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A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country Paperback – May 3, 2005

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Benjamin Weiser (Author)
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4.5 out of 5 stars 50 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: PublicAffairs; New Ed edition (April 26, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1586483056
  • ISBN-13: 978-1586483050
  • Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.8 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsTRULY THRILLING
By J. Darbyshire on February 5, 2004
Format: Hardcover
While spy novelists attempt to spin yarns that ring true, Weiser has spun the truth into a ripping good read. Clandestine meetings, miniature spy cameras, smuggled documents, dead drops, midnight escapes, everything short of murder - though legions of Hollywood agents are no doubt stabbing each other in the back to get the movie rights. Weiser provides a remarkable look behind two curtains: both the iron one that shielded cold-war Poland and the veil of secrecy that normally cloaks the CIA. The author's unprecedented access to the actual messages that passed between spy and handler allows him to bring two fascinating personalities - and the intimate friendship they developed - to life. If you like history, buy it. If you like biography, buy it. If you're a military buff, buy it. And if you like spy novels, buy two.
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5.0 out of 5 starsReply to Voice from Poland
By A Customer on April 4, 2004
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
The amazing story of Colonel Kuklinski and his work on behalf of the free world and America, resulted in many laudatory comments, but also an outrageous condemnation from pro-Communist sources. The understanding of this scurrilious attack will be helped by the recollection that our gallant ally, Poland, was abandoned at Yalta to the Soviet occupation, which lasted 46 years. During this time, some Poles were seduced, or bribed, to serve their Soviet masters and their interests. When the general discontent by the majority of the people, led by Solidarity, brought about the downfall of the Communist masters and their stooges, they naturally felt hate for the freedom-seeking patriots.
The kangaroo Communist court sentenced Colonel Kuklinski to death just like they condemned so many patriots, and even the anti-German resistance fighters. To most Poles, Colonel Kuklinski is a hero and the cities of Krakow and Gdansk made him an honorary citizen. The regime henchmen could not reach the colonel but his two sons met with sudden death in suspicious circumstances in America. So he paid the highest price for his efforts on behalf of the free world and Poland.
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5.0 out of 5 starsColonel Kukllinski, a hero or a traitor?
By Artur Halota on March 19, 2004
Format: Hardcover
I heard many things about the martial law in Poland, and I read many books on the cold war. I think what Colonel Kuklinski did, was very dangerous and also heroic. In order to look at the martial law, everybody must ask himself/herself, where was Poland at this time? Was it free from foreign domination? Did Poland make indepedent decisions in regards to foreign policy or even internal policy? I think not. If those who think he is a traitor, then they think comunism was a good thing, and they enjoyed life under comunism. Most documents that Kuklinski shipped to Americans were in the Russian language. He did not take any money as some comunist members including Jaruzelski think.
I am one of many, who met Colonel Kuklinski personally. He is a man of a great courage and patriotism. His sacrifice was that he lost his two sons, and did not receive recognition among the Poles. I believe that his sacrifices wiill find recogniztion if we will read this book.
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5.0 out of 5 starsPatriot or Traitor
By Janet Isak Hawley on March 28, 2004
Format: Hardcover
A Secret Life will attract numerous audiences but holds special appeal for those who enjoy the mental challenge of wrestling with questions of moral dilemma. Colonel Kuklinski, the subject of the book, lived as a citizen of a country, Poland, during a time when Poland's national interests were subjugated to the interests of another nation. In sharing military intelligence with the American authorities, did Kuklinski act as a patriot whose mission was to protect Poland's freedom or as a traitor to its national security? The author's conclusions are clear from the phrase in the subtitle "the Price He Paid to Save His Country," but his meticulous research allows the reader to appraise the narrative at every step of Kuklinski's journey and to draw one's own conclusion. An absorbing tale that one constantly has to remind oneself is not fiction!
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4.0 out of 5 starsA Founding Father of the Post-Soviet, Polish State!
By Michael J. Kechula on March 21, 2005
Format: Hardcover
"Sometimes it's not enough to do what is right, sometimes one must do what is necessary." Ryszard Kuklinski knew what was right, did what was necessary...and paid a terrible price.

Benjamin Weiser's riveting work A SECRET LIFE, on Polish hero Ryszard Kuklinski, is an enlightening look back into the dark intrigue, personal danger, and moral dilemmas surrounding one military officer's private battles to liberate his country from totalitarianism. Most importantly, this work shatters the left-wing's liberal illusion of "peaceful coexistence" with a communist system whose very raison d' etre is the destruction of freedom, democracy and enslavement of the West.

Kuklinski saw internal conflict to evict the alien system imposed upon his country by the USSR--as opposed to connivance or the wishful thinking of ideological transformation through "gradualism," favored by some of his Polish General Staff contemporaries, who, for lack of courage or personal gain, fully cooperated with their harsh Soviet task masters--as the only realistic option for peace in the face of Poland's likely nuclear annihilation, had war ensued with the United States. He dared to act accordingly, becoming an agent of change feeding top-secret Warsaw Pact military information to the CIA; thereby, tipping the balance of power in favor of liberty, while loosening the demoralizing death-grip of communist rule over Eastern Europe, as a de facto one-man Polish Underground.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGood historical perspective

Well told story., Holds your interest. Good historical perspective.

Published 1 month ago by JPM
4.0 out of 5 starsVery interesting

Very interesting. Never realized all the things that were going on in Poland during that time.

Published 2 months ago by Cathy Dehning
5.0 out of 5 starsThe ultimate spy story

A greatly compiled true story of a Polish hero who gave the west an incomprehensible upper hand during the Cold War. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Chris Guz
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

This was a great book

Published 4 months ago by Gregory S LaMaur
5.0 out of 5 starsA story about a Great Polish Hero

This is a Great book about a Great Polish Hero

Published 7 months ago by wojciech
4.0 out of 5 starsGreat story and easy read.

Fantastic account of an unsung hero. Incredibly thorough and offers an accurate glance into communist times in Poland. Reads like a novel.

Published 9 months ago by Daniel Zakrzewski
5.0 out of 5 starsI have decided to award Benjamin Weiser's book the full ...

I have decided to award Benjamin Weiser's book the full 5 stars for a specific reason: it is an exhaustive investigation. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Bradley
3.0 out of 5 starsGood not great

Fantastic story, well researched. Not a well known story about a brave polish patriot, but should be. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Alexander Rosen
5.0 out of 5 starsFantastic- a true hero and patriot.

Well written and interesting. The feelings of stress mixed with the motivation to make a change was beautifully captured - all should read this book to understand the threat that... Read more

Published 10 months ago by cheryllee Krasny
1.0 out of 5 starsOne Star

Great story

Published 11 months ago by Robert Kotchian

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