The Spy's Son: The True Story of the Highest-Ranking CIA Officer Ever Convicted of Espionage and the Son He Trained to Spy for Russia in Espionage Aficionados

Dec 25, 2014 Cold War Conversations Podcast rated it really liked it

A gripping story of espionage, family, trust and betrayal.

I read this over a couple of days and found it hard to put down. I resisted googling the story of Nicholson who was the highest ranking CIA officer charged with espionage to date.

I’d heard of Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen but Nicholson was much more unfamiliar to me. Despite being arrested 2 years after offering secrets to the Russians in 1994, Nicholson recruited his son Nathan in 2004 to act as his courier passing further secrets to t A gripping story of espionage, family, trust and betrayal.

I read this over a couple of days and found it hard to put down. I resisted googling the story of Nicholson who was the highest ranking CIA officer charged with espionage to date.

I’d heard of Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen but Nicholson was much more unfamiliar to me. Despite being arrested 2 years after offering secrets to the Russians in 1994, Nicholson recruited his son Nathan in 2004 to act as his courier passing further secrets to the Russians.

Denson is the only journalist granted an interview with Nathan so this is an insider account like no other.

The book reads like a spy novel, with the obvious benefit a journalist’s touch in adding background tension and context to the action.

For example Nathan’s meet in with the Russian intelligence services in Cyprus is described thus.

“The young man from Oregon zigzagged the ancient cobblestone lanes of Nicosia, pausing to scan the traffic and palm-lined sidewalks for signs someone was tailing him. He ducked down so many unfamiliar avenues that he blundered off course.
He reached the rendezvous spot, 12 Diagarou Ave., on that cool December night in 2008 and looked at his watch. He was so keyed up for his next meeting with the Russian spy he knew as George that he'd arrived an hour early.”

The book is detailed showing the aspects of the spy craft involved in both the Nicholson’s work with the Russians and the joint CIA/FBI investigation that resulted in their detection and arrest.

Nicholson senior comes across as a distinctly unlikeable character showing the same characteristics of so many spies before him, self-belief, narcissism and greed. No sign here of the ideological spies of the likes of Philby, Burgess, Maclean Cairncross and Blunt, this was purely about the money, regardless of the damage it would do the US.

Nathan was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne and while making a routine jump, he fractured two bones and injured his shinbones making him unable to continue his military career. He worshipped his father and in the book Nathan is portrayed as shy, vulnerable and naïve resulting in his father working him like one of his CIA assets.

A fascinating book about for me, a little known father son espionage ring and well worth a read if you are at all interested in espionage. Apparently Shia LaBeouf and Robert De Niro are up for the father and son film roles.
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