Autobiography
Stories…Self
Journey Into the Cold War
I grew up on a impoverished Wisconsin farm in the 1950s. Slavic and German immigrants told stories drinking whiskey and playing pinocle. With a child's ear, I listened as they told tales and hinted at war, starvation, and massacre.
A pause, a glance, a shake of the head; these were the fragments of truth they shared, teaching me early lessons in deception and the silences that speak volumes.
From the Farm to the Front Lines
In 1965, I left the farm for the University of Wisconsin (Listen to my University of Wisconsin Alumnus Interview ). My world expanded dramatically, from 200 miles to a new reality of brilliant New Yorkers, intense political debates, and anti-war riots.
I chose to study the Russian language, hoping to fill in the unspoken pauses of my childhood visitors. Football was replaced by books, and my simple worldview was challenged by the complex philosophies of Malraux and Dostoevsky and the harsh history of Robert Conquest. My certainties began to dissolve in the tear gas and debate of campus life.
The Long War Within
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A Worldview Evolves:
My studies and the tumultuous world taught that truth was a fluid, shifting concept. I came to know that the Communist and Fascist ideologies were two sides of the same coin. Both implemented industrial-scale genocide.
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Serving in the Shadows:
In 1969, I joined the Air Force intelligence and became a Soviet specialist, serving in posts along its long perimeter. My specialty was KGB/GRU deception and maskirovka. The role fit my unique perspective on truth and lies.
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Revisiting the Battlefields:
…and left the military in 1989, a few months before the Berlin Wall fell. My writings revisit these battlefields of the mind, characters navigating amongst deceits and truths compromising between survival and conscience.
The Long War Series
The Long War series follows four lives through this shadowed struggle. It is a story told not only on the battlefield, but in the secrets, lies, and hearts of those caught between nations. It is a tale of an American soldier, his Canadian pianist beloved, a Soviet agent, and a Russian storyteller.
