CIA Spymaster
AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE HISTORY BOOK CLUB AND THE MILITARY BOOK CLUB
"One of the best behind-the-scenes perspectives on Cold War espionage that I have read."-Francis Gary Powers, founder, The Cold War Museum
"When I think of George Kisevalter, I think about one of the finest public servants I have ever known. I think about honor, decency, and integrity. He served in some very important and difficult posts, always with distinction, always making his country and the Agency proud." -George Herbert Walker Bush, president and former CIA director George Kisevalter ran the first key Soviet agent in CIA history, Pyotr Popov, gained the U.S. its first view behind the Iron Curtain, and helped gain information from Soviet colonel Oleg Penkovsky, regarded as the most successful spy in CIA history. This top-secret information proved decisive for Kennedy during the showdown of the Cuban missile crisis.
More than a biography, CIA SpyMaster is a glimpse into the mind of an espionage genius, a rare view of what it takes to "live in the black" for years at a time under a fictitious identity, torn from friends and family. It's a behind-the-scenes look at spycraft in action, from dead drops and cutoffs to multilayered ciphers, the KGB's secret "spydust," and everything in between. It is a book of ever-increasing tension and suspense, as the rising stakes of the Cold War endow every act of espionage with utmost importance.
During his lifetime, George Kisevalter was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the highest award attainable in the CIA without giving one's life. For his work with Penkovsky, he received a Certificate of Merit with Distinction. Less than two months before his death in 1997, he was selected as one of fifty "unique contributors" in the fifty-year history of the CIA and was presented with the newly established Trailblazers Award, the only case officer ever to be so honored.
Clarence Ashley
Clarence Ashley is a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency who was born in Columbia, South Carolina. He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1957 and a master of science in the same field in 1964. During his military service at Vandenberg Air Force base, Mr. Ashley was part of the team that launched the first-ever strategic missile launched by an operational crew anywhere in the world. He later worked on the development of the Atlas Missile, one of the first ICBM missiles placed into service by the US Air Force during the Cold War, and worked for General Electric on the development and manufacture of the components of the Minute Man missile program. He was also part of the Polaris Missile program at Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Ashley then took a career turn and accepted a position as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, assessing Soviet strategic missile capabilities of the (then) USSR and preparing national intelligence estimates. At the CIA, he also contributed to the creation of procedures and techniques for evaluating the capabilities of alternative collection systems, designed to provide a foundation for resource allocation decisions. Mr. Ashley became interested in being in business for himself and left the military-industrial complex for a small commercial real estate firm in McLean, Virginia. It was there that he met George Kisevalter and formed a friendship that lasted twenty-four years, until Kisevalter's death in 1997. Though Mr. Ashley has published poetry in national publications, his first book, CIA SpyMaster , is an outgrowth of his friendship with the CIA's most decorated case officer. Currently, Mr. Ashley is the owner and principal broker of a commercial real-estate firm in northern Virginia and is an active member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. He lives in Great Falls, Virginia, with his wife.
