Documents on Controversial CIA Spy Ryszard Kukliński
A new Polish film has prompted debate in Poland over whether a colonel who defected to the US during the 1970s deserves to be honored by his home country.
A new Polish film has prompted debate in Poland over whether a colonel who defected to the United States during the 1970s deserves to be honored by his home country.
For over nine years, Ryszard Kukliński provided the CIA with more than 40,000 pages of documents regarding the innermost secrets of the Warsaw Pact, including war plans and intelligence that was deemed of "truly great strategic significance" by Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser.
CWIHP has published numerous publications on Colonel Ryszard Kukliński:
- CIA documents on Kukliński's espionage career including the 1972 letter he sent to the US Embassy in Berlin offering to spy for the United States.
- 26 April 1981, Letter from Kukliński to his CIA contact indicating that the situation in Poland is militarily hopeless.
- CWIHP Working Paper No. 59, "The Kukliński Files and the Polish Crisis of 1980-1981: An Analysis of the Newly Released CIA Documents on Ryszard Kukliński," by Mark Kramer
- CWIHP Bulletin No. 11, article "Colonel Kukliński and the Polish Crisis, 1980-81," by Mark Kramer
- CWIHP Special Working Paper No. 1, Soviet Deliberations During the Polish Crisis, 1980-1981, which provides other crucial internal Soviet documents on the Martial Law Crisis.
- Ryszard Kukliński Collection in the CWIHP Digital Archive
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Cold War International History Project
The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Read more
