Anatoliy Golitsyn - Controversies

Controversies

Golitsyn was a figure of significant controversy in the Western intelligence community. Military writer, the General John Hackett, and the former CIA counter-intelligence director James Angleton identified Golitsyn as "the most valuable defector ever to reach the West". However, the official historian for MI5, Christopher Andrew, described him as an "unreliable conspiracy theorist". Andrew believes that although intelligence data provided by Golitsyn were reliable, some of his global political assessments of the Soviet and KGB strategy are questionable. In particular, he disputed the Golitsyn claim that the "Sino-Soviet split was a charade to deceive the West". Golitsyn's claims of widespread KGB double agent infiltration in the CIA also contributed to Angleton's growing paranoia which ultimately led to Angleton's dismissal from the CIA.