The Third Secret: The CIA, Solidarity and the KGB’s Plot to Kill the Pope - Softcover

West, Nigel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006531806 ISBN 13: 9780006531807

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

Synopsis

The inside story of how the CIA combined with the Vatican under the Polish Pope John Paul II to launch a massive campaign to destabilise Warsaw – and how the KGB reacted by trying to kill the Pope in 1981.

The rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s, which began the undermining of the Soviet Bloc and the defeat of international communism, was essentially funded by the CIA covertly, through the Vatican.

Pope John Paul II (elected in 1978) had a deep interest in mysticism and long believed in ‘the third secret’ – the third piece of advice given to the eldest of the three children at Fatima (Portugal) in 1917 by an apparition of the Virgin Mary. This secret, written down by the last surviving child, who became a nun, was revealed by the Pope in 1980 and described an avoidable apocalyptic catastrophe in Europe. Thereafter the Pope began his ideological offensive against the Soviet Bloc.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'The Third Secret', based on numerous documents recently declassified in Warsaw, Moscow and Washington DC, as well as on extensive interviews with many of the key players, shed new light on the soviet involvement in the failed assassination plot. Nigel West, supreme chronicler of the intelligence world, reveals the extraordinary strength of the Slavic pontiff's personal commitment to the destruction of Communism in Europe as, covertly through the Vatican, the CUA essentially funded the rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s, which began the undermining of the Soviet Bloc.

Stemming from the Pope's belief in his own destiny and in what he felt to be divine intervention, there emerges a unique tale of espionage, subversion, plot and counter-plot – in what turned out to be the final manoeuvres of the Cold War.

'In May 1981, a Turkish Mafioso, Mehmet Ali Agca, attempted but failed to kill the Pope in St Peter's Square. Western intelligence has been trying to discover who was behind this attack ever since, Nigel West has conducted the most painstaking and detailed investigation of this mystery to date... Chapters read like an entertaining adventure novel.'
OLEG GORDIEVSKY, 'Literary Review'

About the Author:

Nigel West is a military historian specialising in intelligence and security issues, author of some 20 titles including A Matter of Trust: MI5 1945–72, MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations 1909–45, GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War, Molehunt, Secret War: The Story of SOE, The Secret War for The Falklands and The Crown Jewels: The British Secrets at the Heart of the KGB’s Archives (HarperCollins, 1998).

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0006531806
• ISBN 13: 9780006531807
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260