From Warsaw With Love: Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging of an Unlikely Alliance
This book is my first that focuses on something other than China. The seed of the book was planted in 1995 when, as a correspondent for The Washington Post in Poland, I broke a strange story about Polish Intelligence officers spiriting six American officers, both military and intelligence, out of Iraq. Over the subsequent years, I always wanted to write a broader story of how that operation jump-started an incredibly close alliance between Washington and Warsaw. Events in Poland, including the woeful direction of the Polish government, gave me my chance in the early 2010s. That, and the declassification of numerous Polish government documents, really helped me tell the tale.
CIA director George Tenet’s letter to his Polish counterpart Bogdan Libera on the occasion of Libera’s retirement. Pretty amazing document:
At the height of the Cold War, Polish companies weren’t supposed to get near secret US military projects. But this letter shows that at least for Polish spy Marian Zacharski that wasn’t the case:
Reviews:
"Written in crisp, novelistic prose, this is an insightful study of the ins and outs of international spycraft."—Publishers Weekly
From Warsaw with Love is a real-life, 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 and Nothing to Envy
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
An astonishing account of one of the most conseqential spy-agency collaborations since the Cold War. Fast-paced, with startling revelations and exquisite story-telling, “From Warsaw with Love” is a portrait of an unlikely and largely secretive relationship between Americans and Poles, spanning dozens of operations ranging from daring rescue missions to a “black site” prison for suspected terrroists. For Poland, the journey underscores the rewards and occasionally painful costs of loyalty—-Joby Warrick, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS”