Lunch with an Author

A Secret Life
The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country

Benjamin Weiser

In August 1972 Polish colonel Ryszard Kuklinski, frustrated by the Soviet domination his country, took a dramatic step that endangered his own life and the security of his family. He contacted the American Embassy in Bonn and arranged a secret meeting. Over the next nine years, Kuklinski rose quickly in the Polish defense ministry, helping to prepare for a "hot war" with the West. But he also lived a double life of subterfuge of dead drops, messages written in invisible ink,, miniature cameras, and secret transmitters. In 1981, he gave the CIA the secret plans to crush Solidarity. Then, about to be discovered, he made a dangerous escape with his family to the West.

A Secret Life is a fascinating exploration of the morally complex world of the Cold War, seen through the eyes of a great and deeply conflicted spy.

Benjamin Weiser has been a metropolitan reporter on the New York Times since 1997, where he has covered legal issues, terrorism, and other topics. Before joining the Times, he spent 18 years as a reporter for the Washington Post, where he served on the investigative staff. His journalism has received the George Polk and Livingston awards.

"At a time when most people are focused on stories of CIA bungling, Weiser's book provides a blueprint of what an agency success ought to look like." – Anne Applebaum, Newsweek International

"A thoroughly researched and superbly written book." – Times Literary Supplement

"A real-life spy thriller and a page-turner" – The Washington Post Book World

"Weiser has written one of the most interesting, most important, and best documented books on Cold War espionage." – Journal of Cold War Studies.

"A Secret Life is a story of danger and stolen documents, of dual identities and hair-raising risk." – The Wall Street Journal

"The story of one of the more remarkable CIA coups ever ... among the most authentic accounts you are likely to read of a CIA operation." – The Washington Times

"Under what conditions can betrayal become an act of patriotic heroism? This moral hypothetical is cast into firm detail by Benjamin Weiser's extraordinary account ... [A] treat for those interested in Cold War history." – The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Weiser's book---lucid, authoritative, and unputdownable---is a must-read for scholars of the Cold War." – Radek Sikorski, National Review