Cast of Characters

UNITED STATES

President Ronald Reagan

Vice President George H. W. Bush

General Alexander Haig: Secretary of State, 1981–1982

George Shultz, Secretary of State, 1982–1988

Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, 1981–1988

William Casey, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1981–1987

General Richard Ellis, Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, 1977–1981

General Bernard Rogers, Supreme Commander Allied Forces, Europe, 1979–1987

General Bennie Davis, Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, 1981–1985

General John “Jack” Vessey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1982–1985

Judge William P. Clark, National Security Advisor, 1982–1983

Robert “Bud” McFarlane, National Security Advisor, 1983–1985

Richard Perle, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, 1981–1987

Jack Matlock, Senior Director for European and Soviet Affairs, National Security Council, 1983–1987

Admiral John Poindexter, Deputy National Security Advisor, 1983–1985

Oliver North, Special Assistant to the President, National Security Council, 1981–1986

Thomas Reed, Special Assistant to the President, former director of the National Reconnaissance Office and father of Project Pegasus, 1982–1987

Colonel William Odom, Military Assistant to the National Security Advisor, 1978–1981

Robert Gates, Deputy Director of Intelligence, CIA, 1981–1986

Fritz M. Ermarth, senior CIA analyst selected to write a Special National Intelligence Estimate (SNIE) on the Soviet war threat in 1984

David McManis, the CIA’s national intelligence officer for warning

Brigadier General Leonard Perroots, senior air force intelligence officer, US Army Europe, 1983–1984

THE SOVIETS (AND FRIENDS)

Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary, 1966–1982

Yuri Andropov, General Secretary, 1982–1984

Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary, 1984–1985

Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary, 1985–1991

Viktor Chebrikov, KGB Chairman

Vladimir Kryuchkov, KGB Deputy Chairman

Erich Mielke, director of the East German Intelligence Service (Stasi)

Markus Wolf, chief of foreign intelligence, Stasi

Horst Männchen, Stasi SIGINT chief

Nikolai Ogarkov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Chief of the General Staff

Dmitriy Ustinov, Minister of Defense (died 1984)

Andrei Gromyko, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Anatoly Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador to the United States

V. K. Bondarenko, captain of the Soviet Victory II attack submarine

Gennadi Osipovich, Soviet air defense fighter pilot

Stanislaw Petrov, deputy director for combat algorithms at the Russian Ground Command and Control Center

THE SPIES

Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer based at Soviet embassy in London (spied for the SIS)

Arkady Guk, the KGB rezident (chief officer) in London

John Scarlett, Oleg Gordievsky’s SIS case officer

Rainer Rupp, a senior NATO intelligence officer (spied for the Stasi)

Jeffrey Carney, a US Air Force intelligence officer who worked with the National Security Agency (spied for the Stasi)

Ryszard Kukliński, Colonel Polish People’s Army (spied for the CIA)

SOLDIERS, SAILORS, CITIZENS

Captain Lee Trolan, commander of the 501st Army Artillery Detachment

Captain Gary Donato, Assistant Weapons Officer, USS Kamehameha

Gail Nelson, senior intelligence analyst, US Army Europe

Al Buckles, senior noncommissioned officer, US Strategic Air Command

Steven Schwalbe, analyst of Soviet forces, Defense Intelligence Agency

Jim Vink, CIA officer detailed to DMSPA

Suzanne Massie, author and Soviet culture analyst

Nina Tumarkin, academic and Soviet culture expert