The Last Spy

When the CIA discourages spymaster Peter Sichel to write his memoirs, and a heavily redacted manuscript is returned to him, the disgruntled 100-year-old is ready to tell his story – unredacted. In “The Last Spy”, Sichel recounts and reflects, with wit and wisdom, on the many lives he has lived. Born in Mainz in 1922 into a wealthy German Jewish wine family, Peter leads a privileged life. His world is turned upside down, as soon as Hitler comes to power. For the first time Peter experiences the true meaning of antisemitism when the family is forced to flee from Mainz. After a long trouble-filled journey, living from hand to mouth as refugees, the Sichel family finally makes it to the United States. Peter volunteers for the US army as soon as America enters the war. He is quickly singled out for the newly created Office of Strategic Services (OSS), America’s first clandestine intelligence service. Peter becomes a whiz at recruiting German prisoners of war and turning them into spies. In spy circles he is known as the “Wunderkind”. The war ends as Peter’s unit overruns Dachau concentration camp. The horrors of the Holocaust are forever imprinted on his mind and put a damper on the victory. Recognized as one of the best spymasters at the age of twenty-two, his superiors ask him to remain in Berlin as the head of the OSS during the allied occupation. True to form Peter is the first to discover that the intentions of Russia, America’s former ally, are unfriendly. He reports his findings to Washington and rings in the Cold War! - Now he must work against the new enemy, the Soviet Russia. He is asked to establish spy networks all over East Germany – many of his agents are former Nazis. By 1947, the OSS becomes the CIA with Peter as the station chief in Berlin. He engineers a massive clandestine operation which reveals that, while the Soviets are consolidating their control over Eastern Europe, they have no intention to march westward. The Iron Curtain is frozen in place. Peter has earned his stars and is transferred to Washington. By now Washington and Moscow are dead locked in a nuclear arms race. The Cold War enters a new phase. The Eisenhower administration is turning the CIA into to an action-oriented agency. Peter is promoted to Head of Operations for Eastern Europe, working directly under the CIA Director Allen Dulles. Rather than containing the Soviets, Dulles wants to roll them back. CIA “freedom fighters” are parachuted by the hundreds into Eastern Europe to cause internal insurrections. Peter warns that no freedom fighter would ever be able to penetrate Soviet security. His intelligence is ignored – all freedom fighters die. The Cold War turns hot. Throughout 1950s, the CIA actively begins to overthrow democratic leaders around the world whom they label as Communists, a claim Peter knows to be untrue. His frustration grows. Unnecessary deaths don’t sit well with him. In turn, Peter’s internal criticism of these CIA operations doesn’t sit well with some of his colleagues. A report is filed against him, accusing Peter of being a Soviet spy. An FBI investigation is mounted. Although Peter is cleared of all charges, he is sent far away to work as CIA station chief in Hong Kong. In Asia, Peter becomes quickly embroiled in the CIA overthrow attempt of the Indonesian President Sukarno. It’s a disaster. But there are more to come. In 1959, the CIA has another bright idea, the parachuting of National Chinese “freedom fighters” into Communist China, the exact replica of the operations that had failed miserably in Eastern Europe. Having fought alongside the Americans against the evil of Nazism, having genuinely believed in the American democratic ideals, Peter comes to realize that he no longer wants to be associated with an organization that would trample on those ideals. In 1960, Peter leaves the CIA. - Is that the end of him? – Of course not.