10 - Viva Lewes

INTERVIEW
the beaches, and that the authority for using them
was delegated to the Russian commander on the
island.”
Less than a week after the Cuban Missile Crisis,
there was another near miss. British spy Gervase
Cowell answered his phone; the caller blew air
into the receiver three times and hung up. The
same thing happened a minute later. This was
a message in Soviet defector Oleg Penkovsky’s
secret code. It meant that the Soviets were about
to launch a nuclear strike. The message was fraudulent.
Penkovsky had been taken prisoner and
forced to reveal the secret signal. Miraculously,
Cowell guessed what had happened, and decided
not to order retaliation.
Hennessy says: “Gervase Cowell - what a great
man he was... I’ll never forget hearing him say
that. It was a conference at the national archives at
Kew, this very quiet voice reliving that moment in
the basement of the British embassy in Moscow,
that immensely perilous time. ‘And what did you
do, Mr Cowell?’ I said. Gervase: ‘Nothing’.”
Hennessy didn’t want to talk about politics, but
as he’s showing me out, I can’t resist asking, off
the record, what’s the worst decision he’s seen in
all his time following affairs of state. Of course, I
can’t tell you what he said, but if you really want
to know, there’ll be a Q&A session after his talk
on The Secret State at Lewes Speakers Festival
(Sat 6th, All Saints Centre, 3.15-4.30pm, £12.50-
£10, 0844 8700 887).
Photo by Steve Ramsey
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