From Warsaw with Love: Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging of an Unlikely Alliance

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. Pulitzer finalist Pomfret (The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom) documents how “backdoor deals,” such as the CIA’s purchase of Polish weapons to send to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, set the stage for the “floodgates of cooperation” to open in 1990, when Poland agreed to help rescue six American spies stranded in Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Among many mutually beneficial agreements, Pomfret highlights Poland’s willingness to share intelligence from North Korea and Iran, and the U.S.’s support for including Poland in NATO. He also sheds light on darker aspects of the relationship, in particular Poland’s agreement to let the CIA operate a “black site” where suspected terrorists were held and allegedly tortured. The lingering damage this scandal has done to the Polish government should serve as a warning, Pomfret writes, about “what happens when the United States asks for too much.” Written in crisp, novelistic prose, this is an insightful study of the ins and outs of international spycraft. (Oct.)