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Even after the last Russian and American intelligence archives are opened, if that ever happens, it may be impossible to prove or disprove Sudoplatov's allegations conclusively. His recounting of his career is, after all, the oral history of an old and hardly admirable man, a product of the intrigues and maneuvers of the Stalinist era. As the eminent historian Robert Conquest says in his introduction to Sudoplatov's book: "Individual reminiscences must, indeed, be treated critically -- but so must most documents. Both are simply historical evidence, none of which is perfect, and none of which is complete. Even in the spate of documentation now emerging in Russia, Sudoplatov's evidence is vastly informative in major but (as yet, at least) undocumented areas." Informative -- and debatable, as the reaction to his attack on the reputations of America's pioneer bomb builders clearly shows.