Tolkachev, A Worthy Successor to Penkovsky | Page 3

the US military's high interest in any intelligence that
could be provided on Soviet aircraft electronics and weapons control
systems. As it turned out, this was precisely the type of information,

albeit in limited quantity, that the volunteer had passed in December
1977.
Persistence Pays Off
On 16 February 1978, the volunteer approached Hathaway and his wife
at their car on the street after work and passed another note containing
additional intelligence information. He wrote that he seemed to be
caught in a vicious circle: "I'm afraid for security reasons to put down
on paper much about myself, and, without this information, for security
reasons you are afraid to contact me, fearing a provocation." He then
suggested a secure way to pass key identifying data on himself. In his
note, he provided all but two of the digits in his phone number. He
instructed the recipient of the note that at a certain time at a certain bus
stop he would be standing in line holding two pieces of plywood, each
with a single number on it. These would be the last two digits in his
phone number. At the indicated time, Hathaway's wife drove past the
bus stop in question, recognized the volunteer holding the two pieces of
plywood, and recorded the numbers.
Hathaway immediately sent a cable to CIA headquarters pushing for a
positive response to the volunteer. This time, headquarters concurred.
On 26 February, after careful planning, John Guilsher, a case officer
fluent in Russian, conducted a lengthy surveillance-detection run to
determine that he was free of any Soviet surveillance and then called
the volunteer's home phone from a public phone booth. The volunteer's
wife answered the call, however, forcing Guilsher to break off the
conversation. Guilsher repeated this exercise on 28 February, with the
same lack of success.
On 1 March 1978, Tolkachev again approached Hathaway and his wife
on the street after work. This time, he passed 11 pages of handwritten
materials, the bulk of which was detailed intelligence on Soviet R&D
efforts in the military aircraft field. In this note, Tolkachev finally
identified himself fully, providing his name, address, exact
employment, and a great deal of personal background information. He
noted that he had spent "hours and hours roaming the streets in search
of [US] diplomatic cars," and, having found one, had returned "tens of

times" without passing anything, because of unfavorable conditions. He
said that he was now almost desperate for a positive response to his
efforts, and, if he did not get one this time, he would give up.
Tolkachev had clearly gone above and beyond what could be expected
of anyone trying to volunteer to help the United States. The CIA, on the
other hand, for a variety of good reasons had had to be cautious about
accepting contact with him. Fortunately, after much soul-searching, it
had been decided to meet him. Once that decision was made, a
spectacular intelligence success story began.
Making Contact
At about 10 p.m. on 5 March 1978, Guilsher, after determining that he
was free of surveillance, called Tolkachev at home from a public phone
at the Bolshoi Theater and spoke to him for the first time. Guilsher
identified himself as "Nikolay," as Tolkachev had suggested in his 1
March note, and confirmed that the proper people had received all the
materials Tolkachev had provided. The purpose of the call was to
assure Tolkachev that his security was intact and that US intelligence
was interested in learning more about him and his work. He was told
that he would be called again with further instructions regarding future
contacts.
It was not until August, however, that the details finally were worked
out on how the case was to be pursued. Despite Hathaway's desire that
personal contact be established with Tolkachev in the USSR, CIA
headquarters opted--as "safest"--to have the necessary materials and
directions passed to Tolkachev via a deaddrop (an impersonal exchange
of information) so that he could prepare a series of letters with
additional information about his access and his work. These letters
were to be prepared in "secret writing" (SW), instructions for which
were contained in the deaddrop, and were to be sent to various
accommodation addresses (apparently innocuous addresses actually
controlled by the CIA). At Hathaway's insistence, to enhance
Tolkachev's protection, he also would be passed a "one-time pad"
(OTP). The one-time pad (a series of numbers randomly keyed to
letters that can be put into clear text only by someone having an

identical OTP) would be used to encipher his secret writing messages.
On 24 August, Guilsher contacted Tolkachev by phone and directed
him to a deaddrop site located next to a phone booth near Tolkachev's
apartment. The materials for Tolkachev, hidden in a dirty construction
worker's mitten, consisted of an operational message, a series of