco, 'this here is a real K.G.B. guy. Those are real C.I.A. guys and lm F.B.I.l
Library Journal Review
Russo (Supermob) and Dezenhall (Spinning Dixie) weave an engrossing tale of CIA officer Jack Platt and KGB agent Gennady Vasilenko, who became confidants. Both tried to flip the other to their respective side, and when they realized this couldn't happen, they maintained regular contact, endearing themselves to each other. Bonded by outsized personalities and rebellious streaks that pushed the limits within bureaucratic apparatuses of the CIA and KGB, the two created a friendship that here is woven through the larger contexts of the past four decades of American-Russian (Soviet) relations and the actions and reactions of the KGB-CIA. This book adds knowledge to recent works such as Jack Barksy's Deep Undercover and Eva Dillon's Spies in the Family. VERDICT Highly recommended for those who miss the show The Americans and others who immerse themselves in intelligence intrigue.-Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Dramatis Personae | p. 1 |
| 1 Apprentice Spies | p. 13 |
| 2 All Roads Lead to Washington | p. 27 |
| 3 Contact | p. 52 |
| 4 Musketeers | p. 69 |
| 5 The IOC | p. 93 |
| 6 The Quisling | p. 115 |
| 7 Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey | p. 134 |
| 8 Havana Takedown | p. 150 |
| 9 Sasha | p. 159 |
| 10 An Old Enemy | p. 170 |
| 11 A Second Reunion | p. 179 |
| 12 Going Public | p. 202 |
| 13 A Heavy Box of Caviar | p. 211 |
| 14 &CyrG;&CyrxEat &CyrR;&CyrH;&CyrX;&CyrZ;&CyrxEe; &CyrO;&CyrxEe;&CyrxFat;&CyrxEe;&CyrD; &CyrxEa;&CyrxFc; &CyrxFat; &CyrxEe;&CyrI; (Calm Before the Storm) | p. 232 |
| 15 You Don't Know Me | p. 240 |
| 16 The Gulag Redux | p. 254 |
| 17 Reset: The Red Button | p. 272 |
| 18 End Games | p. 294 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 315 |
| Bibliography | p. 319 |
| About the Authors | p. 323 |
| Index | p. 325 |
