ANOTHER SPY STORY IS IN FROM THE COLD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100090030-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: June 7, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Ih
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100090030-1
AR T I lei,-
ON Pte,
By Thoma O'Toole.
Wssiun?ton Post Staff Wrner
't'hat wanime American intelli-
gence officers. call "new and star-
tii.ng' revelations a bout. how the J.S. ?
Office ' f..Sitategic Services.- (OSS)
dealt-withr,ftie f.Soxiet secret police:.:
Siren called e NKVD, . save
eierged.:in,a: t-oo% about-.the.origms -1
of the CiA.
Working with documents rom the
National Arrbives and the -British
I chive . Bradley -F. -Smith ?wipte in
?The- Shadow t\Warriors- that late in
World War II -the OSS. one.of the
CIA's predecessors. bought. 1.500 se-
cret Soviet documents and four -se-
cret. Soviet military and diplomatic
codes from the Finns only to have
President Roosevelt and Secretary of
State Edward R. Ster.-nnitis.order -the
?OSS to return them to the 'Soviets.
.At that. time the Soviet Union vas
an ally of the United States.
According. to Stettinius' notes.
Smith wrote. Roosevelt old him '?io
ee that the Russians were informed
I-Of this matter at once. Smith added.
;~A ...State Department-presidential
.order was . immediately issued to
OSS thhat, the codes and, the docu-
ments be immediately given to the
:S.uviet government.
By Feb. .15...19,5. Smith wrote.
both the codes and the documents
had been turned over to Andrei A.
,Gromvku. then Soviei..ambassador
-and now foreign minister.
To those who have lived through
.; 5 years of Cold War cloak-and-dag-
,er adventure. Smith wrote that the
most surprising feature of this entire
iaf'feir i.S probably the U.S. govern-
WASHiINNGTON POST
iJune1983
other. 5PV. --St J
'ram the Col
r;~"inour Ian Fleming world.` Smith
wrote, this appears. tc> be.an ect of
peat .power madncs akin to ;riving
an opponent m(- scientific -fdrmul
for ,an. important -secret. weapon"
'South..al$o.' wrote .that:in" another
Case, Ar~7}i tn -:HoettJ, :4,
epuxt chief
of 7-se ' -
G, :foreign . intellieenee -
section, offerer the OSS an -entire
Nazi intelligence and :radio -networ y.
in the'alkans '-'as trade bait' dust'
before the nazi surrender.
But before any deal could be
made the OSS eeized.the rim's. corn
munications.center in Sterrlin_. Aug.-
tria..and tested the radio setup to
see if Hoertlseafy had agents in the
Balkans.. .
Two SD (Gestapo) agents. Kurt
Auner'in Romania and Paul Neun-
teuffel-in Hungary, responded to the
test call signals sent out by OSIS
from -Stey-tling;? Smith wrote. But
even, though OSS Chief William
M. '"i18 Billi Donovan satisfied him-
self that Hoettl had an anti-Soviet
Balkan network in place where the
OSS had none. he concluded that
Hoettl was evidently motivated by a
desire to stir up trouble between the
Russians and ourselves.` .informed
the Soviets of the existence of the
ring and offered to help them wipe it
out.-according to Smith.
? hat followed was a comedy of
errors it- the highest levels of Amer-
ican and :Soviet intelligence.' he
wrote.'-ending in the OSS eliminating
the Nazi .:ne 'ork and r t turning
uver'.any-.?captured material to the
Soviets.
"There ended the East-NW.es,. con'
siderat.inn- of 'the H.oettl -matter.'
Smith -ccmcluded. "and this. was also
the last message to pass through the
OSS-NK1rD exchange center in
Moscow. Three weeks later.` Pre-?
ident. Truman signed the order
abolishing OSS ... .
pent 's decision" 10 'give the codes ?
back to the Soviet., since. this. guar-
anteed that . the.. Soviett~would
change their ciphers at the very time
the United States needed to know
soviet intentions: .
Smith -wrote that: betli the HuettJ
incident and the matter of the Finn
.toes tell :o,Dono an'c impeiuosity
more :than. anythin else. - Smith
srrotezof d3onovsn "die was inciicred.
to move -boldly, -even recklessly-; in
grasping what he. :felt- to - be the -big.'.
.chance. ?In pirrc using the ""'Soviet
cone=-.and'finally iii the -handling if
the Hoettl:.af::air. Donovan plunged
in ? 'were ',most. intelligence men
'would nave een.reluctant'to-act
Former .wartime intelligence of-
ficers agree ahat.Smith's accounts of
both incidents are -new and- star-.
tlirg- footnotes to history.
.111 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100090030-1
d