WAR HERO NATHAN HALE CONFESSED SPY ROLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400080173-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 173
• Publication Date: March 7, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON PC)
AND TIM#OPR 1
MAR 7 1962
or Release 2000/08/03 : CIA-RDP75-00001
War Hero Nathan Hale
Role
Confessed Spy
Nathan Hale, the American I ness. ' Bale answered him: "If
Revolutionary War hero, was the exigencies of my country'
a confessed spy who made a
"full and free confession" of
,his name, rank, and purpose
when captured by the British.
If the Central Intelligence
Agency has fully exonerated
:Francis Gary Powers, history
has fully exonerated Hale and
remembers his last defiant
.words as a ringing call to
patriotism.
As he stood on the gallows,
Hale's words were: "I only
regret that I have but one
life to lose for my country."
-Contemporary accounts re-
veal that Hale, once he was
caught with the spy goods of
sketches and notes on his per-
,son, told of his mission and
"his being employed by Mr.
Washington." His full admis-
sion, the accounts also show,
was viewed as an act of reso-
lute patriotism and defiance
once he was confronted with
the evidence.
From the manuscripts of
Gen. William Hull, a close
friend of Hale, comes a vivid
acenunt of the agonizing deci-
sion behind the Revolutionary
War officer's decision: to SPY-
la delicate and dangerous busi-
ness in peace as in war.
Hale was an officer
Knowlton 's Rangers in 1775
when he volunteered to spy
on British forces on Lang
Island. Hull rg: in his
demand a peculiar service, its
claims to perform that service
are imperious.*'
Hale, them barely 21, was
~tlisguised as a Dutch school-
master. He passed into the
British camp, made sketches,
and antes, and was captured:
while making his return on
Sept. 21.
He was :hanged the next
mgr g without trial as a
"spy m the Enemy (by his
owl- confession)," accord-
mg tg rote British military or-
der. ?i
Lt.? rederick MacKenzie,
like Hull, viewed Hale as a
brave Man for his actions after
his capture. Hale, MacKenzie'
wrote in his diary, behaved:
with r`great composure and
A biographer of Hale, Henry1
Phelps Johnston, writes that!
Hale's "own full confession"
only went to prove his patri-I
otic character. The British,,
Johnston writes, used the'
phrase "doubtless to present;
it not only as a clear but also''
as an aggravated case, illus
trating the American method'
of warfare, in which spies can-'
fessed to their employment,
and thus indirectly implicating.
Washington and Congress."
But, Johnson concludes.
Hale came out of it as a brave
opponent - "no explanation.
no evasion, . . . no cowardly,
i Halle! erv fQT ?pardon could come, I bix~i-,frb> e ' ii `
Approved For Release 2000/08/03 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400080173-5