A Secret Life: Blog 4

As Ryszard Kuklinski continued his cooperation with the CIA, David Forden, codename Daniel, was given an option to move to Vienna and become the Chief of Station. The move would put him out of the Gull, codename for Kuklinski, case. Daniel decided to go alone. Once Daniel had removed himself from the case, the CIA found that they had a significant problem on their hands. They soon realized that, “With Daniel now stationed in Vienna, it would be impractical for him to continue the highly personal correspondence with Kuklinski…the CIA felt it was too risky to stop them [the letters], and the agency did not want even to suggest to Kuklinski that Daniel was no longer at Langley, for fear it would concern or distract him. The Soviet Division thus assigned a group of officers…to produce letters under Daniel’s name,” (165). The CIA has decided that instead of threatening the continuation of the correspondence with Kuklinski, that they would lie to him, or at least keep the truth from him. This fits in with the society first rule that has been exhibited throughout this story. Now it does seem a little shocking that they would essentially flat out lie to one of their best sources because if he were ever to find out, the consequences could be disastrous. However, I’m sure that Kuklinski would have made the same choice if the roles had been reversed due to his belief that the needs of the many come before the needs of the few. On March 22, 1979, Kuklinski learned of the death of his close friend Barbara Jakubowska. She had been a close friend of both Kuklinski and his wife, Hanka. Along with the death of Barbara, Hanka had developed, “arthritis and back pain, which had been diagnosed as spinal degeneration, had forced her to quit her job as a factory bookkeeper,” and “Bogdan had gone to trial in the case involving the pedestrian he had struck. He was convicted, fined, and received a suspended sentence of one year,” (170). These incidents were greatly disturbing to Kuklinski but this did not alter his cooperation with the CIA. In fact, he sent seventy documents with more than 800 images. He wrote to “Daniel” about Barbara’s death, and told him that whe was buried at Wolski cemetery, only 50 meters away from where he had first met the Americans. He wrote, “‘Passing by there, I feel at this moment my only encouragement that our road, which had its good beginning at this very spot, has still not ended,’” (171).
The idea that family and personal issues are lower on the scale than societal issues is shown again when he wrote to Daniel in September of that year, “‘I see ahead many unattained goals, both the great ones related to Polish aspirations for liberty, and the lesser ones pertaining to family and myself,” (177). Kuklinski has straight out told us once again, that his own personal issues have less importance to him than the issues involving the liberation of his country.