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From the award-winning and acclaimed author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, A Warsaw Pact is the epic story of an exchange of spies and unlikely alliance between the U.S. and Poland in the twilight of the Cold War.In 1990, less than a year after the Polish people participated in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Polish government sent a veteran spy, who had battled the West for decades, to rescue six American officers trapped in Baghdad. The CIA had asked the Polish government for help, as the U.S. was desperately cobbling together allies to counter Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. The captured Americans held valuable intelligence and were they compromised, it could've spelled ruin for Desert Storm. John Pomfret's gripping account of the highly unusual mission reveals the surprising relationship between Poland and the U.S. The CIA had long been a fan of the tradecraft of Polish intelligence officers who back during the Carter administration had robbed America of its military secrets. Once the Berlin Wall fell, the agency signed Poland's ex-communist spies on as allies and they worked for America around the world. This cooperation didn't end with Poland's accession to NATO in 1999. Polish operatives conducted operations for America in Iran and North Korea. After 9/11, the Polish government even allowed the CIA to open a so-called black site in Poland to interrogate and waterboard suspected terrorists. As the U.S. teeters on the edge of a new cold war with Russia and China, Pomfret, who first uncovered this story during his long career at the Washington Post, revisits these little-known events as a reminder of the importance of allies in a dangerous world.
