CIA INVESTIGATORS FOUND SPIES IN U.N.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP68-00046R000200090004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 12, 2014
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: July 12, 1965
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT ?
1C" ^DT TIII)CDO L?T 'A
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/06/12 : CIA-RDP68-00046R000200090004-5
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JUL. 1 2 i^65
,., ., _..... , A ,. _....,,,
- '-i The committee co-nsisted en- Y.' ' 1/Placing agentSi stiate-1 '
: : .
.............. ?: jamin M. McKelway, James H. 'gip U. S. installations. i..? '
) ' Sheild. They eventually report- 'tions facilities for agents ? to j ?.. ?
- Rowe, .Jr.; and Marcellus C. ', V Establishing communica'-; .
,. I
' ed back ' that they did not find ? , transmit material, one facet of)
several hundred persons,'or ev. which is the system of seamen1 :*
? .
en 'one person, abusing Amer- . couriers.
ica's hospitality under UN ati,s, : 1.' Checking on Soviet per- 1
pices by spying or conspiring sonnel in this country to,gt ard %...!
cin espionage. The\committee de- . against defection: '
' \
clared ' itself '"shocked by the . ? 1,.Dissemination of..Com nu- ,
fist propaganda and gathering
of adverse bats about the Unit-
ed States. . .
V Through U. S. immigrant
remittances of U. S. currency
-
to kin in Russia, where it aggre-
.
-
J
m 7:4 i'75.* -77,--.- ,. m?:?5?5.1-,,
Date:
manner in which these serious !
. charges were made." It point-
ed out that the "irresponsible"
statements "produced serious
? repercussions on the foreign pol=
i?
icy of the United States."
1, Although the committee fail-
ed to find any 'documentation of
the three State Department of-
ficials' charges, the Central In-
telligence Agency conducted its
own investigation and reported
back to the Senate ?Judiciary
ourc
e
os,,V
- :Committee, headed by Senator
' Specific cases of espionage .? Nevertheless,. a Subcommittee.... .Pat McCarran (D.-Nev.), that',.,
,agents of Soviet Russia and of the - Senate ,Judiciary Corn-,,
'-'.'Communist terrorists, wholesale..
. Red satellite countries w Ii 0, mittee opened .an investigation.- .
killers, spies and . subversive :
cloaked themselves with U.N. 1I. Three. subordinates in the State agents did; in fact, hold -jobs
e er
,WaialUalgIAig=aii=4
gates a considerable income for
Russian intelligence operations
abroad.
g/Maintenance of liaison be-
tween Communists in the Unit-
ed States and Russian head-
quarters. ?
V Organization of pressure
- diplomatic immunity while op.:: Department, :William McGrath. with the United Nations and its groups to oppose American leg-i
i erating against the United 61,Harlow, Robert G. Alexander .
subsidiary organizations. islation adverse to Communists.
-States are the subject of an ' i I., and k,C1.yde Larkin, save tes- .
k.ri in
arresting new book, Red Spies : 1 i..,' timoir; 7?.:.1115.! e r a 1 ,' iifect that Findings Revealed The concern over Red spies
. in the U. N., by Pierre Huss .:! h ,the UN headquarters was being
and George Carpozi, Jr. Fused by Communist countries
: ? The Ledger continues ,today..% ! ?
' an exclusive newspaper ser-: '1 i
r lalization of ? the hook as a - I
*matter of public' interest. The {!
authors reveal in this instal--11
'r ment the :dramatic story. of 411.
1 the spy link between 40 Amer.; . ;.
as a' "gateway" to slip hun-
dreds. of 'subversive agents into
the ? United States, under dip-
lomatic 'immunity. Mr. Harlow,
chief of, the. Department's Dip-,,
lomatic Visa Section, ? expressed...
the belief ? that "every represen-
Rear Admiral...T-7r Hillen-
koeifer, direct-OVOT-tite-CTA;Wfio
haa.-.Ttivestizate.d:i7lIgi7-Or one
'hundred _nAmes.,of UN employes,
submitted thesIfindin,,
1,00 Thirty-two of the employes
the UN eventually diminished,
but with the Valentin Gubitchete
icase in 1949-50 there was sPe.-,
:cific ground for apprehensions
about the world organization.1 ?
Valentin Gubitchev was convict;
were engaged in active work for ;
ed in a Federal Court of espien.
,
: ?
the intelligence agencies of their age for Russia, suspended by
respective countries.
the U. N. Secretary-General;
1
icans in the U.- N. and the ,.I talive of an Iron Curtain cou,n- ?Twenty-nine others we re and declared by ,the Federa
pro
?.
chief assistant to. the Secre- try" attached to the UN ."is a ? .bigh-ranking : C9'mmunist- .
Party Judge. who presided over the
. . .
, tary General, the Russian "i threat to the security of the ? trial to have violated "Your,
?
I K I ti Zi k United S t " ?
ons an n nchen 0. ?States."
es. ,.
,? There was angry 'denial from ,
CHAPTER TWOI
i,: 'the staff 'committee of the UN; ?
?
' which unanimously passed a
By PIERRE HUSS re,solution , in behalf of their,
And GORGE CARPOZI JR. ,I! more than 3,000 employes. The
i The United Nations was only '1 ? resolution stated that the- "un-
r ?
three years old when individuals !,'.:.
i substantiated charges which -
! in the United States Senate and have been made, and the man- .,
t House Of Representatives rais- ',. ? ;ler in which they were pub- .
ed, the question if the U. N. I4'.- licized, unjustly, cause damage. '
had been made a cover for or-1, to ?the United, Nations in - gen? ,
: ganized espionage 'against the ' eral and the Secretariat in par-
t United States. They were de- ? : . 1,
ticular." ' ?
? nOunced by emotional-defenders,' The ten U. . S. Secretary of.
1..
? of ?the U. -N.. as ."incredibly ii?-? .? ;-.
atate Geo c rMarsl f :
orm;
*\,. ? ?
. Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/06/12 : CIA-RDP68-00046R000200090004-5
ed co
a mige, mittee of 'iallprivate cid-.
, zens ,W look into;-..0)e.'1Patter4:
voTwenty-one more were en-
gaged in active Communist or-,
ganization wink of an under- i
ground or subversive nature out-
side their native homelands.
ve Fifteen others were not in
the CIA's "derogatory informa-
tion file." .
V The -remaining three--had
definite pro-American -sympa-
thies or' had shown disaffection ?
with Communist ideology. ? \
: Another part of Hillenkoet-
ter's _letter te . the Senators de-
scribed .the 'pattern of Commu-,.
fist espionage and subversive.;t
oath of office to the Secretariat
of the United Nations.
Have by your acts attempted to
destroy the hopes of the millions?
who would avoid war and es.
tablish peace ?' .
The Senate' Internal. Security
Committee in Washington touch=
ed off a full drive against 'still.I.
versives and Communists in the :?.
Secretariat in mid-summer 1951. ?:,
An investigation linked at least
forty Americans in the , UN 'tci
espionage, The. probe )ed.tn'thi
Cotrrinu,a
,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
al Americans and the suspen.untii late I:14U wnen me. uumi.-
sion of eleven others. Severa?chey case had exposed Russia's.
of the latter group turned iiespionage activity in the UN ,
their resignations before t he and brought widespread. critij:.
could be given hearings. ' I cism of the Soviets: Soboloy was'!
,
0 highlight of the Senate 11.1'1 then , 4.eca lied to Moscow. and
The .
from there had sent word back
I Woman Testifies
. ternal Security Cor1initteehea6 that "illness" prevented his re-
jag came in early December', turn. Zinchenko had been as-,
? ! when Evelyn Thaler, secretarylsigned to Sobolov s job when he
??
to the Russian Konstantin E returned to the UN with a re-
'tinchenko, head of the UN's De &iced rank in the Soviet Dele-
i
:partment of ,Security CounciLApg,ation. ? . .
lairs, testified. ,. . !; Another -?element of mystery
Miss Thaler told the probers cloaked the case because, along
that she had been a Communist with Zinchenko, one of his chief
at one tithe, but quit of bore aides; Nicola' Skvortsov, also
_ dom. Miss Thaler's testimony was :among the missing.. He had
helped, focus attention on a!takea; home leave In April and
strange vacancy that ' had de..., returned to Moscow. ? Skvortsov
:yeloped in the august councils.i.then applied for an 'extension
of the United Nations. Her owlet' leave on, the plea his wife
boss had. suddenly- dropped ?out: wad sick.' The request was
Of sight. ' ?? ' Igrunted and -he 'waS'; continued
Actually, Zinchenko had beenl
.on the payroll, drawing a tax-
conspicuous by his absence andlfree $8,000-a-year salary with
it was a matter that had coniifull retirement benefits. :
cerned Secretary General' ..._. . _ _ .... . ...... _. the. ,..
scene
,,The fact. waS the Iwo Russian
m
ipl .
Trygve Lie. Around mid-Septe-
omats had left
ber of 1952, Lie decided to make just when the congressional in
yestigation had linked the forty
it his business to find out ,whaj
. ilAmericans in the UN to espion-
h d become of Zinchenke'
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nreatsp to witnoraw from fur-
ther participation in the world
body, Molotov then named So-
bolov for the job. ?
Even before Secretary Gen-
eral' Lie suspected what was
happening in his own Secretar-
iat, General Douglas MacAr-
thur, who headed the U. S. forc-
es as well as those' of other
nations under the UN banner on
the Korean front, had begun to
realize what was going on. The
North Koreans ?seemed to have
an almost Uncanny ability to an-
ticipate MacA'rthur's battle
plans.
The General began to limit
his reports to the UN to infor-
ntation on 'general matters of
a non-in ilitary nature. ;
MacArthur had a seCondary
reason :for holding ? back. On
more than one Occasion he had
found ,the UN Security Council
had censored his reports on the
course of the war in . the: Far
East.
It :was ah, Unfoitunate posi-
tkin for MacArthur., But it soon
made; trouble for; Zinchenkil
who, as the 'UN's Minister of
As Assistant Secretary
A.age. The UN's Department of War, Communication and Infor-
eral Of the UN Zinchenko was
, tie
11Security. Council Affairs, where ma tion,,notified MacArthur that
.1
l!the accused Americans .11 ad he' was failing in his obligation
the highest ranking Russian '
Lie's Secretariat and the poi?fi.l'ed'... was headed, by Zin- to the UN. ? Zinchenko was no
cial who sat in for the Secre-i -
c1 ienko. ? longer able to :transmit neut..
:
Action Significant p ate. warfront information to the
tory General when he was away I, .?? :.p
? I Kremlin because of MacAr-
from the UN. Zinchenko had !? Thererwas significance to the
thur s ;holdout. In anger oyer
gone back- to Moscow in June, ael-.ion Lie had taken against _
4inClienko's 'abuse, MacArthur
then vanished into silence. ?. !Zinchen.ko, early in 1952, deny-
whipped off a blistering coin-
Lie asked a Soviet Delegation!ing him access to any reports
plaint to Secretari. General Lie.
member, Arkady. . A., Sobolov,, coming in from the Korean war
The General did not accuse Zin-
"What has happened to Konstan- !front Zinchenko had been
chenlio of espionage; he ? mere
tin?"? :`caught making unauthorized di- IY charged that his reports were
Sobolov was. evasive. ,"I have versions of ? documents dealing
being censored by the Security
been wondering myself why kon- ?with strategy, troop movements Council. ?
stantin has not. come back. f and other military matters con-
had heard he was ill, poor fel.: cerning UN forces in ,Korea.
low. Maybe he ????is still. indis. There can. be little doubt that
posed. . ." ' Zinthenko ,was feeding the in-
Stock Reply ? formation ,to those in Moscowl ell ? without Zinchenko. It was
This is 'practically the stock', who.. were directing the Red apparent that Lie, too, 'had be-
reply one gets from Riissian gov-. forces fighting against the UN, Come aware of Zinchenko's real
aims 'in demanding. filll battle-
field reports. Within a.few short
weeks the secretary .General di-
eight Assistant Secretaries Gen- rected that henceforth reports
eral. When the Korean War from .MacArthur must not cross!
but like other diplomats wise in came in effect the UN Minis-. Zinchenko's desk; they were to
the ways of reported Soviet, ail- broke out in 1950, Zinchenko be- go ctireetly to Lie. ? l?
'ments, the 'Secretary General, ter of War; Communication, and Thus Zinchenko was reduced,
,concluded the illness was mostly Information. That put him in for all intents and purposes, to
diplomatic; and that Zinchenko charge of all legal, military and.'the level of a liaison or courier
had, seen he last of his days ,in judicial affairs relating to 'the' between ; the' Secretariat and
the service; of the UN.. : subsequent UN operation's ? in, the. Soviet UN Mission. In sub-
. ,
If anyone should have known Korea. This . prize': poSition had sequent months Zinchenko was
?hat became of Zinchenko,- ii,b,een ..delegOteeto:' the. RusSiansi seen ; more and more in 'the
Sobolov. Soboloir himse1114,the4945. Char- coinpanY s his aide. .
Nicolal-
-.11ad' held' Zinchenkies 422 000,aj
Reports Go Direct
Not Idng afterward :Lie be-
gan holding closed door confer-
ences with the Security Coun-
eminent officials at the UN af:.
ter 'one of their number drops
out of sight suddenly. .
Lie had heard rumors ,that
pZinchenko was ill in Moscow,
divisions On the battle lines.
Zinchenko had come into his
post in 1949 as one of the UN's
auu guisags tugeuier uuuita -not
go unnoticed.
Eventually Secretary General
Lie was informed by the State
Department :that Skvortsov had
been trying to subvert. a num-
ber of Amerioans into obtaining
secrets' about America's East-
ern .Seaboard defenses.
It was evident then w h y
Zinchenko and Skvortsov had
!taken their. leave so suddenly
p without explanation and why
both Were delaying their re-
;
, torn to the UN. ,
Natiirally, the . Soviet Union
Was aware of the probe into the
activities of the forty Ameri-
cans in the UN suspected as
Communist sympathizers or
-spies. They could anticipate the
involvement of Zinehenko 'and
Skvortsov in the intjuiry of the
Senate Internal Security. Com-
mittee. The Committee had 'al-
ready been told in priiAate hear-
ings that the two Soviet emis
saries were behind the whole
plot. ,
- Plot Fails
But the, plot never got fitr.
Alerted by SkyortsOv's and Zin-
chenko's unusual comings and
goings, the FBI put a tail on
them. They already had reason
for suspicions. Skvortsov 11 a d
been stationed with the Soviet
Embassy in Ottawa at the time
the notorious Sergei M. Kudry-
avtsev operated. in Canada As
head of the spy ring which
stole atomic secrets. ?
Before long, the FBI's sur-
misses regarding the two receiv-
ed validating support. Trailing
Skvortsov, agents had witness-
ed his surreptitious meetings
with various American 'UN em-
ployes. When these meetings be-
gan to attract Zinchenko also,
the FBI moved in' quickly and
grabbed off the Americans, one
by one, questioned them, and
learned what the Russians were
after.
The FBI said Zinchenko and
Skvortsov were out to get any
information dealing with mili-
tary and seaport facilities on
our Atlantic 'Coast: the capa-
city of our naval shipyards in
'Brooklyn, Norfolk' and 'Ports-
mouth; data On the Electric
Boat Company yards at Groton,
Connecticut,. where the United
States was about to launch its
nuclear sub construction ? pro-,
gram; statistics about Air Force
landing strips at Mitchell Field,
Long Island; Andover. Massa-
chusetts; and Maguire Air Foree
.00riff. met
?
,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2014/06/12 : CIA-RDP68-00046R000200090004-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release- @ 50-Yr 2014/06/12 : CIA-RDP68-00046R000200090004-5
\\_
Base in New Jersey?;, and nu- As suspected, Zinchenko had
merous other top-secret data. fallen out of the good graces of
Only When the plot crystalliz- the Stalinist regime and had,
ed and the FBI had proof of been shipped off to a prison'
Skvortsov's and Zinchenko's at- camp in one of the last purge!
tempts to subvert the killed- campaigns before Stalin's death.1
cans in hand did FBI Director He remained a political prison-
,
S. Edgar Hoover notify the er until the post-Stalin rehabili-.
State Department, which in turn tation procedures enacted byl
alerted Lie. the new government.
Of course, there was little Lie As this was written Konstan-
could do then against Skvortsov tin Zinchenko serves as head
and Zinchenko. The FBI wanted of press service on a newly
Lie to do nothing. Both Skvort- formed State Committee for Cul-'
soy and Zinchenko had notified tural Relations with .Foreign.
the Secretary General of their Countries.
intentions to return as soon as TOMORROW: The Ledger
they had conquered their re- publishes the story of the hero;
spective bouts with "illness." ism of a patriotic American en.
The United States wanted them gineer who served as a counter-
again to pick up the strings of.qnv to nrevent the theft by Rus-,
s
their espionage activities withian agents of one of America's
t
the hope they would lead the top secrets ? details of the
revolutionary Sperry bombsight.
authorities to other spy con-
Read it exclusively in minor-
tacts. So Lie went along with
row's instalment. of "Red Spiei
the plan. ? . .
But When months passed and?in the U ? 44."
Skvortsov and Zinchenko both
continued to stall about their re-
turn, Lie was convinced the So-
viet Government had gotten
wind of what was suspected of
the two diplomats.
'Incident' Avoided
Early in November, Lie fi-
nally sent a note to Skvortsov
in Moscow, informing him he
had been dismissed. No note
was sent to Zinchenko. Inas-
much as he enjoyed high diplo-
matic status,. Lie wanted to
avoid an "incident."
It wasn't until Dec. 13 that
an announcement of the UN spy
scandal was made to the pub-
lic. The United States Delega-
tion at the UN broke the news
with this statement: "The Unit-
ed States Government has no-
tified the United Nations that
Mr. Nicolai Skvortsbv has at-
tempted5 espionage activities.
The United States has also in-
dicated to the United Nations
that such conduct is in its opin-
ion a clear violation .of his status
as an international civil i ser-
vant. Pending UN action, the
U. S. 'Government has taken
steps to deny a is to Mr.
Skvortsov,, who is now on home
leave."
The public was never told un-
til our book was published that
there Was a?direct tie between
Zinchenko and Skvortsov a n d
the forty ?Americana in espion-
age..
? .
?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/06/12 : CIA-RDP68-00046R000200090004-5