Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging of an Unlikely Alliance
by John Pomfret
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Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2021
288 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
From Warsaw with Love is the epic story of how Polish intelligence officers forged an alliance with the CIA in the twilight of the Cold War, told by the award-winning author John Pomfret.
Spanning decades and continents, from the battlefields of the Balkans to secret nuclear research labs in Iran and embassy grounds in North Korea, this saga begins in 1990. As the United States cobbles together a coalition to undo Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, six US officers are trapped in Iraq with intelligence that could ruin Operation Desert Storm if it is obtained by the brutal Iraqi dictator. Desperate, the CIA asks Poland, a longtime Cold War foe famed for its excellent spies, for help. Just months after the Polish people voted in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Solidarity government in Warsaw sends a veteran ex-Communist spy who'd battled the West for decades to rescue the six Americans.
John Pomfret's gripping account of the 1990 cliffhanger in Iraq is just the beginning of the tale about intelligence cooperation between Poland and the United States, cooperation that one CIA director would later describe as "one of the two foremost intelligence relationships that the United States has ever had." Pomfret uncovers new details about the CIA's black site program that held suspected terrorists in Poland after 9/11 as well as the role of Polish spies in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
In the tradition of the most memorable works on espionage, Pomfret's book tells a distressing and disquieting tale of moral ambiguity in which right and wrong, black and white, are not conveniently distinguishable. As the United States teeters on the edge of a new cold war with Russia and China, Pomfret explores how these little-known events serve as a reminder of the importance of alliances in a dangerous world.
"[A]n eye-opening account of America's relations with Poland and its intelligence service...A lively and insightful exploration of an overlooked international alliance." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The 'natural fellowship, and ease of understanding' between Poland and the U.S. helped their respective intelligence agencies forge a special relationship after the Cold War, according to this immersive and vividly detailed history...Written in crisp, novelistic prose, this is an insightful study of the ins and outs of international spycraft." - Publishers Weekly
"In his revealing behind-the-scenes account…Pomfret draws strong portraits of principal spies and diplomats on both sides, and recounts significant events, including Poland's daring rescue of six high-value American diplomats from Kuwait during the Gulf War. All in all, an important contribution to the study of U.S.-European relations." - Booklist
"Hold onto your hats for a journey of espionage, bravery, great escapes and jolting change at the hands of Polish and American intelligence officers. John Pomfret's From Warsaw with Love takes you on a gripping roller-coaster ride through the final years of the Cold War and into the blinding sunlight of a new age. This is an odyssey not to be missed." - David E. Hoffman, Pulitzer-prize winning author of The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
"Put down your John le Carré, Pomfret's book is the real deal." - Alex Storozynski, Chairman of the Kosciuszko Foundation and author of The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution
"From Warsaw with Love is a real-life and riveting spy story. John Pomfret reveals how American spymasters seduced the Poles away from the embrace of the KGB, and enlisted them in American adventures and misadventures from Iraq to North Korea to a CIA black site. The cast of characters comes wonderfully alive. I loved this book and learned so much." - Barbara Demick, author of Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town and Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea
This information about From Warsaw with Love was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
John Pomfret, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, served as a correspondent for the Washington Post for two decades, covering wars, revolutions, and China. His recent book, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, won the Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. The recipient of numerous journalism awards, he lives with his wife and three children in Berkeley, CA.
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