CIA Officer Richard Kovich; Helped Notable Soviets Defect

In 1978, at a private session of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he presented his case and carried with him a quotation from author Robert Louis Stevenson: "The cruelest lies are often told in silence."

At the urging of Bush's successor, Adm. Stansfield Turner, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill that provided compensation to those whose careers had been unfairly damaged by charges of disloyalty. Mr. Kovich was among those to reap a six-figure reward under the law.

The son of Serbian immigrants, Dushan Kovacevich was born in the iron-ore mining community of Hibbing, Minn., on Dec. 1, 1926.

After Navy service in the Pacific during World War II, he graduated from the University of Minnesota. While studying Russian and international relations, he was recruited in 1950 to work in the CIA's directorate of operations in the Soviet Russia division.

Among the most promising of the ample recruits to this division, Mr. Kovich was soon sent to Europe to recruit and train agents behind the Iron Curtain.

Promoted to deputy chief handling Soviet defections, he also debriefed the early and important KGB officer defector, Peter Deryabin.

Mr. Kovich was a recipient of the CIA Intelligence Medal of Merit. He also was written about in Tom Mangold's book "Cold Warrior" (1991), a biography of Angleton, and David Wise's "Molehunt: The Secret Search for Traitors That Shattered the CIA" (1992).

After his public vindication, Mr. Kovich led an uneventful retirement of golfing. He also was a ham radio operator but had conversations only in Morse code.

Survivors include his wife of 47 years, Sara Arthur Kovich of Jacksonville; a sister; and a brother.