- This event has passed.
March 10, 2022 @ 6:30 pm
Event Navigation
In-Person | From Warsaw, With Love: An Evening with John Pomfret
Books & Books and FIU’s Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs present…
An Evening with John Pomfret
discussing
From Warsaw with Love: Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging of an Unlikely Alliance
(Henry Holt and Co, $29.99)
Thursday, March 10, 6:30 PM ET
RSVP HERE
About the Book:
From Warsaw with Love is the epic story of how Polish intelligence officers forged an alliance with the CIA in the twilight of the Cold War, told by the award-winning author John Pomfret.
Spanning decades and continents, from the battlefields of the Balkans to secret nuclear research labs in Iran and embassy grounds in North Korea, this saga begins in 1990. As the United States cobbles together a coalition to undo Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, six US officers are trapped in Iraq with intelligence that could ruin Operation Desert Storm if it is obtained by the brutal Iraqi dictator. Desperate, the CIA asks Poland, a longtime Cold War foe famed for its excellent spies, for help. Just months after the Polish people voted in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Solidarity government in Warsaw sends a veteran ex-Communist spy who’d battled the West for decades to rescue the six Americans.
John Pomfret’s gripping account of the 1990 cliffhanger in Iraq is just the beginning of the tale about intelligence cooperation between Poland and the United States, cooperation that one CIA director would later describe as “one of the two foremost intelligence relationships that the United States has ever had.” Pomfret uncovers new details about the CIA’s black site program that held suspected terrorists in Poland after 9/11 as well as the role of Polish spies in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
In the tradition of the most memorable works on espionage, Pomfret’s book tells a distressing and disquieting tale of moral ambiguity in which right and wrong, black and white, are not conveniently distinguishable. As the United States teeters on the edge of a new cold war with Russia and China, Pomfret explores how these little-known events serve as a reminder of the importance of alliances in a dangerous world.
BUY THE BOOK
About the Author:
JOHN POMFRET, raised in New York City, then completed his BA at Stanford and MA at Nanjing university, both focused in East Asian Studies. He is an award-winning journalist and was a foreign correspondent for over 20 years: eight of those years during which he covered several wars across the Middle East, and another seven as the bureau chief for the Washington Post in Beijing. His education and expertise have affirmed his impact as a well regarded author, with such works as: The Beautiful Country and Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present (2016), which was awarded the 2017 Arthur Ross Award by the Council on Foreign Relations. This event will be his first, live book-signing in Florida!