← Inconceivable Truth
Inconceivable Truth
NEW SERIES: The Redefector
00:02:58
It was 1985, the so-called “Year of the Spy”. The CIA had been losing Soviet assets left and right; the first loss seemed like bad luck, but four in a row? That wasn't a coincidence— it was a deadly leak. And just as the Agency was scrambling to find answers, across the world, a KGB colonel named Vitaly Yurchenko walked into the American embassy in Rome and volunteered his services in exchange for immediate exfiltration to the United States. At the time, Yurchenko was the highest-ranked KGB officer ever to defect to America, and the Agency felt it had hit the jackpot. Instead, his defection would go on to become one of the most dizzying, high-stakes espionage debacles of the last century. Although many of his bombshell revelations were bonafide, a doubt soon began haunting the intelligence community: Was Vitaly Yurchenko telling the whole truth? And if not... What had he been sent to hide?
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Transcript3 lines
- [00:00]
A
The year was 1985, and the CIA had a painful secret. Soviet assets who had been secretly working for the CIA had begun ominously disappearing, one after another after another. It just kept adding up. And I had a guy to do a study of how long KGB officers survived working for us. Months, practically. One might be bad luck, but four is three too many to be a coincidence. And that was just the beginning. 1985 would later become known as the Year of the Spy because of the sheer amount of blown covers, assassinations, triple agents and espionage debacles that would unfold over the coming months. Operations to protect America's secrets are usually done quietly with little publicity. While lately they've been making big news. Some of you may be wondering if the large number of spy arrests in recent weeks means that we're looking harder or whether there are more spies to find. Well, I think the answer to both questions is yes. As the Agency was scrambling to find answers on a hot summer day in Rome, in walked a Soviet colonel named Vitaly Yurchenko. He wanted to defect to the United States immediately. In exchange for exfiltration to the US and total secrecy, Yurchenko would tell the Americans everything he knew. And he knew a lot because he was the highest ranked KGB officer at that time ever to defect. In fact, he knew about a CIA mole, a man who would have been in a position to know about all the covers that had just been blown. But the question was, was he telling the truth? Do you think Vitalyarchenko was a plant? No, no, no. I'm 100% sure he wasn't. 100%. To me, the circumstantial evidence continues to weigh in the direction that this was a Soviet operation. He was a true deal. He wasn't anybody's plan. He came on his own. I'm definite about that.
- [02:00]
B
The more I reported, the more it was impossible to know which narrative was true. He had no idea what had happened, which story was true. He said, you could argue it round or you could argue it flat.
- [02:12]
A
The theory that I subscribe to is that he was a plant, that it was all orchestrated by KGB headquarters. My name is Julie Cohn. Join me as I finally discover the truth behind the Vitaly Yurchenko mystery. On the re defector.