A Spy's Son Grapples With A Lifetime Of Secrets
"... A lot of people were imprisoned, including this woman's father. And that really bothered me because I started to think, Could my father — is it possible that he could have been involved, more involved than I had thought? And I started investigating it and digging into it like a reporter."
Martin: "In the end, it didn't pan out — the things you suspected him of doing didn't happen."
On how his father once advised him to be more manipulative, a skill he used when creating defectors for the CIA
"My father and I are really quite different in that way. For most of my life I would tend to be a very blunt person. If I wanted to know something I would just ask or I would press him — and not just him, anybody. And I wouldn't sort of hold my curiosity in check. And at one point my father told me, he said, 'You know, you really need to work on your elicitation skills — manipulate the other person into coming to you when they feel comfortable.' "
On whether he's made peace with all the secrets his father still keeps
"Oh, absolutely. He made a vow and an oath to his country, and he didn't disclose anything that he shouldn't have. You know, as I said earlier, I had this desire to sort of crack him open, but that was much more centered around what employment with the agency had done to him as a human being — [compartmentalization] ... and also a certain kind of control, or self-control. And it was the way that those things manifested in our life that I wanted to understand."
Read an excerpt of The Wolf And The Watchman