You can read the column below:
John Walker may very well be the most damaging
of all the Cold War spies.
The retired Navy warrant officer was arrested in
1985, the year known as “The Year of the Spy,” because of the number of spy
arrests that year.
Walker was arrested for selling classified
information to the Soviet Union for 18 years. Walker was known in the trade as
a “walk-in,” as he began his life as a spy by entering the Soviet embassy in
Washington D.C. and offering his services. He later recruited his best friend,
his brother and his son to join in his spy ring.
Walker gave away the keys to the kingdom of
naval communications: key cards used for enciphering messages and encryption
devices. The U.S. Navy estimates that more than one million classified military
and intelligence agency messages were compromised by Walker. The Soviets were
able to read vital American communications during a time of war. Had the U.S.
gone to nuclear war with the Soviet Union, Walker’s security breech would have
had been catastrophic.
I have a particular interest in the Walker spy
case, as I served as a young seaman in the Radio Communications Division aboard
the USS Kitty Hawk when the aircraft carrier conducted combat operations off
the coast of Vietnam in 1970-1971.
The Kitty Hawk served as the flag ship for Task
Force 77, so we handled highly classified war traffic for the 7th Fleet, the
in-country military commands, the CIA, and other alphabet intelligence
agencies. Little did we know that much of what we took great pains to protect
was already blown by Walker.
It is my view — a view shared by many others who
served in the military — that Walker’s espionage led to the death of many
American sailors, soldiers, airman and marines during the Vietnam War.
Despite personal animosity, I was curious to read Walker's autobiography, My Life as a Spy: One of America's Most Notorious Spies Finally Tells His Story.
The book is of interest primarily as a case
study of a spy, best read in conjunction with other books on Walker. In his
book Walker cites his reasons for spying as (a) to bring about an improvement
in U.S.-Soviet relations with a view towards reducing the prospect of war,
(b) his disgust with U.S. government deception, the Cold War fraud and covert
misadventures, (c) adventure and (d) the psychological pressure of a failed
marriage.
He fails to mention greed or his enormous ego,
the two prime motives for espionage that are, it seems to me, much closer to
the truth. Now serving a life sentence in federal prison, Walker has written a
self-serving book, a book that is pure spin.
We had another name for it when I was in the
Navy.
Walker recounts his life like it’s an adventure
story rather than a tragedy. He damaged national security, destroyed his
family, and in my view, he caused the deaths of American servicemen in Vietnam.
Walker was a well-rated sailor who rose quickly
up the enlisted ranks to become a warrant officer. He claims his dismal
marriage to an alcoholic wife and a mistrust of the U.S. government led him to
steal secrets and sell them to the Soviets. He later drew his son, brother and
best friend into a life of espionage and betrayal.
In 1985, “The Year of the Spy,” his ex-wife
reported him to the FBI and he was arrested in a Maryland motel after making a
“dead-drop” of classified documents at a nearby roadside.
Walker made a deal with the government in which
he testified against his friend, Navy Chief Petty Officer Jerry Whitworth (whom
he recruited to spy for him) and he agreed to reveal what he gave to the
Soviets in exchange for a lesser sentence for his son (who he recruited to spy
for him).
On November 6, 1986, John Walker was sentenced
to two life terms plus ten years to be served concurrently. His son was
sentenced to 25 years.
The book is interesting in a perverse way, but
one should keep in mind that Walker is a habitual liar. He is also proud of his
criminal deeds. At one point in the book, he grins to himself and thinks “If
they only knew.”
Walker states that he didn’t like the James Bond
movies, finding them to be Hollywood fantasies, but then he states he thought
of Bond when he was with a blond only hours after a secret meeting with the
KGB. But be serious, Walker was hardly James Bond.
He claims to have written the book for his
children, but in the book he often brags of female conquests. He says he was
concerned for his children and tried to protect them from his abusive wife, but
he talked his son into committing espionage, and talked him right into federal
prison. He also attempted to draw his daughter into the spy ring.
Walker sees himself as a glamorous spy, but he
was in fact merely an unattractive and weaselly sneak thief. He stole
classified documents and sold them to the Soviets in order to live a more
prosperous lifestyle.
The book will interest students of espionage and
history, but it ought to be read after one reads other books on Walker, such as
former FBI Special Agent Robert Hunter's Spy Hunter: Inside the Walker
Espionage Case, and journalist Pete Earley's Family of
Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring.
Note: The
above column originally appeared at GreatHistory.com.
The interview appeared in two parts in a Defense Department in-house magazine when I was a civilian Defense Department administrative officer for a DOD command in Philadelphia.
As administrative officer, I oversaw security for the command, and I was contributing writer to DOD magazines as well. I was also a producer and on-air host of the Federal Executive Board's radio program Inside Government. I interviewed FBI Special Agent Verica on Inside Government and later wrote the two articles, which can read via the below link:
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