Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2016 | Page 115

Review of The Spy’s Son
The result of that chance encounter saw Denson spend the next 5 years
investigating the circumstances that lead to this extraordinary situation, and A Spy’s
Son tells what he discovered. Denson would initially discover that Nicholson had first
been sentenced to nearly 24 years for spying for the SVR in 1997. As with nearly all
espionage or intelligence cases like this one, much of the story in the public record, but
a lot was not. It is believed that former KGB/SVR Counterintelligence Officer—and
CIA source—Alexander Zaporozhsky—was responsible for pointing the Americans in
the direction of Nicholson. The Soviet spy was to the CIA what Nicholson was to the
KGB/SVR and, as Denson suggests, “Jim and Zaporozhsky weren’t all that different.
They climbed to the higher rungs of their nations’ respective spy services, and picked
their nation’s pockets to sell secrets to their competitors.”
The author pieces the more familiar background together with a selection of
first-hand accounts from sources close to both cases. Members of the family, including
Nathan—who spent some 200 hours being interviewed—provide further depth of
background and context which enables Denson to examine the intertwined layers of
betrayal and treachery. Denson describes how Nicholson was able to manipulate his
son, and exploit Nathan’s desperate and unconditional love and loyalty, in order to reestablish
contact with the SVR again. Nathan was soon his father’s enthusiastic agent,
but in less than 2 years, he had been arrested by the FBI. How he was discovered, why
he confessed, and what happened to both after they were convicted are described by
Denson in a dispassionate, but genuinely sympathetic, narrative that places a more
human face on what many will still regard—particularly after reading this book—as a
most sordid profession.
The story of Jim Nicholson’s treachery is not a particularly well-known one
compared to other Cold War and post-Cold War traitors; Ames, Hanssen, and the
most famous “Harold” of them all—Harold Adrian “Kim” Philby. But what makes
Nicholson’s act of betrayal all the more significant, and something that Denson draws
out particularly well, is that his psychopathy seemingly knew no bounds. We ultimately
see that Nicholson senior was of sufficient moral reprehensibility that he convinced his
youngest son Nathan, who absolutely adored his father, to do exactly the same. The
quality of tradecraft demonstrated by Nicholson senior, although impressive as it is,
must stand to one side as the author weaves a sorry tail of destroyed ego, egomania,
betrayal and self-aggrandisement of epic proportions; an individual described in the
book as a “cunning, self-centred, self-righteous, and evil…master manipulator.”
A worthwhile addition to any intelligence studies enthusiast’s library.
Rhys Ball
Military Historian and Intelligence Studies Lecturer
Massey University’s Centre for Defence and Security Studies (CDSS)
Auckland, New Zealand
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