What is in KGB archives about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the attempt to kill Pope John Paul II?
Western experts say the answers may ultimately come to light along with a gold mine of other deep dark secrets now that a new broom is sweeping clean at the KGB.The results could illuminate some enduring 20th century cloak-and-dagger cases, such as the fate of Americans missing in the Soviet Union and other spy puzzles.
A peek into KGB archives would demonstrate how deep the change has been since hard-line Communists botched their bid to topple President Mikhail Gorbachev two weeks ago and the old Soviet Union began to disintegrate.
William Colby, director of U.S. central intelligence from 1973 to 1976, said the veil on "famous cases" could be lifted if reformers wanted to burn bridges with the Communist past.
He cited the thorough repudiation of Nazism after Germany's defeat in World War II. The key is "a desire by the new government to purge itself of the errors of the past," Colby said in a telephone interview.
He said he expected the release of at least some historical information "either to clarify or to display they didn't know anything about" cases such as Kennedy's 1963 assassination.
For nearly 30 years, the assassination has fed debate between conspiracy theorists and those convinced Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone.
The new KGB chief, Vadim Bakatin, has already pledged to disband the espionage and security agency's network of millions of informants, smash its "monopoly" on security and communications and disclose selected files.
"I am not against making public all the archives which deal with our history, but I will categorically oppose . . . access to archives on agents," he told the Soviet parliament Thursday.
At a news conference the next day, Bakatin appeared to open the door further to unsealing some sensitive files, citing documents describing "crimes against humanity."
Asked about charges the KGB engineered the May 13, 1981, attack on the pope, Bakatin said: "I don't think there was involvement there. But if there was - you'll know."
Italian prosecutors contended that Soviet leaders wanted the pope dead because of his support for the independent Solidarity labor movement in his native Poland.
Allen Weinstein, an American heading an international team investigating the attack on the pope, had been seeking access to any relevant KGB files even before the Soviet coup.
Weinstein, who was in Moscow last week, said through an aide that he believed the prospects of gaining access had improved since the postcoup shake-up.
Custodians of KGB files have several incentives for disclosing some documents, notably confidence-building to bring in Western aid and investment.
Stansfield Turner, CIA director 1977-81, said clearing up cases such as the fate of Americans who disappeared in the Soviet Union would help "if they really are trying to get on good terms with us, and they have every reason to want to do that, obviously."
If recent history is a guide, the secrets could start tumbling out sooner rather than later.
"They'll try to prove their new look very, very clearly and I think they will disclose an awful lot of historical things," said David Whipple of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers.
"You're going to get a bonanza of things . . . and probably in the immediate future," added Whipple, a station chief in Southeast Asia, central Africa and Western Europe during a 35-year CIA career.
But some experts said KGB files on sensitive matters may be flimsy, requiring interviews with those who ran the agents to flesh out the picture.
"The record may be very thin indeed," said Allan Goodman, who coordinated presidential briefings for the CIA during the Carter administration and recently co-edited a book about the agency based on declassified documents.
He said even a CIA historian with complete access to the documentary record had to interview "tons of people" to write a complete history of why the CIA was created in the first place.