KENNEDY 'S GI TEAM ALLEN DULLES' GAMBLE REAPED NAZI SECRETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000200150122-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 15, 1999
• Sequence Number: 122
• Publication Date: March 18, 1961
• Content Type: NSPR

t` N"WPbV64i" r Release 2000/04113: CIA-R
iTAR
Circ.: e. 2871425
Other
Page
NED 1'S G1 TEAM
By
!'ap, mt Of the Kennedy administration represent
ti
e dull; politkal flifh W
owerng o teorld War II veteran's
ge'nc ration, 14t one man, America's top intelligent agent,
acw 111111ULC erore miantgnt-Ali 23,'" 1< en
Y`^' "wwwVwi~ v4 G,, NRfvL1G1P i! ~
friend andcolleq,gue, Gerald M. May^er,'
in Bern, Switzerlar.1.
awes, police, for he' was head
Of - the % American, Office of
4ra9;egic"Services (OSS) in
if if"and thus the top Yan-
ket,;*Oy in'-this city of war-
,rri ; spie9.
SW ies of both the Axis
.,nd the western democracies
re ,- 1etbted_ in ne{ltrsl
iwitzeri'and,"but this night
lInlies rtooki'speciat precau-
I ions to make sure he -would
clot be tailed.- A few hours
hc,fore he had been" ,electrified
by an unexpected ,offer of
r,c ct ' ",documents_ from a
:,rra lger,.,rt cppld be a trap
o! i i; could be the, greatest
intelli,er4a treasu e of the,
war.
Oi, the face.,of it, the
n'oposido*t ',had been incred-
ible, ev0for.a man accus-
tomed tSAxleeaItng in, the bi-
z~arre and lthe shadowy.
The Un.;ted States, in
brief, had beeh"offered con-
densations, an in some
cases exact texts, of top-secret dispatches flowing in code
between the German foreign ministry in Berlin and some 50
Nazi embassies and legations scattered over the world.
There were also promises that the transfer of these docu-
ments could continue indefinitely, opening up the thrilling
p ssibility that the Allies could know every major Axis
Move before it was made.
IeReaped1
1 j
razz k4 eeet
D tic es'
"" " ": , 'res were, aamost`too simple to be cred-
1 i at mrr a tall, dignified Prussian, who said fie,
hdt et tl;e regime and was now a citizen of a Latin
~m cwt' "ceun cad walked into the office of Mayer,
},ci wa3s head o 'e United States office of war 1nforma
or: n Bern. ;
The strap, e aid d friend of his had access in Berlin
to jl rto slt: y' ei-n' ninistry dispatches and wished to
?i ke t1 e a let i e Allies becau's he hated Adolf'
ti er athe ther N Nevertheless of G any.
Ma rar,"all skeptic, Nevertheless cal Dulla -dWhen
the!S r agent awed, the two Amerce s quizzed the
s leng h. The 'former Germa ew from his
is envelo and took out three d ` tches in Ger-
m p rp d to 'be messages froazi ambassa-
d n. cg+'T . Bey an* ""Czechoslovakia German For-
~.ald the" strange>andidly that he'; suspected he
nt provocateui h *ho would either, (1) let the'
ington and there' monitor the broadcast
ttaking the United S# tes code.
a u in Berlin who got the documents.
'r" nSVho wcro 'b ck leather jacket and, was nervous and'
Mayers passedd around highballs, but 'though all drank,
:atmosphere"W&s` heavy with suspicion.'After preliminary
t ng, thai? slit, stock German beckoned Dulles and
e03n envelope hnd poured out the contents.
`T iere were;j `fewer than 186 documents, some mere
,;tirnuld have `nothing more to do. with me."
The foAr me talked until almost dawn of Aug. 24.
bat Dulles wa`itted particularly were references outside
'zany, and 'the little man from Berlin supplied them in
ond. wife, `both living in South Africa. He gave. names of
people In America and England who knew him,
,,He also went over.- his on life in detail. He said he
was an assistant to Dr. Karl Ritter, the German army's
liaison chief in the foreign office. Over Ritter's desk passed
a duplicate, not of every embassy dispatch, but' of every
one which concerned the army-in wartime a high per-
Approved For Release 2000/04/13 : CIA. RDP70-00058R000200150122-8
 110 sai rr is t% eaersafieeh P %OtfleP : CIA-RDP70-00058R000200150122-8
Switzerland to make contact with the Allies, but his
ry effort v`as thwarted. Finally a courier took sick and
was permitted to carry the diplomatic pouch to Bern as
placement courier.
How could-;he take the papers, without being appre-
lded? It wit's liis job, he said, to bNef the dispatches for,
.. L er since they wez:e. too volumnjou s ~#Qr the head man to
wly, in detail: Ritter's aid said he had his own office,
=ltd both,make, notes and copy important messages in.full.
The little main's ex;planation;ftl Eer ng to spy for the
MPs: had the ringlet sincerity. , Me ;xaid be did not consider
tro.,v5 ?ft against Germany, that" Hitler was the traitor
-1?+ile he was the patriot, desiring to see, )his -homeland re-
ra.,,,n t to neaee and sanity. ',.
^, ilex 'and the ,t. o Germans left A e apart rnent sep-
+"1 , lttf r hour s"'Ora The crier i tom Seri n returned
' his hotel, and pot to l ter l5ullcs learn' that
:,,ending to know t ?ffy 1 ' 1 en ;ihsen frcl a us !hero
. Within the small :mmand circle in Washington privy
'1 1M [,~!3 LEI r C S#' to the espionage o6tip, the "Kappa papers" were' 7h tremend-
"'"
hit Cl Wll1 (Wild Bill) Dnovta h d'ol
ous.o.i moa, The little matt,: p eadetl a date with Swiss lad ' tfle Is
night and believed the Germs oreign office, documents svt5tth the
Ve
to
' conVinG b
bill
d
d
s
rn
oc
t
a
a
ex! pence of costly OSS organization.
for administering n
the lY3m
ziet e Wing ~ dent Roo It; elated and intrigued by'the secret
Of Aug. 24. w 1 `' p p a: h and often' reead
Dulles did t, laid- Washington tr su as brief n each n ,
floz the seer ra ;! ern for an eaten them, f. Ma tli a e .; Ied him to keep a
f ~ head of i far ally Sir 1 pt3ston Churchill, who
a~ check pf,evey name, place an re alive supplied by
ence 4 Is
d brz11ia3it $ritisfi intelli
th
t
fe
y
g
e ve
8 an an
a r. ';ii courier.`; Ai-t' en spent ours and hours over the docu-
i
servce
vents. Many of them-were week?'old.'anci 441is, Aber the w r,. Iles *as decorated twice, for secret
a-r.4 ut, they chronicled exactly r a~ly major s the fir- , :~ the pGerman surrender iij* i#Qgotiartions lead! Mlle in Italy. in late
rl.ans had made since. : 1pril and for h pinpoint .the German bum jaomb
cal due time, back ,'OSS ieport from Washing- j unt hi& . rtes A erman coast. Pte.. i.
# C~
tor . Every fact check then did Dulles place the Because l? postwar intelligence ramificatiof the
dispatches theih