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Spetsnaz units (chapter 11) still exist today and the information about them noted in chapter 19 is correct. Leaping from a high-altitude plane in the middle of the night is something any spetsnaz officer could accomplish. The jump described in chapter 37 is taken from real-life experiences. Soviet forward attack plans against an enemy, using these specialized units (chapter 55), existed.
The KGB became a master at both active and passive intelligence measures, its tentacles stretching into every corner of the world. Especially the United States, which was the USSR’s glavny protivnik (main adversary). The vast majority of Soviet espionage activities were channeled into preparing for an inevitable conflict with America (chapter 10). The Woods (chapter 49), where its most feared First Directorate established its headquarters, was a magnificent facility. Its rise and fall, as told in the story, are accurate. KGB employees did in fact receive a multitude of special privileges, becoming insulated from the suffering of ordinary Soviets (chapter 49). That privilege would also explain how it was able to so easily inflict so much pain on so many of its own people. Intourist still exists (chapter 45), though now privatized, no longer the official state travel agency.
The Society of Cincinnati continues to be America’s oldest homegrown fraternal organization (chapters 14, 18). Its beginnings, and the apprehensions about it described throughout the story, are taken from reality. George Washington himself eventually saved it from dissolution. Benjamin Tallmadge, America’s first spymaster (chapter 34), was an original member, but his keeping of a journal and his involvement with any war plans of the United States and a secret tunnel beneath the White House are my additions to history (chapters 14, 18, 20, 23, 34, 39, and 60). Anderson House, though, is real and can be toured (chapter 18, 20). It still serves as the society’s national headquarters. The basement library is there and contains one of the finest Revolutionary War collections in the world. The ballroom and orangery are stunning, but the video room on the second floor (chapter 23) is fictional.
Yuri Andropov existed as described (chapter 33), except for Fool’s Mate. He hated both Reagan and John Paul II (chapter 52). The West did fear him (chapter 50) but, thankfully, he died after only 15 months as general secretary. The ten-year-old American girl mentioned in chapter 33, who wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov, published in Pravda, was Samantha Smith. Her actions, and Andropov’s response, became a 1982 media circus. Andropov did in fact use the opportunity to lie to the West, proclaiming he was stopping all work on a missile defense system (chapter 33). Lies like that, part of a more widespread disinformation and propaganda campaign, were all too common from the Soviet Union. In 1983 Samantha visited the Soviet Union, but Andropov was too ill to greet her. Sadly, she died in a 1985 plane crash.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) existed (chapter 29), created as detailed in chapter 30. Historians disagree, but some assert that its main purpose was not to develop a workable missile shield, since that was way beyond the scope of technology at the time. Instead, the idea had been to convince the Soviet Union that it might be possible, driving it to spend billions of rubles that it could not afford (chapter 30).
And that was exactly what happened
Which only hastened the regime’s downfall.
Along the way the United States acquired a multitude of innovative technological advances, but a complete and workable missile defense shield remains only a dream.
The U.S. Navy Riverine Squadron was one of the most decorated units from the Vietnam War, suffering huge casualties. Women being a part of the unit has only recently become a reality (chapter 53). George Shultz (chapter 18) and Cyrus Vance (chapter 9) served as secretaries of state. John Paul II did visit and forgive his assassin (chapter 52) and the USSR is still, to this day, the most likely candidate to have ordered the 1981 papal assassination attempt.
The White House grounds, Lafayette Park, and Pershing Park (chapter 76) are correctly laid out. The Cabinet Room inside the White House is there, and Nixon did purchase and donate the table (chapter 58). The burning of both the Capitol and the White House by the British in 1815 happened (chapter 59 and 70). The War of 1812 was regarded as “Madison’s War” and the British hated having been forced to fight it (chapter 39). In August 1815 American troops did flee the federal district without putting up a fight. Contrary to legend, on that day Dolley Madison did not save Gilbert Stuart’s famous painting of George Washington (which now hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery) (chapter 67). Instead, that feat was accomplished by others.
St. John’s Church arose at the same time the White House was reconstructed (chapter 70). I came across this fact during a tour of the church (which anyone can take) and immediately decided that a connection between the two events made sense. The President’s Pew inside the church is real (chapter 70). I was also able to venture down into the church basement (not part of the tour), which is described accurately in chapters 75 and 76—with one exception. There is indeed a difference in the wall, but not with contrasting brick. Instead, the actual break is of concrete, supposedly where a former coal chute existed to fuel the boilers, now sealed. Its presence, though, spurred my imagination, so I added a tunnel from there to the White House. Also, on occasion through its two-hundred-plus-year existence, the church has been closed for renovations, just as in the novel (chapters 73 and 75).
This story addresses the 20th Amendment to the Constitution along with the 1947 Presidential Succession Act. Both are riddled with legal flaws and inconsistencies, creating Supreme Court–ready issues that Congress has been unwilling to address (chapters 42 and 48). The USSR’s fascination with those problems is my addition, but the former Soviet Union did study every aspect of our society, searching for weaknesses. January 20ths that fall on Sunday have always been treated differently, with two swearing-in ceremonies occurring (chapter 58)—one on Sunday, the other Monday. In 1985 that was the case with Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration. The designated survivor is real (chapter 58), he or she chosen by the White House chief of staff. It’s also true that the highest person in the line of succession (per the 1947 act) who survives an attack becomes president, whether that person be the designated survivor or not (chapter 48 and 79). Also, unlike in the novel, on those rare Sunday occurrences the vice president is always sworn in separately and at a different location.
RA-115s remain a mystery. No one has ever seen a suitcase-sized nuclear weapon produced by the Soviet Union. However, Stanislav Lunev (chapter 11), a former Soviet military officer and the highest-ranking intelligence operative to ever defect to the United States, describes them in his memoir, Through the Eyes of the Enemy. In the 1990s Congress held hearings on their existence, and the description used herein for the weapon is taken from those hearings (chapter 68). The trigger-warming aspect (chapter 68) is my addition. And there was a 60 Minutes story, as recounted in chapter 11, which the Soviets tried to discredit with misinformation about its producer.
KGB weapons caches have been found across Europe and the Far East (chapter 19), but none has ever been located in this country (chapters 66 and 68). Former archivists have proved to be the best source of information. The definitive account is the The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, published in 1999 (chapter 11).
Finally, there is Canada. The Founding Fathers desperately wanted it to become our 14th colony. The Articles of Confederation did contain language that would have allowed it to automatically join the new nation (chapter 39).
But that never happened.
And two invasion attempts failed.
Canada again came onto our radar in the early part of the 20th century. The invasion plan from 1903 is real (chapters 59, 61, 62), and most of what is recounted in chapter 61 is quoted verbatim. On May 21, 1916, the War College filed its own invasion plan and all of the money spent and preparations detailed in chapter 62 happened. The massive war game at the Canadian border in August 1935 occurred. More concerns about Canada arose during World War
II, particularly if England fell to Germany, and a ninety-four-page document was prepared on how best to secure control. There’s even a 1977 book on the subject: The Defence of the Undefended Border, by Richard A. Preston. Of course, the Society of Cincinnati having anything to do with that is fiction.
Unlike my other novels, this one deals with a more recent historical period. The Cold War. It was fascinating to learn some of its secrets, which are only now beginning fully to come to light. At its peak the KGB employed over 700,000 people scattered across twenty-plus directorates.
Sharp of Sword. Tough of Shield.
That was its motto.
Both the CIA and the NSA were created in direct response to its presence. KGB agents posed as diplomats, reporters, businessmen, professors, even ordinary citizens, infiltrating anything and everything. Nothing was sacred. Once, even the piano tuner for the governor of New York was reputed to be a KGB asset. In the memoir mentioned above, Sanislav Lunev made a comment that Stephanie Nelle thought profound enough to never forget (chapter 11).
It’s good advice.
Both frightening and instructive.
The best spy will be everyone’s friend, not a shadowy figure in the corner.
