Ex-KGB Spy Meets Press, Shows He Can Keep Secrets ■ Intelligence: Ex-colonel says he saw only one POW in Vietnam. He met Oswald but refuses to give details. CIA and U.S. military. By MICHAEL PARKS "We wanted to know what TIMES STAFF WRITER headquarters did, what the stations MOSCOW—Oleg Nechiporenko did, what responsibilities the is a man who should have many agents had, ties with the military; interesting tales to tell. the structures in short," he said. A retired colonel from the KGB, "And we did learn some things." the Soviet intelligence service, Ne- Even earlier, Nechiporenko was chiporenko worked for much of his one of three KGB officers who met career at infiltrating the CIA, and with Lee Harvey Oswald less than with a smile and twinkle in his eye, two months before Oswald assassi- he says, "We had some successes." nated President John F. Kennedy Always probing for a CIA vul- in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. It was a nerability, Nechiporenko ques- pity, Nechiporenko said, that no tioned a CIA operative captured by one from the American govern- North Vietnam during the Vietnam ment has ever asked him about War. Later, he reviewed Vietnam- those conversations. But Nechiporenko is also a man 2 ese interrogations of other Ameri- can prisoners to see whether the who keeps secrets, and on Thurs- KGB could use the information, day, he was really saying very presumably to recruit agents in the Please see KGB, A7 LOS ANGEL ES TIMES KGB: Former Colonel Meets the Press Continued from Al cooperation will help lift the grow- ko said, of the activities of Soviet little. ing suspicion. military intelligence, which was Speaking at a press. conference "The problem is very great," far more likely than the KGB to be arranged by the Russian Intelli- Nechiporenko commented, earnest interested in what could be learned gence Service, the KGB's succes- in tone, dapperly dressed in a blue from the downed pilots and which sor in foreign espionage, Nechipo- blazer and gray slacks and with a had better working relations with renko denied that, contrary to white goatee to help mask his their Vietnamese counterparts allegations this month by a former emotions. "It requires an approach than the KGB did. Nor would he colleague, he had interrogated from a very responsible posi- speak about the activities of other American personnel held by the tion. Although people have KGB agents in Vietnam because he Vietnamese, other than the single already died, there are some did not believe in passing on "sec- CIA agent. [Americans] who believe that their ondhand information." He gave a precise date for that dear ones are still alive." Nechiporenko castigated Kalu- The Russian Foreign Ministry gin for "transgressing ethical bor- 21/2-hour meeting in January, 1973, ders" in discussing cases of which just after the Paris Peace Treaty had just announced the formation was signed, and he categorically of a joint Russian-American parlia- he had no personal knowledge and rejected allegations by Maj. Gen. mentary commission to investigate said the former general was now Oleg Kalugin, the KGB's former the fate of U.S. servicemen who "suffering from delusions" in de- counterespionage chief, that he were captured or declared missing scribing him as a POW interroga- had interrogated American prison- in action during the Korean and tor. ers as late as 1978, long after the Vietnam wars and who, it is And even after underscoring the thought in the United States, might importance of his information on war ended and all prisoners were the Kennedy assassination, he re- declared to have been repatriated. have been brought to the Soviet Union. fused to reveal what Oswald had Nechiporenko's motive is clear. told him and the other KGB agents He wanted to absolve himself, the IV e treat the concern of in the Soviet Embassy in Mexico on KGB and Russia from suspicion Americans regarding the Sept. 27-28, 1963. that Soviet agents interrogated a fate of their countrymen with deep In Los Angeles, Kalugin stuck to number, perhaps dozens, of cap- respect, and we are prepared to do his account in an interview Thurs- tured American pilots to learn all we can to help," Tatyana Sarno- day with editors and reporters at about their aircraft, their tactics lis, the spokeswoman for the Rus- The Times. and the broad U.S. strategy during sian Intelligence Service, said. Visiting Southern California on a the Vietnam War—and then had But Nechiporenko undermined promotional tour for a book pro- them killed so that the United the intended message of shared duced by Cable News Network States would not learn of Soviet concern and openness with what concerning the collapse of Soviet involvement. he would not say. communism, as well as his own Senior Russian diplomats feel He acknowledged that he spoke yet-unpublished memoir, Kalugin that the charges, raised recently in only of his own personal experi- emphasized that he knew that the Los Angeles Times Magazine, ence, and only because Kalugin, Nechiporenko had talked to "two could seriously harm the relation- the KGB's former chief of counter- or three" Americans, including a ship that Russian Federation Pres- intelligence, had identified him in CIA agent, in or near Hanoi be- ident Boris N. Yeltsin hopes to recent interviews with U.S. news tween 1976 and 1978. forge with Washington; they hope media. The KGB, he said, hoped to enlist that a display of openness and _ He could not speak, Nechiporen- Please see KGB, A8 A8 FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1992 * United States, Cuba and the Soviet KGB: No Details Given on Session With Oswald Union—and what happened in the United States is not only an ele- Continued from A7 be stored at intelligence headquar- assassin was seeking Soviet help to ment of U.S. history but a blank the men as operatives. ters in Moscow. get a Cuban visa, as well as a visa spot for world history, as well." "There was an appearance, as if Kalugin discounted theories of- to return to the Soviet Union. they were willing to cooperate In ten voiced in the United States by Nechiporenko suggested, teas- But the retired KGB colonel future," Kalugin said. At least two POW-MIA groups that American ingly, that there was much more to again lapsed into silence. "What of the Americans interviewed by prisoners were transported and the conversation, enough to ask Oswald told us is our commercial • Nechiporenko returned to the held inside the Soviet Union. Kalu- Oswald back for a second meeting. secret," he said. "We would like to United States, but attempts by the gin said that, to his knowledge, no "Really, this is important, and discuss that in certain form, to KGB to locate them later failed, such American POWs were trans- we have never been asked by the publish it, and if I gave it without Kalugin said. ported to the Soviet Union. Americans what Oswald said and the consent of my colleagues it "At least a half dozen" KGB As for Oswald's Mexico visit, what he did at the embassy in would be a breach of contract." members were privy to the knowl- U.S. investigators had concluded— Mexico City," he said. "The prob- edge of those interviews. Records based on surveillance of the em- lem of the Kennedy assassination Times staff writer Scott Harris In of the encounters should exist and bassy and telephone taps—that the involves three countries—the Los Angeles contributed to this report. .