David Forden
 David Forden    ( spook) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 11 September 1930 Buffalo, New York State, USA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 12 February 2019 (Age 88) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | US | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | • Wesleyan University • Syracuse University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Senior CIA spook particularly active in Poland
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David Warner Forden was a senior CIA spook particularly active in Poland.
Education
Forden was born on September 11, 1930 in Buffalo, New York. He studied at Wesleyan University and took a BA in Government in 1952. At the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University he took a degree in public administration.[1]
Forden was accepted to the CIA on condition that he complete Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning. The training included six months of paratrooper training with the 82nd Airborne[1].
Career
Forden's CIA career stretched from 1956 to 1988. He worked in Germany, Argentina, Poland, Mexico City, Vienna and Athens. Forden was Warsaw station chief 1965-67.[2] He was Deputy Chief of Station in Mexico City 1970-73. After a stint at Langley he became station chief in Vienna, Austria (possibly 1978-81); before rising to become chief of the Soviet-Eastern European Division 1981-84.[1] He ended his career as Chief of the Athens station.
From 1973 to 1981 he oversaw the flow of Warsaw Pact military secrets conveyed by Ryszard Kuklinski, a colonel on the Polish Army's general staff and a liaison with Moscow. Colonel Kuklinski told Washington that the Soviets were poised to invade Poland, as they had invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, if the Poles failed to squelch growing unrest. President Jimmy Carter publicly warned them not to and mustered diplomatic pressure. In December 1981, Colonel Kuklinski told the United States that the Polish government was about to impose martial law to crush the Solidarity movement. The warning enabled Washington to better assess the implications of military maneuvers in and around Poland.[3] Kukliński was not the only Polish official with whom the CIA cooperated.[2]
