Since narrowly eluding capture in Warsaw 16 years ago, Kuklinski, now 67, has lived under a false identity at secret locations in the United States. Poland sentenced him to death in absentia in 1984; five years later, when the communist regime crumbled and Solidarity took over, the sentence was commuted to life in prison. Last month prosecutors dropped all charges on the ground that his spying was based on ““a higher necessity’’–in effect, trying to help Poland free itself from Soviet domination. ““A person who cooperated with NATO cannot be considered a traitor, since Poland is trying to become a member of that alliance,’’ declared Interior Minister Leszek Miller.
Case closed? Hardly. The debate about Kuklinski has only escalated since he was legally cleared. Former Carter administration national-security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski calls him ““Poland’s first NATO soldier.’’ Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, a legendary courier of the Polish underground during World War II, says Kuklinski ““will go down in history as a national hero.’’ But Jaruzelski and other former generals are waging a vitriolic public campaign against the man they call ““a deserter and a spy.’’ Although Kuklinski is nervously considering a possible visit to Poland to accept an ““honorary citizen’’ award from the city of Cracow, he has no intention of returning to his homeland for good. He continues to live in hiding, fearing that he remains at risk.
Kuklinski began his covert activities for the CIA when he became alarmed by Soviet war plans. The strategy involved sending Soviet troops across Poland and into Western Europe. In such a scenario, Kuklinski realized, the West might respond by showering Poland with nuclear missiles. ““Polish propaganda never said we were preparing for an offensive war, and that we were preparing to sacrifice rivers of Polish blood for Soviet hegemonism,’’ he says. Acting on principle, not for money, he gave the CIA precise information, not only about plans, but about key command posts. ““His information permitted us to make counter-plans to disrupt command and control facilities rather than only relying on a massive counterattack on forward positions, which would have hit Poland,’’ says Brzezinski. One of Kuklinski’s CIA case officers still marvels at the volume of his information. ““We had a lot of Russian translators,’’ he says, ““but they couldn’t keep up with the material.''
As the Solidarity movement challenged Poland’s communist rulers, Kuklinski provided evidence that Moscow was preparing to invade Poland in December 1980. President Carter responded with public and private warnings, and the Kremlin backed off. But when Kuklinski informed the CIA of Jaruzelski’s plans to impose martial law in late 1981, the regime learned of the leak. Convinced that he was about to be caught, Kuklinski contemplated suicide. His wife and two sons, who only then learned about his spying, urged him instead to bail all of them out.
Kuklinski still won’t talk about the CIA operation that got him out of Poland, except to say that it was masterminded by a young female agent. When he arrived in the United States, the spy received the CIA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. But life in exile soon proved jittery–and later tragic. In 1989, when the Kuklinskis were living in a house near the Washington Beltway, a car with Soviet Embassy plates ominously stopped for a while out front. The family then moved to the Seattle area, where they lived until two years ago. By then, both of his sons were dead. The younger one, who was a professional diver, disappeared from a boat off the coast of Florida in a storm.The body was never found. ““I don’t want to suggest that the KGB did it, but there are so many unanswered questions,’’ says Kuklinski. His other son died in an auto accident six months later.
Kuklinski remains disappointed that Solidarity made no move to clear him when it came to power in 1989. Former president Lech Walesa still seems ambivalent about the colonel’s spying. ““I have had words of respect for Kuklinski, but in a free Poland, cooperation with a foreign intelligence service is not an example to be followed,’’ he said last month, glossing over the fact that Kuklinski did not work in a free Poland.
Kuklinski says that although he feels he has ““a moral obligation’’ to return to Poland and thank Cracow for its award, he wants to limit his public exposure: ““I’d like to retreat into the shadows.’’ It’s a place where he’s used to living.
