Kessler, Ronald. Spy vs. Spy: Stalking Soviet Spies in America. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. 308 pages.
Most of this book recounts the story of Karl F. Koecher and his wife
Hana, whom Kessler interviewed in 1987. In 1965 they orchestrated a phony
defection from the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service, after which Karl
became a naturalized U.S. citizen, worked full-time for the CIA beginning
in 1973, and continued as a contract agent after 1977. He spoke four
languages, earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Colombia, and spent many of
his weekends as a "swinger" at spouse-swapping parties with Hana. By 1982
the FBI's counterintelligence squad was getting suspicious. In 1984 Karl
Koecher admitted that he had been spying for the East all along, and in
1986 he and Hana were traded for Natan Sharansky.
Award-winning correspondent Ronald Kessler spent fifteen years at the
Washington Post, and has also been a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
His books include "Spy vs. Spy," "Moscow Station," and "The Richest Man in
the World: The Story of Adnan Khashoggi." The first two are remarkable for
his excellent contacts within current U.S. counterintelligence circles,
while the book on Khashoggi was an international bestseller. Kessler lives
in Potomac, Maryland.
ISBN 0-684-18945-3
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