John Paul II and the CIA
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John Paul II and the CIA is John Kiriakou's recollection that CIA old-timers, when he first joined, "took credit for making John Paul the Second pope." Elevating a cardinal from Soviet-satellite Poland, they reasoned, would distract and weaken the Soviet Union. The move dovetailed with the rise of the Solidarity movement in the Gdansk shipyard, and Kiriakou says the pope's later recognition of the state of Israel, long withheld by the Vatican, was regarded as an "extra added freebie" on top of the anti-Soviet benefits. Kiriakou has repeated the same account in separate interviews, again citing "old-timers" from when he first joined the agency who claimed credit for making the Polish pope, framing it explicitly as a political decision made to weaken the Soviet Union and noting it coincided with the rise of Solidarity in Gdansk.

Kiriakou frames the choice as deliberate: John Paul II was, in his telling, "most definitely certainly the CIA choice because he was Polish", there had never before been a Polish pope, and the U.S. wanted a figure strong enough to face down the Soviets as Solidarity struck at the Gdansk shipyards. He is emphatic that no bribery was involved: "nothing so crude." Cardinals, in his account, needed no financial incentive, as politically engaged patriots for their home countries, they were well aware the Soviet Union stood on the brink of invading Poland, overthrowing the Jaruzelski government, and arresting Lech Wałęsa, and that the Soviets or their Bulgarian proxies had already allegedly tried to assassinate the pope.

See also

- Doctor Zhivago operation
- Operation Gladio
