About this item
The thrilling story of two Cold War spies, CIA case officer Jack Platt and KGB agent Gennady Vasilenko -- improbable friends at a time when they should have been anything but.In 1978, CIA maverick Jack Platt and KGB agent Gennady Vasilenko were new arrivals on the Washington, DC intelligence scene, with Jack working out of the CIA's counterintelligence office and Gennady out of the Soviet Embassy. Both men, already notorious iconoclasts within their respective agencies, were assigned to seduce the other into betraying his country in the urgent final days of the Cold War, but instead the men ended up becoming the best of friends-blood brothers. Theirs is a friendship that never should have happened, and their story is chock full of treachery, darkly comic misunderstandings, bureaucratic inanity, the Russian Mafia, and landmark intelligence breakthroughs of the past half century.In BEST OF ENEMIES, two espionage cowboys reveal how they became key behind-the-scenes players in solving some of the most celebrated spy stories of the twentieth century, including the crucial discovery of the Soviet mole Robert Hanssen, the 2010 Spy Swap which freed Gennady from Soviet imprisonment, and how Robert De Niro played a real-life role in helping Gennady stay alive during his incarceration in Russia after being falsely accused of spying for the Americans. Through their eyes, we see the distinctions between the Russian and American methods of conducting espionage and the painful birth of the new Russia, whose leader, Vladimir Putin, dreams he can roll back to the ideals of the old USSR.
About the Author
Eric Dezenhall is an author of eleven books, including three non-fiction texts on crisis communications and corporate witch hunts, journalist and damage control expert based in Washington, D.C. He is the CEO of Dezenhall Resources, a nationally recognized high stakes communications firm. He frequently lectures in academic and business circles, and regularly appears as a damage control expert in the international media. He has appeared on network television and radio outlets including NPR, CNN, FOX, CNBC, and MSNBC; and has been quoted in publications including Fortune, USA Today, Forbes, and the Washington Post. He has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, and writes for the Daily Beast and Huffington Post. Eric's books have been widely cited in business, media and academic circles. In addition to his non-fiction books he is also the author of seven novels. His seventh novel, False Light, is a thrilling tale of revenge set against the vibrant backdrop of sensationalist modern media. A seasoned reporter embarks on an entertaining and complex plan to exact revenge on a predatory media star in the court of public opinion. Eric is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he studied political science and the news media. He lives near Washington, D.C., with his family.
