Jean-Louis Jeanmaire

Jean-Louis Jeanmaire (25 March 1911 in Biel/Bienne - 29 January 1992) was a brigadier in the Swiss army who passed highly classified, but rather insensitive Swiss military secrets to the Soviet Union from 1962 up until his retirement at 65 in 1975. He was recruited as a spy by Colonel Vassily Denissenko, the Soviet air attaché.

He never accepted money for the information he passed to the Soviets; his motivation appeared to be the result of bitterness at being passed over for promotion.

He was sentenced to a prison term of 18 years, but only served 12 due to good conduct. After his release in 1988, he agitated vigorously to clear his name, and there is doubt about the extent of his guilt, as evidenced by the fact that he was chosen to give the 1st of August speech at Vue des Alpes in 1990.

Jeanmaire died 1992 in Berne.

Literature

* Urs Widmer: "Jeanmaire: ein Stück Schweiz." Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt am Main 1992 – ISBN 3-88661-136-1 (play)
* John le Carré: "Unbearable peace." Harmondsworth 1991 – ISBN 0-14-015204-0
* Jürg Schoch: "Fall Jeanmaire, Fall Schweiz. Wie Politik und Medien einen «Jahrhundertverräter» fabrizierten." «hier + jetzt», Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte, Baden 2006 – ISBN 3-03919-026-1

References

*cite book
last=Blackhall
first=Sue
title=The world's greatest blunders
origyear=1989
date=1997
publisher=Octopus publishing group Ltd.
location=London
language=English
id=ISBN 1-85152-870-9
pages=131—133
chapter=6
*cite news
title=Gen. Jean-Louis Jeanmaire, 81, Swiss Spy
date=January 31, 1992
publisher=The New York Times
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEEDE1331F932A05752C0A964958260

External links

*HDS|23927