The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB

A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the dramatic inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them.

Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow.

This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose through the ranks to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War. The clandestine operations they masterminded took them from the sewers of Moscow to the back streets of Baghdad, from Cairo and Havana to Prague and Berlin, but the action centers on Washington, starting in the infamous "Year of the Spy" -- when, one by one, the CIA's agents in Moscow began to be killed, up through to the very last man.

Behind the scenes with the CIA's covert operations in Afghanistan, Milt Bearden led America to victory in the secret war against the Soviets, and for the first time he reveals here what he did and whom America backed, and why.

Bearden was called back to Washington after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan and was made chief of the Soviet/East European Division -- just in time to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall, the revolutions that swept across Eastern Europe, and the implosion of the Soviet Union.

Laced with startling revelations -- about fail-safe top-secret back channels between the CIA and KGB, double and triple agents, covert operations in Berlin and Prague, and the fateful autumn of 1989 -- The Main Enemy is history at its action-packed best.

This is not, by any means, a complete story. At the end of thise review I recommend five other books that add considerable detail to a confrontation that spanned the globe for a half-century. Yet, while it barely scratches the surface, this book is both historical and essential in understanding two facts:

1) Afghanistan was the beginning of the end for USSR and
2) CIA made it happen, once invigorated by President Ronald Reagan and DCI William Casey

It may not be immediately apparent to the casual reader, but that is the most important story being told in this book: how the collapse of the Soviet effort in Afghanistan ultimately led to the collapse of Soviet authority in East Germany, in the other satellite states, and eventually to the unification of Germany and the survival of Russas as a great state but no longer an evil empire.

There are two other stories in this book, and both are priceless. The first is a tale of counterintelligence failure across the board within both the CIA and the FBI. The author excels with many "insider" perspectives and quotes, ranging from his proper and brutal indictment of then DCI Stansfield Turner for destroying the clandestine service, to his quote from a subordinate, based on a real-world case, that even the Ghanians can penetrate this place. He has many "lessons learned" from the Howard and Ames situations, including how badly the CIA handled Howard's dismissal, how badly CIA handled Yuchenko, to include leaking his secrets to the press, how badly both CIA and FBI handled the surveillance on Howard, with too many "new guys" at critical points of failure; and most interestingly, how both DCI Casey and CIA counterintelligence chiefs Gus Hathaway (and his deputy Ted Price) refused to launch a serious hunt for Ames and specifically refused to authorize polygraphs across the board (although Ames beat a scheduled polygraph later). The author's accounting of the agent-by-agent losses suffered by the CIA as Howard, Ames, and Hansen took their toll, is absolutely gripping.

The second story is that of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and how the anti-Soviet jihad nurtured by America and Pakistan ultimately turned back on both countries. It may help the reader of this book to first buy and read Milt Bearden's novel, "The Black Tulip," a wonderful and smoothly flowing account in novelized terms. From the primary author's point of view, it was Afghanistan, not Star Wars, that brought the Soviet Union to its knees. The primary author provides the reader with really superb descriptions of the seven key Afghan warlord leaders; of the intricacies of the Pakistani intelligence service, which had its own zealots, including one who launched jihad across in to Uzbeckistan without orders; into how the Stingers, and then anti-armor, and then extended mortars (with novel combinations of Geographical Information System computers and satellite provided coordinates for Soviet targets, all 21st century equipment that was quickly mastered by the Afghan warriors) all helped turn the tide. As America continues to fail in its quest to reconstruct the road of Afghanistan, having severely misunderstood the logistics and other obstacles, one of the book's sentences really leaps out: the supply chain to the rebels "needed more mules than the world was prepared to breed."

This book is a collector's item and must be in the library of anyone concerned with intelligence, US-Soviet relations, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Saudi funding of terrorism. It is a finely crafted personal contribution from someone who did hard time in the CIA, and made an enormous personal contribution, in partnership with the hundreds of CIA case officers, reports officers, all-source analysts, and especially CIA paramilitary officers (including Nick Pratt and Steve Cash, forever Marines).

A few other books that complement this one: Thomas Allen & Norman Polmar, "Merchants of Treason", Ladislav Bittman, "The Deception Game", Vladimir Sakharov, "High Treason", Victor Sheymov, "Tower of Secrets," and Oleg Kalugin, "The First Directorate." There are many more but these are my favorites.


The Shadow Lifts...   January 2, 2004
Patrick Devenny (New Jersey)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

Espionage, especially that concerning the CIA and the KGB, is extraordinarily hard to write about in an understandable way. It is either cloaked in a still tight shroud of official secrecy, or is so complicated and personal that readers simply cannot grasp the inherent complexities of the world of international intelligence gathering. Milt Bearden, a well known CIA official who has written on these matters for the last few years finally puts his fascinating life down on paper. His career in the 1980's and 90's spanned some of the most tumultuous and intriguing periods of the Cold War spy war. He watched as the CIA, newly emboldened, created a very effective network of penetration agents inside the Soviet Union, only to watch it fall apart dramatically. He ran an intense guerilla war in the wilds of Afghanistan as his mercenaries and his weapons dealt the Soviet Union a mortal blow. Finally, he watched the Evil Empire fall apart in fairly rapid succession, even as the CIA struggled to recover from its invisible betrayer. It's an amazing story, and it's very well told.

The early 1980's was a very positive time in American espionage. The CIA in Moscow was running some very good HUMINT sources, including various KGB, GRU, and Red Army officers, even a general. The flow of information from the Soviet Union was fairly constant and was often spectacularly accurate. The agency, newly bolstered by a conservative administration and new funding, was spreading its wings as it was finally managing to effectively outwit the dreaded KGB. Bearden experienced this period of success as a senior official in the Soviet section of the operations directorate, and was instrumental in its success. The CIA was also aided by a new influx of volunteers or outright defectors, as KGB officers sensed their side was losing the its grip on the empire. However, the whole deck of cards quickly collapsed. Starting in 1985, the CIA's agents began to disappear, often executed by the KGB. The agency struggled to understand what would only become clear years later. There was a mole deeply buried in the CIA, Aldrich Ames, and his involvement in Soviet operations, as told first hand by Bearden, is really chilling. This first part of the book is the best part of the book, as it gives the reader a surprisingly well detailed examination and chronicle of nitty gritty spywork. If you want to have an idea how dead drops, surveillance, and other tricks of the trade are pulled off, this is a great book to read.

Bearden's job at the CIA takes a radical turn in 1986 as he is tasked with coordinating agency aid to the Afghan rebels fighting the Soviet occupation. I felt this part of the book was the weakest, as it was short on real specifics and paled in comparison to recent works on the subject. However, at times, it did offer some new insights on the war and the agency's role, especially that concerning the Stinger missiles that eventually led to the Soviet withdrawal. In comparison to the really scintillating read the first part of the book offered, the Afghan section is a bit weak. One great part though had to do with Bearden's meeting with the infamous Afghan warlord, Hekmatyar. Recently a target of a CIA assassination attempt, Bearden sensed the danger that this man would pose in the future, as his religious extremism was clear under a thin veneer of gratitude for US weapons and funding.

The last part of the book deals with the final dissolution of the Soviet Empire. While a great success for the United States, it was hardly a sterling moment for the CIA. Because of the dramatic losses suffered in the late 1980's, the CIA was virtually blind in regard to Soviet operations. In East Germany, the highly effective Stasi had a stranglehold on any CIA operations in the area. Still, Bearden does point out that the CIA was able to take advantage of the deteriorating situation in the eastern bloc and quickly adapted. It began presenting large amounts of money to anybody that wanted to flee the sinking ship, so to speak. These efforts were moderately successful. Bearden ends the story of the great Cold War battle by documenting the birth of free eastern European intelligence agencies, and the collapse of the KGB itself.

Bearden's memoir serves as a critical examination of the world of Cold War espionage and the men and women who played roles in it. It's a story of traitors, thugs, academics, and covert operations that often sounds like a Clancy thriller. But, as they say, the truth is often much stranger than fiction, a reality made clear all throughout The Main Enemy.


as seen thru beardons filter   July 11, 2003
W.Mathesonis (currently Canada)
22 out of 46 found this review helpful

I am an American living abroad and am very interested in these types of books Ive been reading nonficiton spy related books for over 20 years now. My father was an MP and my uncle a Green Beret on some secret missions and this whole field fascinates me.

BUT ..

I dont understand all the five star reviews of this book! I bought it at a local bookstore and it leaves out MANY things that need to be said. IT seems to be focuseing more on wowing the reader with all the JAmes Bond goings on rather than really getting atwhat everything meant.

Listen folks if you really want to read a good(I MEAN GOOD!)book about the secret cia doings in recent years buy
Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby (Jan 2003)instead of this book.
Colby was a DIRECTOR of the CIA (not a CIA underling like Beardon who had a high level but NOT high enough to write a books of this kind) --and wow what a difference --Colby's book is a very professional nonsensationalistic look on the CIA wars of note.

I honestly dont know if Beardon got his freinds to write all those five star reviews but his book seems to be geared on selling itself like some sort of spy movie. ITs style and some substance. Its a medicore book but I cannot in good conscience give it more than one star. I say mediocre because you must look past all the interesting CIA events to the meat and potatoes aof what was bieng acheived if you are serious about understanding the CIA and related agencies around the world. And sorry --this book simply does not cut it. If your looking for sensational stuff than youll read this and balk at my review Im sure --but for you out there who understand what Im talking about please dont waste your money.

Also I heard the author BEARDON live on a talkradio interview recently (he has been doing alot of them to promote the book) where Beardon told a caller that he "should get over it" as regards to the CIA failure of Sept 11.

You know what Mr. Beardon??--until we actually CATCH Bin Laden there is nothing to "get over". Beardon came across as smug and evasive --folks that shows in his book as well.

Please consider buying the CIA DIRECTORs book instead IF you are serious about substance.

God Bless America.


Oleg Knows Better   July 16, 2003
Dennis Dewall (Vienna, Austria)
16 out of 28 found this review helpful

This is a strange book consisting on 50% of a repetition of well known cases and personalities, 30% of a description of the author's heroic deeds in Afganistan secretly fighting against the Soviets, and the rest 20% of an attempt to show how good the team of Gerber, Reynolds and Bearden was in the time span of ten years between 1985 and 1995, when the Agency lost ALL ITS AGENTS in the USSR due to the treason of Howard, Ames, Hanssen (FBI), Nicolson and others under Mr Bearden & Co. As a result, the author strangely claims that the West has won the Cold War. I cannot guess what makes him think so.

In almost ten years of Mr Bearden's involvement with the SE Division, his best achievement was probably the so called Gavrilov channel - a secret channel of cooperation/communication proposed by the KGB, which was established in Vienna before the end of the Cold War. It culminated in the author's proud publication of a photo where he was shown embracing KGB Gen. Rem Krasilnikov - practically a sole executioner of the American agents and officers in Moscow, when Bearden was in charge. Congratulations!

Among the best reviews of "The Main Enemy" (the title is evidently ill selected and generally erroneous: should be 'Main Adversary') the most professional is certainly Oleg Gordievsky's article in the London Literary Review. Oleg knows much better than Milt.


The CIA KGB Game   February 20, 2004
Joseph F. Macdougall (Wyckoff, NJ United States)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

This is the story gathered through hundreds of interviews with both US and USSR players of the battle between the CIA and KGB in the closing days of the Cold War, 1985 through the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Part I, Year of the Spy tells of the efforts to "turn" KGB agents, Government officials and high-ranking military and subsequent contacts by their American controllers. We're told of the constant surveillance of embassy officials, the training of new agents, tricks for eluding tails. Surprising to me was the involvement of spouses who often accompanied the agents on "runs" or otherwise aided the agents. In training there would be surprise arrests that would seem real to the agents, they would include a roughing up by FBI agents. The test for the agent was to hold back his CIA connection.
Starting in 1985 a string of our moles were arrested by the KGB. Despite ridicule of James Jesus Angleton whose paranoia about moles inside the CIA was legend, it appeared now that his paranoia was well-placed.
The luring of moles, their exchanges of money and information at drop points are covered from both sides. For example meticulous planning has gone into a "run," i.e., CIA meeting with a KGB agent to exchange money, needs, information. The story is told by the US agent arriving at the drop site, having shaken his KGB tail; the same story is then told by KGB officials who are setting him up and the capture of the spy (a scientist in this case).
Almost at the same time, June '85, Aldrich Ames was meeting in DC with his Russian handler, delivering to him the name of every spy he knew. He did this because John Walker, US Navy man, had been arrested in May as a Russian spy. Ames feared Walker had been fingered to the FBI by someone in the KGB that the CIA had previously "turned." He didn't want the same fate.
In their recruitment efforts the CIA always had to be on the alert for "dangles." These were spies trying to be double agents. Some of the Russians turned for money, some for ideology, a hatred for the Communist system. Edward Lee Howard was a CIA agent who was fired by the CIA and who betrayed us out of his anger over what he thought was unfair treatment. He eluded capture and escaped to Russia with help from his wife, his training in eluding tails, and the incompetence of the FBI.
There were constant turf wars between the FBI and CIA which sometimes got in the way.
Robert Hanssen (FBI) started spying in 1979. Among information turned over to the KGB was his revealing to them the spy tunnel under the Soviet embassy in DC.
There were many more tales of recruitment, capture and sometimes execution.

Part II, Afghanistan. In December 1979 Russia invaded Afghanistan. They were fearful of the country coming under the sphere of the US, further completing the ring around the USSR.
When the British decided decades earlier to withdraw from Afghanistan, the cost of marching out was horrific, 16,000 men were reduced to 1 left standing
After the loss of 15,000 soldiers, in 1986 Gorbachev decided enough was enough. He wanted to get out, but how to do it without looking like the US in Vietnam or with the costs the British incurred.
US efforts helped Gorbachev reach his decision to exit. We had been pouring in money and arms. The destruction of a huge Russian arms depot was pivotal in firming up his mind as was the introduction of Stinger missiles and advanced anti-tank weapons, both of which produced spectacular results.
They managed the withdrawal at a minimum loss of life. Then began the tribal chiefs dislodging the puppet leader in Kabul and the jockeying amongst themselves for leadership.

Part III, Endgame. The story here is the winding down of the Soviet Union, starting with tearing down the Berlin Wall, the role of the East German secret police, STASI and the interplay with the CIA. The dissolution of Reagan's Evil Empire, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania and the Baltic states; the fragility of the new Russia and its near fall to reactionary forces, the emergence of Yeltsin.

Aldrich Ames was arrested in 1994 after 20 years of spying. A Russian agent provided enough information but no name, enabling the CIA to identify him. A group within the CIA had spent years trying to locate the leak that James Jesus Angleton was sure existed.

Robert Hanssen was arrested in 2001 after 22 years of betrayal, his capture also aided by Russian agents.

The author Milt Bearden was close to all the activities he recounts. He concluded after a thorough analysis of times and dates that there must be another mole yet to surface within the CIA.

I found much of the book exciting. After all, this wasn't fiction; these were real people and events.