“The gesture would be a token of obvious gratitude for Kuklinski for his dangerous and intensive work for Poland’s independence.”

Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz

President Andrzej Duda has posthumously promoted Ryszard Kuklinski, a Polish Army colonel who worked for the CIA during the Cold War, to the rank of brigadier general. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

The promotion was in response to a request made in February by the country’s Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz.

Short Bio

Ryszard Jerzy Kukliński (June 13, 1930 – February 11, 2004) was a Polish colonel and Cold War spy for NATO. He passed top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA between 1972 and 1981.

The former United States National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzeziński described him as “the first Polish officer in NATO.” [WIKIPEDIA]

Over the years, he provided the Americans with information about strategic Soviet and Warsaw Pact plans, including plans for an attack on NATO countries.

He also passed to the CIA documents about the Polish government’s secret plans to impose martial law in the country in 1981.

Kuklinski died in 2004 in Tampa, Florida, in the United States.

Sons Suspicious Death

Facing imminent danger of discovery due to denouncement by Communist secret collaborator known only by his alias “Prorok”, Kukliński was spirited out of Poland by the CIA, along with his wife and two sons, shortly before the imposition of martial law in December 1981.

Though Kuklinski and his family managed to successfully defect, his controversial past may have followed him to the United States. In subsequent years, both of his sons died.

The older, Waldemar, was run over by a truck without a licence plate in August 1994 on the grounds of an American university.

His younger son, Bogdan Kukliński, drowned half a year later on January 1, 1995, when his yacht capsized on a silent sea. [WIKIPEDIA]

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REFERENCES

Cold War CIA source Kuklinski posthumously promoted to general

Un colonel espion de la CIA fait général à titre posthume en Pologne

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POLAND — Cold War Polish CIA Source Posthumously Promoted to General