130 AMERICAN SPYcisely for these reasons that penetrating the KGB was the CIA’s primary
mission.To augment the rather limited perspective gained from my own personal
contact with Boris, I recruited two local access agents from a country
friendly to the Soviet Union. They did not know each other, but both would
give me additional insights into Boris that I was not likely to obtain on
my own. One was a brilliant, soft-spoken senior diplomat in his country’s
embassy, who had excellent contacts within the Soviet embassy. The other
was a gorgeous young dancer who was able to develop her own access to
local Soviet social circles and, with luck, to Boris. Although I recruited the
embassy officer because of his natural access to the local Soviet commu-
nity, there were also peripheral benefits: he once told me about a meeting in
the Soviet embassy where key personnel were informed of President Gor-
bachev’s decision to begin withdrawing Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
This information would not be public for some time, and my intel report
on the subject was well received by Soviet watchers at CIA headquarters.
Because Boris was such a high-priority target, I faithfully documented
every conversation between the two of us, recording every detail I could
remember about our contact. If we were meeting over drinks at night, I’d
sometimes retreat to the bar’s bathroom stall to jot down notes, to ensure
I did not forget a single salient detail. The fact that Boris was willing to
continue to meet with me was another indication that he was different
than most Soviet officials. My cables were followed closely at headquarters
by Soviet experts, including American spymaster Burton Gerber, Soviet–
East European Division chief. Headquarters would respond to every cable,
often with their informed big-picture analysis of what was transpiring,
along with suggestions for how to move the developmental forward. Head-
quarters did not typically micromanage non-Soviet cases to this extent, but
because of the potential risks and rewards, they remained fully engaged in
this case. Unlike some other cases I ran, headquarters contributions in this
operation were welcome.