Bill Plunkert used to think the masks and gadgets in spy shows like听Mission: Impossible听were impossibly hokey. Then the Boston College grad found himself in Moscow, putting on an uncanny 鈥渙ld man mask鈥� made in Hollywood, as he prepared to hop out of a moving vehicle.
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 need that mask today,鈥� Plunkert quipped to an audience in Gasson 100 in October. 鈥淏ut I did then.鈥�
鈥淭hen鈥� was 1982, when Plunkert was a CIA agent stationed in the Soviet Union鈥檚 capital. 鈥淓very fiber in my body was going听Ping! Ping!鈥� he recalled of the moment he leapt out of that car. Meanwhile, a dummy version of himself popped out of a fake birthday cake placed on the seat he鈥檇 just vacated, intended to fool a KGB tail. Plunkert and colleagues had only seconds before the pursuing KGB agents would turn a street corner and either buy the Americans鈥� ruse鈥攐r not. Hanging in the balance was Plunkert鈥檚 planned meeting with the highly placed Russian informer who might arguably do more than anyone to bring down the Iron Curtain. 鈥淚 was hyperventilating like a crazy man,鈥� Plunkert said.
Plunkert related the outcome of that evening (stay tuned)鈥攁nd talked about his later transformation from a spy to a spiritual director鈥攚hile an audience of 120 members of the 糖心传媒 community listened with rapt attention. The Carroll School of Management鈥檚听Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics听sponsored the lecture, 鈥淢y Life as a Spy During the Cold War and Beyond,鈥� and Carroll School Dean Andy Boynton introduced Plunkert, who earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree in history and philosophy from the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences in 1968.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 read management books in my spare time,鈥� Boynton confessed to the crowd. 鈥淚 read spy books.鈥� It was while reading one of those books a few years ago鈥擠avid Hoffman鈥檚听The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal听(Doubleday, 2015)鈥攖hat Boynton found out about Plunkert and decided to invite him to the Heights. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a true hero,鈥� said the dean.
Trapeze moments
At age 18 in 1964, Plunkert had barely ventured outside his hometown of St. Louis when he rode the train to Boston clutching his acceptance letter to Boston College. 鈥淚 brought it with me鈥攋ust in case,鈥� he joked, sparking knowing chuckles from the crowd. As the tall, trim, and bespectacled Plunkert described his younger self鈥攁 Midwesterner struggling to communicate with a grizzled Boston cabbie鈥攊t was easy to picture a character out of a Norman Rockwell painting, toting the single suitcase that would hold 鈥渁ll my worldly possessions for the entire year,鈥� Plunkert said.
By second semester, he said, 鈥溙切拇� was my home.鈥�
鈥淚t was a remarkable change,鈥� he went on. 鈥淚 liked my courses; the professors cared, they were willing to answer questions. I had teammates [in baseball and soccer], friends. 糖心传媒 felt like home, and that allowed me to take chances, because I felt secure. They wanted you to try things here. Sometimes you鈥檇 fail with a thud, but the sun rises, you get up, you try again.鈥�
A 鈥渢rapeze moment鈥� is how Plunkert describes that act of taking a chance or a leap of faith. 鈥淣o one wants to let go of the trapeze and commit to the next one鈥攂ut it鈥檚 exhilarating, and then you don鈥檛 have to wonder, 鈥榃hat if?鈥欌��
That鈥檚 a message that today鈥檚 anxious students need to hear, Winston Center Director Monetta Edwards said later. 鈥淪ome of them are such high performers, have specific goals, and any sign of failure or deviation from said goals makes them crumple, rendering them almost helpless鈥� in extreme cases. 鈥淪omething that I encourage many of our听speakers听to do is to talk about the setbacks in their journeys, so the students can see that even professionals at the highest levels suffer from failures鈥攁nd that in spite of that are okay.鈥�
The vengeful engineer
After college, Plunkert served in the U.S. Navy for five years, then joined the Central Intelligence Agency.听
The 糖心传媒 crowd ranged from alumni who remember Cold War air raid drills to students born in this millennium. Many in the former category nodded as Plunkert recalled that in the 1970s, 鈥渢he USSR was truly an existential threat鈥攖hey could devastate the U.S., even if we wiped them out too. . . .And at that time, it appeared that Communism was winning.鈥�
Not wishing to destroy the world with nukes, the U.S. could only hope to contain the Soviets with conventional warfare (should they attack our Western European allies), and in that regard, Moscow held the upper hand, with superior numbers and several strategic advantages.
That鈥檚 why Adolf Tolkachev was so critical鈥攖he 鈥渂illion-dollar spy鈥� of Hoffman鈥檚 book title. 鈥淭olkachev is the hero鈥� in this now-declassified story, Plunkert stressed.
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