(EST PUB DATE) IT CAME TO LITTLE BY IAN MAXWELL
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Publication Date:
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!sr
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IT CAME TO LITTLE
by
Ian Maxwell'
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913 LOOM) FOR MUCH, AIM LO, Z CAM TO LITTLE)"
Haggai 1.9
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FOREWORD
It Case to. Little is an attempt to record sone of the events which trans.
plied in the life of an intelligence/counterintelligence officer, who served
over twenty seven years in: the Ferderal Bureau of Investigation, the Office
of Strategic Services/I-2 (Counter\Intelligences Counter Espionage Branch),
the Central Intelligence Group (CIO, and finally and principally, the Cep-
tril Intelligence Agency.
Not all the events cited are told completely) and several persons in.
volved are given other than their true names; but, there are no exaggerations
and no deviations from tette truth.
Fersons-whose real names � are given in this book have not been .asbed that
this be allowed...... I have taken Um liberty of naming them and hope that they
will not be offended..
Although they have no in this effort., I, nevertheless, wish to em.
press my most sincere admiration and utmost respect for: I. John Edgar Hoo-
ver, Director, Federal Bureau of Investogation; Mr.. James R. Hdrphy, wartiMe
Director of OSSII.2vand, particularly, the late Allen "lib Dulles, CGS Chief
in Switzerland during World War II, a principal architect in the creel:len-Of
CIA for President Harry TrumSn and the Greatest Director CIA hashed. There
are others who could be cited for help given to the writer but most of
these should be left no-named for some of them are still actively fighting com-
munism and other lesser enemies of our country. A few of the un-named persons
participatedinoperatione which should not yet be brought to .the attention of
the enemy.
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To all these: chiefe, fellow workers and friends, the author is grateful
and gives hie heartfelt thanks for the direction, guidance, assistance and
sympathy in the efforts we putually made to wipe fascism from the face of
the earth and to destroy that worse blight, communism --- in the hope that
men mient live in democracies and nvtions could devote themselves to the pro-
motion of domestic tranquility and -work for the welfare of their citizens.
To date, I believe all this effort has came to little.
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Chapter I 1
Until 1941, the most clandestine things I had done were of the type done
by
by most boys and young men. I had superseded this slightly, when I signed a
professional baseball contract, while still on a scholarship at my university
as an undergraduate. I had signed in pseudonym, for two reasons: first, I did
not want to embarrass my family, which would, individually and collectively,
have been shocked to have a amber become a professional athlete, paid for
playing baseball; and, secondly, I did not want to lose my scholarship at the
university, which bad been given to me for my participation in football and
baseball for that school. I have yet to be able to distinguish a difference
between an athletic scholarship and professional status. Anyway, I signed,
lied about my age to make it legal; and I kept my scholarship for a good while
afterwards, by keeping this secret, by having this as a clandestine act and
keeping knowledge of it to myself and the person who signed me, the scout.
As stated, the other clandestine acts in which I participated were of the
usual types: getting a little piece on the "sly", as we said in those days;
sneaking a watermelon from the patch of a neighbor, when younger; and the nor-
ma). secret acts of a youngster, which I believe all normal males of the human
species do.
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Chapter Ii 2
During my undergraduate university education, I had taken all the mathe-
matics courses I was allowed to take. This, I did because courses in mathema-
tics required little time, practically no reading of required books and no af-
ternoon laboratories, with the time consuming hours of work they took. I had
avoided all the long-winded lecture courses I could; I took little history and,
in general, tried not to take courses which entailed much note-taking, collat-
eral reading and after class work.
My reasons were good and, I thought, patriotic to my school and its athle-
tic program. I wanted to have the maximum amount of time free for practice,
conditioning and study of plays in football and baseball. I was very anxious
to convince the university that they had made a good choice when they gave me
an athletic scholarship; and I worked very hard at these two sports.
When I vent professional, I signed up for a graduate school -- and that
autumn I continued my study of mathematics.' I got my master's and ph.d. de-
grees in pure mathematics, while playing baseball for pay. I arrived late for
each school year, and left early each aing; but I had such understanding pro-
fessors and counselors that I was able to complete my doctorate in, what was
then, almost record time.
While in graduate school, I wrote, and I had the good fortune to have some
mathematics articles published in leading mathematics journals.
One of these articles attempted to show a practical use of matrices, the
diffuse and, then, somewhat ethereal matrix theory, a brqnch of higher algebra
and group theory.
In this article, I claimed that different systems for enciphering messages
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could be used in one and the same message. This was nothing very new; but,
I claimed that many different systems could be used in a long message ---
and, by use of matrices, confuse the cryptographers who wished to read the
enciphered message and make it much harder for them to break the cipher sys-
tem. The article came from my desire to show another and, I thought, practi-
cal use of matrices; and it came from my fascination with cryptography and
cryptanalysis and the nathenAtics which had been used in these fields.
Shortly after the article appeared in print, I was visited by a Special
Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the justly famous investiga-
tive arm of the United States of America. This Agent's name was "Skeeter"
Frost; and he, like all Special Agents of that disciplined organization, was
well dressed, polite and very presentable. Frost very politely asked me to
go through the article with him --- which I did, knowing that he understood
not one iota of it. However, he appeared to listen intently and was even
complimentary; and, of course, pretended to understand the means by which
I said I had proved my claims.
After some two hours of this discussion, Frost let me know the purpose
of his visit. I had, up to that time, believed that he was interested in the
technique I had tried very hard to explain. I had thought that he was inter-
ested in this potential means of confusing the enemies of the USA who night
try to read confidential enciphered messages; or, I had thought possible that
I could be accused of meddling in things which I should either have cleared
with some Government department (possibly the FBI), or which I should have
left alone entirely.
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Frost said, "We have looked into your background, superficially and hurried-
ly; and we have found only one derogatory item of any importance --- and that is
that you falsified your age when you signed a professional baseball contract, and
then signed in a false name."
Then be continued, "Despite this, The Director, Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, is inter-
ested in considering you for employment in the Bureau, possibly in a Section which
will be devoted to enciphering and deciphering and the studies of methods of pro-
tection of our ciphers and of breaking enemy ciphers."
I was, of course, thrilled and very flattered that such a great American as
Mr. Hoover had ever heard of me; and I was overwhelmed at the thought of being em-
ployed by him as one of his Special Agents. I thought of myself working with Mr.
Hoover against enemies of the United States, both subversive and criminal. However,
I did not want Frost to see how flattered I felt, did not want him to know how anxious
I was to go that very day and begin to work by Mr. Hoover's side,
So, I said, as calmly as I could, that I had to have time in which to think over
his proposition, for it would mean dropping a great deal of work I had begun, not to
mention giving up baseball. But when he asked how long I needed to think it over, I
made an error and showed him how anxious I was to join the Bureau. I said, "Two days",
then, after a slight pause, added, "At least."
Frost smiled, and he told me he would cone back two da# from that time. He then
stressed to me that, even if I should say that I wanted to become an applicant, this
would not mean that I had been hired; it would merely signify that I wished to be hir-
ed by the Bureau. There would follow, he said, several weeks of investigations of my
background, my family's background and our reputations; and, if all came out favorably,
I would then be called for personal interviews and examinations. If I came out well
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on these, I would most likely be offered a job as a Special Agent.
After this, he added, I would have to undergo training in the FBI Train-
ing School at Quantico, Virginia. If I passed these courses and got good rec-
ommendations from the instructors, I would likely be assigned to the Cryptographic :Ter:tfcr
Section being established by Ni'. Hoover, according to Frost's understanding.
I was so sure that I would get into the FBI, and immediately, that I got in
touch with my baseball manager, told him that I had decided to retire and would
not report for spring training with the team. He argued that it was too late,
that I had let him and the team down and asked for some explanation. I told him,
then, that I had been offered a job with the FBI --- and firmly said to him, "I
plan to take it and quit baseballJ" With this, be stopped his attempt to convince
me that I should report; and he congratulated re on being able to get into such a
fine organization as the Bureau. I did not stop to think that I had not been of-
fered any job; I had not, in fact, even reached the stage of being a full-fledged
applicant. My desire to get into the FBI, become a Special Agent, had carried re
away from reality.
I later considered this a part of my education. I have never since that time
claimed that I had been offered a job, until after the offer was firmly and defi-
nitely made to me.
The summer of 1940 was a very sad one for me, until I received a scholarship
to go to the University of Edinburgh, in Edinburgh Scotland, to study group the-
ory and,. in particular, matrix theory, under Professor. E. T.. Whittaker, world famous
mathematician.
The few months I spent in Edinburgh were among the best I have ever lived. I
found a young intelligent and, to me, very beautiful Jewish mathematiCian, Who
had fled with her father and mother from Hitler's Germany. She was lonely, and I
was more lonely, so we formed a research team --- and studied many things, in addi-
tion to pure mathematics. We brought group theory to a very practical two,-element
level; and Anita Korow-and I fell in love-.
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Anita Korow was a tiny, five feet three inch, slender girl; but, she
had curves in all the fine and right places, and, despite the fact that
she and her parents had suffered physically and had known the fear of death
in Hitler's Germany, she was alert, enjoyed life and she usually trusted
people, even strangers.
Below this faith in mankind, however, there was a darting look in her
eyes. She had the brightest eyes, which were very black and almost always
very shiny. Most of the time, her eyes looked as if she had just washed
them with something which gave them a special glossiness, a liquid gloss.
Anyone who looked carefully into her eyes knew immediately that she was
brilliant, lively and profound. Her eyes exhibited intelligence, curious-
ity; and they showed profundity, above everything else. When she was puzz-
led, when she did not quite understand a remark or even an event, she would
dartingly search for the answer --- with those beautiful eyes.
At times, I saw fear, felt she was still haunted by soma deep-seated
feeling that all around her was not right. She probably feared that a Nazi
would appear, grab and torture her, treat her as so many of her people were
then being treated.
Perhaps it was a deeply imbedded fear which I thought I saw in her eyes
wha made me want so much to love her; and perhaps this fear made it poss-
ible for her to make love wit# me. For, she said several tines that life
was too short and pleasures were too infreqUent and fleeting for her to
worry about whether it was right or not right for us to make love. She
was passionate; and her small body seemed at times to be completely taken
over by her inner feelings and outer expressions.
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I loved her very much; and I believe she loved me as deeply as I loved her.
Still, we did not get married. She would not marry a gentile without the
approval of both her father and mother. They were opposed to our marriage; al-
though they were very kind to me and even told me that they loved me. I wanted
very much to marry Anita; but she could not go against her parents, and, while
we were in this confused state, I had to leave Edinburgh, Anita qnd Dr. Whittaker.
Mrs. Ruth Bielaski Shipley, Chief of the Passport Division, Department of
State, in Washington, wrote to me ordering me home. She wrote that I should get
out of the Danger Zone, in which she included Edinburgh, Scotland. War had begun
in September 1939 and I had got my passport in the late summer of 1940; and I was
unable to understand what had happened to change Edinburgh into .a Danger Zone for
Americans. So, I wrote to "Mr. R.B. Shipley", thinking the person Who had sent
me the demand, signed R. E. Shipley, was a man. I think my letter offended Mrs'.
Shipley, as much by my error in her sex, as it did by my poorly conceived and
more poorly expressed arguments against her Danger Zone theory) :In any case,
she not only hurriedly ordered me to return, but she sent the U.S. Consul, i
weak-livered, cookie-pusher type if I ever saw one, to visit me and personally
order me to the USA or give him my passport then and there.
If I had not been caught completely unawares by Consul Forsythe J. Wheeler;
and, if he had not immediately shown that he suspected that Anita was living with
me, I could have given better answers to his demands than. I did. I told him that
I would return, in order to keep ay passport; and, after he had gone, pronising
as he departed to return very soon to see whether or not I had sailed for the
USA, Anita and I thought of many things I should have said to him --- and Anita,
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probably trying to hide the fact that she was upset by ay impending de�
parture, said that she thought I should have punched him in the nose, just
to see whether or not his expression would change. But I did nothing to
him --- and this was just as well, for the FBI would probably have learned
of it, if I had hit him, and I might have lost my chance for FBI employment
as a Special Agent.
Soon afterwards I sailed for New York, arriving on 11 January 1941,
leaving my beloved Anita with a promise that we would meet in the USA very
soon; leaving wonderful Dr. Whittaker, with his vide knowledge, sharp and
incisive mind and friendly attitude towards me and Anita; and leaving the
University of Edinburgh, after too short a time in that beautiful and mar�
velous city and school.
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9.
CHAPTER III
I returned to my graduate school, with very little
money, for I had had to pay my own passage from Edinburgh
to Southampton to New York and to my old university; and I
had no job, no source of income and could probably expect
no job until September 1941, when the next school year
would begin.
Mrs. Shipley and her Danger Zone theory had caused me
hardship and had, I thought, hurt me needlessly. I drafted'
several letters, threatening to institute claims against her
and the U. S. Government; but, of course, did not finalize
any one of these, nor did I send any letter to her or anyone
else �about her actions, which I had considered as having
been directed at me, personally.
My social fraternity, which I now believe had initiated
me merely to have my grades added in the fraternity average,
allowed me to live, free of charge for a few weeks, "Until,"
they said, "a job turns up for you." I remained there for
some three weeks, as long as I could and keep my self-respect.
Then, I told my brothers in the ^fraternity' that I'd received
an offer to teach in a high school near my home town_7-- which
was not true, but which might have been --- for I had written
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and applied at several places, including one preparatory
school near home.
Then I headed for home, where I had the fearsome event
of facing my Scottish father; where I would have to listen
to his repetitions of the advice he had given me long ago
and had repeated several times. He had always told me that
I should stop being a student; he had called me a permanent
student, had said that too much time spent as a student would
make a man impractical and unworldly; he had hopes that I
would get a job, a job at something other than teaching,
which he feared that I would take up as my lifetime profession.
My father, who was a farmer, could not understand how a son
of his could become a "fancy pants," teacher who did not, in
my father's words, work for a living. I knew that he would
say to me that I had, as he had told me, made an error when
I accepted the scholarship and went to the University of
Edinburgh; I knew that he would chide me for having failed
to stay out the year, for having lost a portion of the
scholarship money which would have come to me, if I had
completed the year in residence; but, I had no alternative
but to go home, sit for a while and think things out, plan
my future. I agreed with my father --- I was now old enough
to have decided on a career and my father did not think that
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either teaching or, even more strongly, that playing around
as a mathematics student, would be a fit career.
I sat at home, went through the lectures, repetitious
and boring, from my father --- and, when I could be alone,
thought about what I should do. I had long since given up
hope that the FBI would hire me; no longer did I dream that
Mr. J. Edgar Hoover and I would work together against the
enemies of the U.S.A.
Neither the army nor the navy appealed to me, in the
slightest; I was out of baseball and did not feel that I
could crawl back and ask for a tryout, when I had so posi-
tively quit,when they wanted me to report. I had not pre-
pared myself, when in school, despite all the years I spent
studying, for any work. I had not even prepared myself for
teaching; I had never had a course in educational work.
There are many over-educated failures; and I felt that
I was one. I had always gone to school, instead of facing
up to the fact that a man had to choose a career and work.
From undergraduate school, I had gone to graduate school, I
now held three degrees and had an excellent series of grades
for four plus almost three years; but, I was not prepared to
do any work, perform in any position I might get. Perhaps,
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I thought, I should just stay at home, be satisfied with
being a farmer and forget all those years, wasted years of
very hard and continual study. I knew that I would have to
kill many things inside me, destroy memories, forget things
learned and remake myself internally, to be able to become
even an apparent farmer. I knew that I would never be happy;
but, I was certainly not a contented man in my present rud-
derless and confused state. So I decided that after some
additional thinking and, after I had decided just how to say
it, I would tell my father that I had decided to give up any
hopes of teaching and give up any additional study and become
a farmer. I thought that I would tell him that I wanted to
help him to make some improvements, some I had heard him-
dream of making, on the farm --- and, I believed, he would
be happy with this decision.
I had decided that a Sunday would be the best day to
�
have this talk with my father. He always relaxed on Sundays;
after his visit, unhappy as he was to go and sit through �
Sunday School and the Sermon by the Minister, he would sit
calmly and, apparently, feel that he had sacrificed for the
week past and that he could relax and feel contented, like a
man who has �eaten too much. I had hoped that the coming
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Sunday would be a warm day, despite the fact that it was
still early in March, for on warm Sundays my father would
sit on the porch and rock himself into a semisleep. This,
I thought, would be the best time to begin the conversation,
for he would be less combative, would listen better and
more patiently; and would be more inclined to feel happy
about my plan to join him as a farmer.
Rehearsals of my speech, or at least the beginning of
my speech, to my father had made me feel that I could not
but make the: old man happy; he would, I believed, be proud
of me ---and would let me know it --- for the first time in
many, many months. I walked in the woods, along the Coke
Oven. Branch, and made my opening statement to my father aloud,
with only squirrels, cardinals and jaybirds as overt wit-
nesses. I had never been so concerned over any of the �
hundreds of examinations I had taken as I was over this
decision, this future of mine, and how I should present it
to my father.
On Saturday, the day before I was to talk with my
father, a telegram arrived at our home. The telegram was
addressed to me;_a d it was long and detailed. I was signed:
"J. Edgar Hoover, Director." The telegram asked. that I
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report to the Department of Justice Building, Washington,
D.C., Room 5717, at 08:30 hours, on 17 March 1941; and I
was told what to bring in the way of clothing, even to a
belt, which was to be purchased and had to be of a specific
pattern and size. I should, this telegram said, come pre-
pared to travel, for I would not be in Washington for many
hours. My salary as a beginning Special Agent of the FBI,
was the normal salary of a beginning Special Agent, which
certainly does not entice those looking for riches to become
FBI employees; and pay began as of 17 March 1941 --- this,
even though I had been told by "Skeeter" Frost that I would
not be full-fledged as a Special Agent until after the weeks
of training I would undergo in Quantico, Virginia.
I had been ashamed to mention my failure to get into
the FBI to my father; so he was completely surprised by this
telegram; the only person who was more surprised was the
recipient himself! I had completely given up hope of getting
the appointment--- and now, I relived the thrill, just as I
had lived the aspiration, of getting appointed.to this most
fabulous, best disciplined and most efficient of investigative
organizations in the whole_wide world!
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CHAPTER TV
I arrived in Washington, D.C. on 16 March ready to re-
port to Mr. Hoover on the morning of 17 March. I felt sure,
because of the things I had heard from "Skeeter" Frost
and because of the telegram, which sounded so personal
that I actually believed that it was from Mr. Hoover, that I
would be ushered in to see the Great Man himself on 17 March
--- and I was nervous, so concerned over this impending in-
troduction, that I slept very little on the night of 16
March.
I stayed in the old Dodge Hotel, near the railway
station; it was conveniently located for anyone arriving by
train, as I had. I did not know how long, despite the tele-
gram from Mr. Hoover, I would be in Washington, so I left my
one suitcase in the hotel room, kept the room and went, very
early, to the Department of Justice Building. I was not
alone; some twenty-four others were there shortly after I
arrived --- and all of them were as ignorant as I about what
was to happen to us.
Promptly at 08:30 a young man with an authoritative
voice tpd_us to go inside, where we would find seats. We
entered Room 5717; each man found a chair and we all nervous-
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ly waited. Soon, a large heavy set man with a florid face
and a peculiarly' shaped mouth was introduced by the young
man who had told us to enter. The large man was Mr. Hugh
Clegg, Assistant Director in Charge in Training and Inspection;
subsequently, I learned that he was known as "Trout-Mouth"
Clegg to the older and more daring Special Agents --- when
he was not around. Mr. Clegg was a salesman; he told us
that we would love the Training School and that we would re-
gret that we only had six weeks there; he said that we were
badly needed in the Field Offices, because work was piling
up awaiting our arrivals at these offices. He made each man
feel, that the Assistant 'Director was speaking directly to him;
he made us feel that we were very special and fortunate young
men --- he indicated that every young man in the U.S.A.
would like to be in our shoes; but, he said, unfortunately
the FBI could only take the very best of all the many thou-
sands of applicants who were anxious, just as anxious as we
were, to get into the Bureau: Mr. Clegg stressed that team-
work was the basis, the foundation upon which the Bureau
was built --- and, of course, he spoke with practical rever-
ence of Mr. Hoover.
After Mr. Clegg's half hour address, we were told by
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several different young men, all of whom spoke well and with
confidence, what we should buy, where we should or could buy
it; and we were told to check out of our hotels and report
back to the Department of Justice Building at 14:30 hours,
with our luggage.
We bought the belts, the trousers, shirts and other
clothing and equipment we had been told to get, ran to our
respective hotels, checked out; ate hurriedly and returned
to the Department of Justice Building --- and not one man of
the twenty-five was late, in fact, all were ahead of time!
We were told where to place our luggage and purchases --- and
the same young authoritarian herded us into the large confer-
ence room again. When inside, we were told that a great
event was about to take place. We were asked to align our
chairs carefully, sit as if at attention, look straight ahead
and wait quietly. Meanwhile, all the shades were adjusted
to the same height --- and some three young men examined the
lines of the chairs, had corrections made in these alignments;
and saw to it that everything was clean and shipshape. Then,
.we were told that Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, and always thereafter
called simply "The Director," was to honor us by coming by
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for a very brief welcome to us: We were told that Mr. Hoover
could hot always personally welcome young trainees, like us,
for he frequently had to see the President of the United
States or to appear before Congressional Committees or other
groups; or, that he had some very important case which would
take him to another part of the country. We, however, were
very lucky, because The Director had a few minutes which he
could spare, during which he would give us a very brief
welcome to the Bureau.
Then, Mr. Clegg came back into the room, smiled at us
as if we were old friends and well known to him. He, like
the young Special Agent, told us that we were a very fortunate
group, for he had just been able to get "The Director" to
come by for a very brief appearance before us, to welcome
us as new Special Agents of the Federal Bureau Of Investi-
gation. This, he repeated to us, was a great honor to this
class --- and a special privilege not enjoyed by all incoming
Special Agents.
Mr. Clegg then told us that we should all stand, exact-
ly at the time The Director appeared in the doorway; that he
thought we should applaud until The Director signalled to us
that we should stop; and that we should all try to be seated
at the same time and as noiselessly as possible. He said that
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in no case should we get our chairs out of line; and in no
case should anyone smoke or make unnecessary noises after
the entrance of The Director.
Mr. Hoover appeared; and we rose as one man, applauded
loudly until he had reached the lectern and signalled us to
stop. He _then welcomed us to the finest organization in
the world, told us that he would get to know each and every
one of us personally; and expressed his great appreciation
for our spontaneous applause. He also said that he appre-
ciated our willingness to come into the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, for he was sure each and every one of us had
been informed that, from this day on, we were on duty twenty-
four hours daily, each and every day of the year; and that
the work would be hard, demanding, and, at times, trying.
.But it was so obvious that Mr. Hoover himself was willing to.
work as hard as any one of us; that he was so proud of the
Bureau and its achievements; that he was giving his entire .
life to this essential work for our country, that every man
In the group was touched, deeply moved. Mr. Hoover is an
excellent speaker, a very imposing man --- and his appearance
gave this class a desire to get through the training immedi-
ately and get to work on some of the many cases we had heard
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were awaiting us in the field. We, each and every one of us,
wanted to fight the enemies of the U.S.A., both criminal and
subversive, with all our capabilities --- under Mr. Hoover's
direction!
The FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, is hidden amongst
the Marine Barracks and other marine buildings; and the FBI
trainees and re-trainees (Special Agents who are brought
back for re-training and refresher courses periodically)
dress in clothes which resemble the marine fatigue dress, or
working uniform. They are usually in groups which could be
mistaken for marines by all but the well informed on such
matters.
Buses took the twenty-five niohytes to ,liantico; and
we, all of us, went through another briefing session. In
this one we were told how to make our beds, and had this
demonstrated to us, even to the bouncing of a quarter dollar
on the tight covers; we were told how to clean the floors,
what to do about the windows, where the bath, showers and
dining room were; and, most important of all, where the class-
room, laboratories and study rooms were located.
At a specific time, we had to rise each morning;
breakfast was served at the stated time --- 07:00 hours ---
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and those who missed went hungry until lunch, which was at
12:30 hours. Dinner was at 18:15 hours,- and on certain days
classes were held for an hour after dinner. Then, study was
allowed until 22:00 hours, when all began preparations for
bed, for at 23:00 hours lights went out and all had to be in
bed. This routine was fixed for every day except Sunday,
when we only had classes for three hours --- and were allowed
to have breakfast at 08:00 hours.
In addition to the federal statutes over which the FBI
has been assigned jurisdiction, we had to study photography,
the use of firearms, how t� dust and take fingerprints,
public speaking; and we had physical combat, search and de-
tention, the uses of restraining devices and how to organize
and direct raids on buildings and areas. Great emphasis was
placed on appearance as a witness in courts. FBI Agents are
supposed to be among the best and most factual --- and the
hardest to confuse --- of all witnesses who appear to testify
in court trials. Reports writing was taught; and one had to
be able to write a very brief and concise, but factual summary
of each report; and to have the Details support the Summary
statement. Each_report had to be written with the idea in
mind that Mr. Hoover himself might someday have to read that
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report; and, we were told, it would be best if the report
were in good English, clear --- with no personal opinion;
and usable as written by even the newest Special Agent in
testimony before a grand jury or before Congress. The in-
formants were listed on a separate detachable page. In the
report itself they were designated by symbols, like X-1,
A-1, A-27, and others which were identified on the detachable
page. This source sheet was always detached from any copy
of any report going outside the FBI.
Most of the Class enjoyed the physical aspects more
than the study of laws, rules and regulations (of the FBI)
and the reports writing courses. But there were some who
hated the combat classes and some even disliked the train-
ing in the uses of the different types of firearms. I re-
call one Boston Irishman, Who had never before entering the
FBI, fired a real gun. He got nervous, when handling a pump
shotgun and shot himself in the foot. The big, tough in-
structor sent him back to Boston, with the suggestion that
he return to accounting as a lifetime job.
Another Special Agent/Trainee was chained to a chair,
with his hands behind his back and his legs locked backwards
and to the chair. The instructor, Joseph Lynch, broke the
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key in one of the locks --- an, this poor student, who had
volunteered to be used in the demonstration, went without
dinner that evening, until after a special saw arrived from
Washington and the chains were cut. Lynch was frightened
over this one; for instructors also were under strict and
contirfous discipline.
Courses in memory, identifications of statements and
photographs of individuals and places were given --- and
those who erred in identifications were penalized, made to
study additionally.
All in all, these six weeks were crammed with useful
data and very useful exercises, not only for an FBI Special
Agent, but data and training which could be useful in any
profession one of these officers might afterwards enter.
In all, nine of the twenty-five who rode jauntily down
the road to Quantico disappeared, prior to the end of the
six weeks. We were never told --- except in the case of
the Bostonian who shot his own , why they left; but we
were moved up a space in the classroom whenever one left.
Further, we did not know how many of the remaining sixteen,
who were there until the last day, actually graduated.
Very cleverly, we were assigned to the Washington Field
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Office and each one of us was assigned for a week or so of
actual'participation in the work of a specific Special Agent
in that Office. Most of the work we did was on applicants
for federal government jobs; and we went around to call on
references, check police and other records, as an assistant
to the regular investigator. We also participated in the
report made on the investigation, or any lead pertaining to
an investigation. Classmates, in this way, lost contact
with each other --- and one who might not have made the grade,
could simply be let go, with no notice to others.
During this period each new Agent got his first assign-
ment; and I, being from the South, was sent to Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, on My first Field Assignment.
I was very pleased, for I had feared that, despite my
plea to Mr. Clegg that I not be sent to the Cryptographic
Section, I would draw that assignment as my first one. I had
been allowed to visit the Crypto Section --- and I decided
Immediately that I wanted to get out into the Field and
learn to be a regular Special Agent, rather than spend my
time trying to break anagrams on Post Toasties Box Tops,
which is about the extent to which the FBI had got at that
time. I was lucky, for shortly after my entry into the
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Bureau, purportedly to be in the Cryptographic Section, Mr.
Hoover received orders not �to establish such a Section ---
but to rely on Arlington Hall and existing facilities in
this field. However, the fact that I had personally put
in a plea to be allowed to go to the field and to be allowed
to become a regular Special Agent, made a big hit with
"Trout-Mouth" Clegg, who became a friend from that point on.
He told me that Mr. Hoover had personally heartily approved
my request.
At Mr. Clegg's request, I gave him copies of all
articles I had ever had appear in print; and I cockily
autographed some of them to him, with esteem and respect.
I was very happy to have Assistant Director Clegg's
approval of my request to go to the Field; for, prior to
this time, I had been in slight difficulty over the fact
that I had had some articles published --- and, if there is
one thing the FBI fears, it is published items by Special
Agents. I had been foolish enough to hold up my hand when
Clegg had asked our class, during one of his lecturd whether
A
or not anyone present had had any articles of any kind, on
any subject whatsoever, published. I was asked to see Mr.
Clegg in his office immediately after that class --- and
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went through an interrogation about the articles I had
written. After full explanation, I was ordered not to
submit any other item for publication until after the item
had been personally approved by Mr. Clegg for publication,
in the journal or magazine to which it was to be sent. I
faithfully followed this order; I sent each and every article
on matrix theory to Mr. Clegg for as long as I was in the
FBI --- and he approved them, in each case, without knowing
the slightest thing about any one of them! I, of course,
could easily use the excuse that I needed to keep up my work
in mathematics in order to be better prepared for the time
when I would be recalled to the Cryptographic Section.
Despite the fact that the Training School was at times
very boring, often tiring and always gave one the feeling that
he was back in preparatory school I enjoyed my six weeks
there. I look back on these as six of the fullest weeks of
my life --- and I recall with fondness the Administrative
Head of the School, Richard Norris, who had once been a
guitar and banjo player and wise-cracking comedian on the
Orpheum Circuit, when the stage was a moving rollicking place cs-v../fr,14
_to perform. Norris often told jokes, when no one of the
higher-ups, like Clegg, was around. He enjoyed life to the
hilt, despite the strict and unbending discipline imposed
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upon him and his boys. The FBI Training School was an
experience f r any and all lucky enough to in it
for the six busy weeks; and it added considerably to the
knowledge anyone carried into the place with him.
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CHAPTER V
"Pittsburgh, in 1941, was a smoky, crowded and unclean
city. It is now one of the models of cleanliness and the
people in Pittsburgh, after World War II, led the way in
elimination of smog and smoke, in anti-pollution of the air.
The FBI Pittsburgh Field Office was on the fifteenth
and sixteenth floors of the Federal Building in Pittsburgh;
railways ran underneath and alongside this Building, and the
FBI Office, like all others in the Building, frequently
filled with smoke, more often had soot and cinders in them;
and it was impossible to keep them clean, and spotlessly
clean offices were a requirement in the Bureau.
"Trout-Mouth" Clegg, Assistant Director in Charge of
Inspection, never announced impending arrivals of Inspectors.
Inspectors arrived, unannounced, and always, it seemed at
the most inopportune times. When I arrived in Pittsburgh,
inspectors had just come; and Joseph Thornton, a fine
gentleman, who was Special Agent in Charge, was undergoing
/an inspection.
A Bureau Inspection is unlike any other in the U. S.
Government; and I doubt that any other entity, unless it be
the KGB, puts its own through such ordeals. The Bureau
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inspector reviews files, for any, even the smallest errors;
carefully scrutinizes the property, including Bureau auto-
mobiles particularly; counts and classifies the contacts of
the Special Agent in Charge and all other Special Agents in
the Office under inspection; and he gives examinations on
rules and regulations of the Bureau to all personnel in the
Office. In addition, these inspectors look for any sign of
lack of cleanliness; and, of course, review the cases handled
by each and every Special Agent as to status, work done to
that date; and they total the numbers of cases handled by
the office and the number the office has been able to close,
terminate, since the last inspection.
Joe Thornton had warned the inspectors that they would,
of necessity, because of the location of the FBI Offices in
Pittsburgh, find evidences of soot, cinders and, at times,
smoke. Despite this --- and despite the fact that, in all
other aspects the Pittsburgh Field Office was in almost per-
fect condition, Joe Thornton was given a cut in salary and a
memorandum was placed in his personnel file stating that this
was done by the inspectors because the FBI. Offices in Pitts-
burgh were not clean, as Bureau offices had to be: Joe was
a real gentleman; he even announced to his staff, Special
Agents, Clerks and Secretaries that he had received this
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demotion, because of the fact that the Pittsburgh Field
Office was too dirty, several times during the inspection,
to qualify as a clean Bureau Office. He asked that renewed
effort, by Agents, Clerks and Secretaries, be made to try
and correct this deficiency; he expressed hope that on the
next inspection, inspectors would be able to state that this
condition had been rectified. To me, this was an impressive
performance; I know few men to this date who would calmly
take the blame for having soot, cinders and smoke from
trains below their offices, when the offices had been put in
the location by the Head Office, in this case, The Bureau:
I was assigned to the espionage and counter espionage
squat in the Pittsburgh Field Office; and practically all
cases assigned to me were German. I learned that these cases
were assigned to me because of my knowledge of German ---
which was limited to the amount I had had to acquire in
order to pass my oral and written examinations in pure
mathematics for my doctorate. But I was pleased to be put
on this squad, instead of one of the criminal squads.
Germans surprised me by the fact that practically all
of them were packrats. They kept almost every letter and
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nearly every newspaper, magaiine, pamphlet or note they had
received or made for themselves. Also, they frequently
kept copies of the letters they wrote to friends or rela-
tives --- in addition to copies of all business corre-
spondence.
They would haul out these papers and letters and show
them, even translate them, to any Special Agent who made
the request. In some cases, they would even allow the
Special Agent to borrow their files of correspondence, so
that he could take these to the office and have copies made.
The laws, as interpreted in those days just prior to
and just after Pearl Harbor, made it possible to denaturalize
one of these people if it could be proved that he or she had
taken the oath of allegiance to the U.S.A. for U.S. citizen-
ship, "with mental reservations." In other words, if it
could be shown that the oath had been taken with no intention
of completely foreswearing allegiance to his or her native
country.
Many letters written by Germans in and around Pittsburgh,
in these days of war in Germany, to their families or friends
in Germany, contained phrases expressing friendship, admira-
tion or sympathy for the German cause. This was enough and these overly honest people who kept records of everything
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so carefully, suffered, frequently unjustly, because of
this.
Italians kept nothing; or, if they kept any letters
or documents, they were never able to locate them --- and
neither could the Special Agent, trained as he was to make
searches. Italians in the Pittsburgh area may have been
pack rats; but, if they were, they packed all important
items away so carefully that they, themselves, could not
subsequently locate them.
The Hill District of Pittsburgh was a predominantly
Negro area. The Japanese had some success in recruiting
their colored brethren, getting them to join pseudo-colored
and pseudo-religious organizations. These organizations
were opposed to the entry of the U.S.A. into the war; but
they thought nothing wrong about the Germans and Japanese
taking territories from their weaker neighbors and killing
thee citizens of weaker neighboring countries. The FBI in
Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Police pulled off several raids
on some of the organizations --- and, sometimes, they hauled
in a good many members for questioning.
One one occasion, about one hundred Negroes were
brought into the Pittsburgh Field Offices in the Federal
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Building. All Special Agents were told to stand by; and
were subsequently required to: participate in the screening
4
of these arrestees, in trying to weeX out the innocents
from this large group. I was a fairly new Agent; but, I
also had to participate in this processing; and I worked
along with all other offic44i in the FBI Office, trying to
determine whether persons interviewed by us were innocent
victims of Japanese propaganda, or whether they' were con-
sciously trying to evade the draft or to help Germany and
Japan to keep the U.S.A. out of the War.
I have the impression that certain of the present day
Anti-Vietnam War Groups either sprang from, or are copying,
imitating, some of the organizations the FBI fought against
as early as 1941. The ones of today use the same name-
changing tactics for their members; they try to use the same
device by which all members can claim to be ministers of
their "gospel," going so far in some cases as to claim that
a member like Cassius Clay, who fights for a living, is a
peace-loving Anti-War Minister of the "Gospel."
One of the Negroes who was assigned to me that night,
had a green turbanlike cloth wrapped around his head: He
was very shiny black and was obviously a Southern Negro. I
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asked him his name, which he gave as Farid Ali --- and, when
I asked for and was giVen his draft card, I learned that.he
had erased his real name and had replaced this personally
with Farid Ali. I told him that it was a federal offense
to change or deface a draft card; and in those pre-World War
II days, this law was enforced, frequently with alacrity.
Then, this fellow said tome, "Mistah Ian Ah know you knows
dat Mah name is Walter Witherspoon; but hones Ah am now
named Farid Ali." I then recognized Walter Witherspoon, from
my father's farm; a laagood-for-nothing Negro, who had
always ducked work to whatever extent he was able. So, I
said to him, "Walter, take that Goddamned rag off your head
and stop acting like an ass! You know damned well that you
are not Farid Ali, for your father and mother named you
Walter, and you are being a disgrace to your father, whose
we is John Witherspoon!" He said, "Yassuh, Mistah Ian,
Please don't tell anyone from down home 'bout dis, please."
I promised that I would not tell anyone; I said that this was
an official conversation and that, if he would go back home
and get to work, nothing should happen to him and nobody
would hear about how stupid he had been. Walter did this;
and I wrote a brief memorandum stating that Farid Ali, one
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of the arrestees was in reality Walter Witherspoon, who had
been an innocent victim of Japanese propaganda and who had
now gone back to his home to work.
Special Agents of the Pittsburgh Field Office, like
those of all other Field Offices in the Bureau, were called
upon to assist in whatever type case SAC Thornton might wish
to assign them, because he considered it urgent or important.
An Agent might be assigned to the Criminal Squad and be
called to help in an espionage case; or, one might be as-
signed to anti-subversive or espionage work and be assigned
to a squad working on an urgent, but purely criminal case.
I was supposedly training for espionage and counter
espionage work; and I had been assigned to that Squad. How-
ever, after a few days in the Pittsburgh Field Office, I was
sent along with a group to raid a motel and bring back a
famous bank robber and his moll, who were supposedly staying
at that motel. Shortly after our arrival and just after
we had staked out the place, a girl came out who fitted the
description of the moll, except for the color of her hair.
John MacDonald, and old-timer in the Pittsburgh Office,
arrested her, shoved her into a vacant room, he had taken,
and told me to stay there with her and not let her call,
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scream or get away. She had been thoroughly searched for
weapons -- and none had been found on her or in her purse.
She saw that I was new; and immediately set about trying to
convince me that she was innocent of any wrong-doing. She
said that she had had troubles before, because she resembled
Mary Mason, who was the moll being sought. She had denied
that her name was Mary Mason, or that she had ever used that
name, when MacDonald had asked her. She went so far as to
tell me that she was an-authentic blonde and that we were,
in fact, looking for a brunette. She then proved to me that
she was blonde, authentically, by showing me the hair on her
mound of Venus --- Which was as blonde as the hair on her
head! I did not think of the fact that this hair could as
easily be dyed as that on her head, until experienced John
MacDonald told me that close examinations of both places
would likely reveal that the same dye had been used to dye
her head and her hair on the mound. I had, until this lesson,
been convinced that we had detained an innocent girl! Both
she and her male companion were captured and, later were
convicted of armed robbery.
Most of my work, however, was against the Germans. The
Germans had many sumpathizers among the people in the Pitts
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burgh and Erie, Pensylvania, areas. They also had organi-
zations of numerical strength in both these places. In
Pittsburgh, the German American Bund was strong; and in Erie,
the even more pro-Hitler, Kieffhauser Bund was of consider-
able size. When the auxiliary organizations, for women and
others, were added to these two organizations, the Germans,
under Hitler, had considerable numbers of people in sympathy
with them --- and, of course, strongly opposed to U.S. entry
into the war and to any assistance by the USA to enemies of
Hitler, like England.
On a rotating basis, each Special Agent, except those
Who were considered indispensable to some important job to
which they were assigned, had to take the duty for a day on
the "Complaint Desk." This was a desk in a front office near
the entrance into the offices, to which the receptionists or
the boss sent people who arrived to tell the FBI something
of importance. There are, in every area of the U.S.A.,
hundredSof people who consider themselves as informants of
the FBI; and a great many of these people actually work at
trying to learn something they think will be of interest and
of value to the FBI. Many of them are patriotic Americans
--- and this is especially true during a war. However, there
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are a great many who are just plain and simple nuts; such
as the man in Pittsburgh who could not close .his mouth-,
because his teeth --- natural teeth --- when they touched,
uppers to lowers, acted as a receiving station for messages
from Berlin. He had to prop his mouth open in order to
sleep at night; but, being a very patriotic American, he
did not want to have his teeth extracted, even though they
were filled with cavities, and replaced with non-receptive
ones made by some dentist. Daily this informant would come
to the FBI Office in Pittsburgh, with pages of Morse Code
which he had learned to take down rapidly; and he would
leave these pages, very carefully and completely confidential-
ly, with a Special Agent --- only after he had checked and
been told by the receptionist, who was a friend of his, that
that Special Agent was absolutely trustworthy. This man,
and others like him, who came into the Office, no matter how
absurd the story, had to be treated with courtesy and thanked
for the help they thought they gave to the United States of
America.
Some of these nut informants would stop coming and
leaving their reports unless they were told what actions had
been taken on them. Certain of them wished to get a neighbor
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arrested; and, they would watch to see whether or not any-
body came to arrest that neighbor. When no arrest Was made,
they would stop visiting the FBI --- and, at times, would
turn anti-FBI. They would get angry at the FBI because, what
they considered the required action had not been taken against
the person on whom they had informed. But, Mr. Sam Searles,
who had the receptive teeth, never stopped --- because some
resourceful Special Agent had convinced him that the messages
he brought to the FBI were so secret, when deciphered, that
a very few people could be told what they said, what they
contained when in clear text:
I learned, long after I left Pittsburgh, that Sam
Searles had, after World War II, been able to tune in on
Moscow --- and he continued, until his death, as an informant
of the 'FBI in Pittsburgh. Despite troubles with his teeth,
he refused to have any of them extracted; and he went with
cavities to his grave, as a patriot --- a nut, but a very
patriotic bne:
After a little over five months in Pittsburgh, during,
which time I frequently went to Erie, Pennsylvania, on
assignments, I became a disciplined, and, I began to think,
a good Special Agent; and I was proud of my credentials,
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very, very proud to be a member of the Bureau. I learned,
very Short order., that the thing which made the Bureau*
great was Mr. Hoover's dedication and strength of character
--- and, not least in importance, his rigid enforcement of
the rules and regulations by which the Bureau machinery
has, since he became Director, run. Additionally, I learned
that fellow agents were the very finest corps of men anyone
could find in the world. There were few, very few, wrong
types in the Bureau --- and these few did not last very long.
No other organization has so few who gripe against the
discipline, which is the hardest discipline in any democrat-
ic government agency; and, practically no one in the Bureau
griped against the hierarchy of that organization!
One Sunday, when I was in Erie, Pennsylvania, on a
special assignment, I got a telephone call from SAC Joe
Thornton in Pittsburgh to report early on Monday morning to
him in Pittsburgh; and I was told to prepare for departure
from Pittsburgh on Tuesday, for a place which would have a
warmer climate. I learned on arrival in Pittsburgh, that I
was scheduled for assignment to La Habana, Cuba, in an under-
cover role; and, I was told by SAC Thornton that this assign-
ment was being made bgcause of my German! I was concerned,
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because I did not and had never had fluent German; and I
had no 'idea what use my German would be, limited as it
was, in a Spanish speaking Island --- and I had not a word
of Spanish, beyond "si" (which I mispronounced) and "no"
which I could pronounce.
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CHAPTER VI
I arrived in Habana, Cuba, within seventy-two hour's
after my departure from Pittsburgh. I was told later that
practically no Special Agent got out so rapidly. In any
case, I did arrive that rapidly; and I was still puzzled
on arrival about my assignment, about what I was to do in
that Spanish speaking Island.
I went to the Nacional, the best Hotel in Habana ---
because I had been told to go to that Hotel. I registered
in my true name --- and waited. I waited for six days
before I heard from anyone. I was afraid to go for a swim,
although the pool was beautiful and inviting; and there
were beautiful senoritas in daring suits, making exhibitions
and, I had the thought, invitations. I was supposed to have
been contacted by a Senor Dulce immediately after my arrival
in the Hotel Nacional! I could do nothing but wait --- wait
to see whether or not some man, with the identification
signals I had been given, would show up and identify himself
to me as my contact.
Finally, on the seventh day, a tall black-haired man,
who used the name Senor L6pez, came to see me, while I was
sitting beside the pool. He said, "I am Senor Lopez. L6pez;
and I have come to invite you, Sr. Jones, to dinner tonight,
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at my home." I thought his accent was Spanish; and I
thought he might not be my contact, for he did not have a
Life Magazine, in English, under his arm --- but he had used
the right statement, and he had used the correct name for
himself. So, I declined the invitation, said that I had to
leave Habana that very evening and turned my back on him and �
went up to my room.
Within fifteen minutes, I had a telephone call, from
a man with a very effeminate and too pronouncedly correct
accent and voice. He told me that his name was George
Mahoney, and said that he and others had been interested in
meeting me; and he asked that I not depart Habana as I had
� told a friend of his I planned to do. I knew immediately
that Lopez L6pez and Mahoney were friends; and I hoped they
were both in the Bureau, or, at least friends of the Bureau
or "Bureau Contacts." Otherwise, I could only think of
calling Joe Thornton, who was still in Pittsburgh, and
advising him of the failure by the people who were supposed
to have called on me, to appear in any form whatsoever.
But I met with George Mahoney and his friend Leo Wolff;
and they apologized for the fact that L6pez Lopez had forgot
to buy a Life Magazine and stick it under his left arm at the
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time of our meeting. I argued that he also had apparently
forgot that I had been in Habana for six days, sitting near
a telephone all the time, because I had been told that he
would meet me, immediately after arrival in the Hotel Nacio-
nal. They both made repeated apologies; but, George said,
"Asi son los Cubanos" so often that I, without any Spanish
got the meaning of this phrase.
While we were at the bar, Lopez Lopez came by and
George grabbed him by the sleeve. He said, "Manolo, this
is the man you were supposed to have met about one week ago.
Where have you been and what is your excuse?"
Manuel L6pez L6pez, to use the name by which the Bureau
knew him, was surprised and flustered to have his superior
catch him in the bar of the Hotel Nacional; and he was
embarrassed to have his superior dress him down in my
presence, when he knew that he was to blame for having left .
me sitting and waiting for a week for him.
It developed that Manuel L6pez Lopez, an aide to
General Manuel Benitez Valdes, had been so busy on urgent
tasks for his General that he had had no time for me --- and
he always knew that I would wait until he did have the time
to come by and call on me. Manuel L6pez L6pez told George
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how he had passed by, had recognized me from my photographs,
and had tried to make contact with me --- but, he said, h
had had no time to buy a Life Magazine; and, for lack of
this, I had ignored and practically insulted him!
I learned that General Manuel Benitez Valdes had es-
tablished and headed the Servicio de Investigaciones de Ac-
tividades Enemigas (SIAE), the Cuban FBI; and that I was to
work in and be a part of this organization.
George Mahoney and Leo Wolff were both in the U.. S.
Embassy, as Assistant Legal Attaches; and I had been told
that my assignment to Habana was an undercover one --- or,
to use a then oft-used expression I was to be on an "U.C."
assignment. But we met, or rather they called on me, bought
me drinks at the best attended bar in Habana and offered to
help me to get a place to live.
I was shown an advertisement in the News, the Habana
English language newspaper. The ad had been placed there to
cover my getting the house which I would share with another
F) man in the Embassy's Legal Section. His name was John
Bacon; and he had the assignment of handling the FBI agents
who worked outside with the S.I.A.E. --- and, with my arrival.
he would have three of us. So what better way than to have
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me live with him in Miramar, in a small house he had there
--- and he and 'I could meet, at least-daily at breakfast.
Of course, I was pleased at this arrangement --- for
I had no Spanish and would need help for a good long time,
until I had picked up enough of the language to get along
myself. As soon as I had agreed and we had finished our
Cuba Libres, they took me to see John Bacon. He and I
agreed to pay one-half the expenses of the house, each.
He had already hired a Jamaican cook and had a Cuban maid;
the house had two bedrooms, was near the sea and was well
furnished and very clean. I was lucky and knew it.
John Bacon proved to be a fine gentleman; he was well
educated, had good, even if accented, Spanish --- and he .had
a car. He has proved to be one of my best friends; and we
have kept in contact, even though we have never served to-
gether since that assignment in Cuba, when I was U.C. and he
was in the Embassy.
Next, I had to meet the Director of the S.I.A.E.,
General Manuel Benitez Valdes --- and John, taking over,
arranged that Manuel L6pez Lopez would pick me up the next
morning and take me to the Head Office of the S.I.A.E.,
where Manuel would act as interpreter in my meeting with, or
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my presentation to, General Benitez Valdes.
I had asked John to help me find a German-Spanish
dictionary to add to the English-Spanish and the English-
German ones I had brought with me. John knew just where
to go; and we purchased this, my third dictionary and I took
the three of them along with me the next morning, for I
expected to be put to work that very day.
General Manuel Benitez Valdes was a tall man for a
Cuban;. he was considered very handsome, and he, personally,
showed that he did not disagree with this; he had been in
some three or four Hollywood-made movies, two of them
westerns; and he was considered quite a swordsman, where
the ladies were concerned. He was shocked to think that I
had come, loaded with dictionaries, ready for work on my
first day in the S.I.A.E. He said, "Sr. Ian, first we must
make a credential for you; next, you must learn something of
good eating and drinking places in La Habana; and, next, you
must see and try some, at least one, of our Cuban girls.
Then, after you are acclimatized to La Habana, you can bring
your dictionaries and we will assign you to Principe Prison
and let you interrogate Germans all day, every day." He then
added, "I can tell you how to learn Spanish very rapidly
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--- that is, get a sleeping dictionary and have her teach
you! That is how I learned my Englieh!" 'His English was so
poor and so heavily accented and his vocabulary so limited
that I did not know whether he meant this as a serious
recommendation; but, the General was so conceited that he
did not realize that his English was bad; and he was so girl
crazy that he would recommend sleeping with a girl for any
difficulties a man might encounter. He thought a sleeping
doctpra was good for a cold; a sleeping dictionary was
excellent for learning Spanish; and a sleeping beauty was
just good!
Next, I met Capitan Mariano Faget, Chief of Operations
of the S.I.A.E. He was as serious as General Benitez Valdds
was frivolous; and he worked many hours each day and into the
night, possibly to make up for the fact that his Director
worked very few hours. Faget was effective against the
Germans, their allies, the Spaniards, and against individuals
who worked for, or sympathized with the German Nazis. I was
disappointed to learn that I would not be assigned to Capitan
Faget --- but, instead, that I would work directly under the
Director himself.
I soon learned the reason for this. It developed that
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the United States and Cuba had signed an agreement, whereby
all proved or suspected spies for the Germans, Japanese
and/or the Italians, would be put on the Isle of Pines, which
was made into a large prison. This was a pleasant prison,
except for the lack of food and drinking water. In the agree-
ment, the U.S.A. had agreed to pay $3.00 daily towards the
upkeep of the prison and food and clothing for each of the
prisoners. The larger the number of prisoners, the more
three-dollar payments came into the hands of General Benitez
Valdes daily. Therefore, it was very important to him to
have Germans, Japs and Italians put, as spies, either proved
or suspected, on the Isle of Pines.
General Benitez could feed each individual on the Isle
of Pines for less than one dollar; he had two dollars left
--- and one of these he took for his personal use and the
other he allowed to be divided among the other participants
in the scheme. Five hundred Germans, Japs and Italians meant
five hundred dollars daily for General Benitez, in U. S.
dollars, from the U. S. Department of Justice.
There were many Cubans of German descent and many
German nationals in Cuba; and all these were rounded up and
put into the Principe Prison and other prisons, until they
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could be brought to our interrogation rooms in Principe
Prison. General Benitez took part in some of the first
interrogations .- -- and he always had his bodyguard, Felipe,
with him. He would begin the interrogation by telling the
person being interrogated that we knew that he was a spy,
that we had proof of this; and, if one continued to deny it,
as most did, with reason, he would say to Felipe, "Telefono
ocupado!"; and, with this, Felipe, who was a very big and
strong man, with enormous hands, would stand behind the
suspect and bring his two hands together on the ears of the
man as hard as he could. This caused a ringing in the ears,
which accounted for the telefono ocupado, or occupied
telephone title. This would always amuse General Benitez;
and, usually, after a fewgamesof this type the person being
interrogated would confess that he was at least a sympathizer
of Hitler and the Nazis. If not, he would have a quart of
castor oil poured down him and be put into a cell to think
it over, until the following day --- when a few slaps
usually softened him sufficiently to make him wish for the
Isle of Pines. By these and similar treatments, which came
to be called the Cuban Lie Detector Tests, hundreds of German,
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and a few Japanese and Italian spies were discovered to
have been working against Cuba and the U.S.A. and for the
Nazis: A few Cubans and several Spaniards were thrown in,
so that the Isle of Pines would have the proper international
flavor, according to General Benitez.
After this task had been completed, except for the few
suspects who had escaped, I was assigned to act as the
cryptographer for a notorious spy, Heinz August Luning,
who had a radio set he had built from parts purchased in
Habana and who operated by 1#01 to Hamburg. He was caught,
through his own ineptness; and the FBI Wished to run him as
a double agent, and they had hopes of getting data on assign-
ments given him by AbwehrstelIVHamburg; and they hoped to
feed a few items of deception through him to.the Nazis.
This did not last very long, however, for the Cubans
decided that they would shoot this known spy. They had
little patience and could not be convinced that a double
agent could be run to advantage so, with the approval
of President Fulgencio Batista, Agusto Luni, who was in
reality Heinz August Luning, was put against the wall and
shot. This ended my second job in Habana.
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From that time, I was given assignments on specific cases,
through John Bacon; and these, added to the few remaining
interrogations which would arise when a German or another
�
suspect was caught, kept me busy enough to feel that I was
earning my pay as a Special Agent in the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
But the war had begun; Pearl Harbor and the next few
months following it, made all able bodied young Americans
feel that they should help, to the extent possible. I felt
that I was not doing all that I could. I was young, strong,
healthy; and I felt Americans in Cuba looking at me and
wondering why I was allowed to walk around Habana in civil-
ian clothes, when I was not even in the Embassy. I remember
that we had formed a baseball club, on which several of the
Embassy men played. I was on the team; and I heard some
remarks from spectators, indicating that they believed I must
be a draft dodger to be in Habana, playing around and not even
working for the Government.
I began to worry about my work; to be concerned about
the value of what I was doing. Even though I met some of
the Director's contacts, such as: P. Hal Sims, from Selma,
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Alabama, who was a world famous bridge and poker player,
and his wife Florence Rice Sims, daughter of Grantland
Rice (renowned sports writer); "Shipwreck" Kelly and his
debutante wife; and Ernest Hemingway, who with Winston
Guest (Polo Star), "discovered" German submarines ---
after they both had had too much to drink --- these and
my work assignments were very far away from the War, and
they contributed practically nothing to the Allied War
Effort.
I had already considered asking for permission to
resign and join the Marine Corps; and these remarks helped
me to make up my mind to do just that. One night, I told
John Bacon that I planned to write a personal letter to The
Director and ask that he accept my resignation and that I
would give him my reason --- that I wanted to join the armed
forces and take part in the war as a fighting man. John
said that he doubted that I would get approval immediately
--- and he correctly surmised that The Director would say.
that I was doing more for my country than I would be doing
in the front lines of a battlefield.
My concern at being a healthy young man with two arms,
two legs and both eyes, walking around the streets of Habana;
and my feeling that people who could not know that I was
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"U.C." with the Bureau, would think me a draft dodger,
grew more pronounced daily. This feeling of guilt that I
was not fighting in the war got deeper and deeper inside
me --- and I got more and more embarrassed at being out of
uniform. I thought of what John Bacon had told me would
be the reply I would get from Washington; but I still was
unable to rid myself of the guilt feeling, the feeling that
I was doing less than enough for my country in the war.
In any case, I wrote the letter, sent it through the
Legal Attach� Office --- and waited, while I continued to
perform the assignments given to me. Within about three
weeks, I got a letter worded very much like John Bacon's
guess; but, it ended by stating that, if I insisted, I would
be placed on leave without pay --- and could return to the
FBI, when I was demobilized from the armed forces. Further,
the same letter notified me of my transfer to Cleveland,
Ohio, immediately.
As soon as I had reported to Cleveland, Special Agent
in Charge, L. Boardman, I wrote to him stating that I had the
permission of The Director to be placed on leave without pay
and join the armed forces. Within a month after my arrival,
I had this repeated to me in writing --- and that day I wrote
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my final report as an Agent of the FBI and departed for
Washington, D.C. I was glad to leave Cleveland which is
one of the coldest places I have ever been in, in winter.
In Washington, I reported to the Marine Corps Recruit-
ing Station nearest the Wardman Park Hotel, where I was stay-
ing, and asked to be accepted as a Marine. After a physical,
they turned me down, because of a baseball_injury to my nose,
which had been split by spikes of the famous Beattie Feathers,
former All American Football Back at the University of
Tennessee, who had become a professional baseball player;
and, because I had an injured right knee. I did not know what
to do next; for I did not want to become an infantryman.
That night, at the bar in the Wardman Park Hotel, I met
a friend from baseball days, who told me he had just been
accepted by the Navy, after having been turned down by the
Marines. So, early the next morning, I went to the U. S.
Naval Recruiting Station --- and I was accepted and even
given a commission as a Lieutenant Junior Grade!
As soon as I was sworn in and had on a uniform, I
wrote a letter to The Director advising him that I had been
commissioned as a Lt. (JG) in the U. S. Navy and I thanked
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him for all he and the FBI had done for me, and said that
I fully intended to ask to be readmitted into the FBI as
soon as the war ended. I meant it at that time.
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CHAPTER VII 57.
The day I reported to the Naval Headquarters, I thought
that I would be sent to a training camp, where I would be
taught naval drill and how to be a naval officer. But, I
was not lucky. They had seeded me out; and a young Lieu-
tenant, Senior Grade, named J. G. Elliott, a full two-striper
officiously said to me, as a one and one-half striper, that
I was going into radar research. He said, "They don't want
to waste the time training you how to be a line officer; for
you are going to sit at a desk, or work in a laboratory!"
And I had resigned from the FBI to get into action! This,
I mused, would be as bad or perhaps even worse than if I had
gone into the cryptographic bureau of the FBI: I objected,
and made the error of asking to see the commanding officer;
and was told, in no uncertain terms, that I was talking to
him, my commanding officer. The Lieutenant told me that,
with or without naval training, I had better learn that, in
the U. S. Navy, subordinates did as they were told --- and
he repeated that I was to report to him next morning at
08:30 hours, when I would get my assignment to a group
involved in radar research. I tried to apologize to him;
but he dismissed me, curtly, and I thought, "He is practicing
for assignment to higher rank!" I only hoped that he would
have nothing to do with the radar research laboratory to
which I was being sent! I also remember thinking that,
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with his initials, he would always be "Junior Grade."
That night after dinner, I went to the bar in the
hotel and there I had the good luck to meet James Hurley,
a former FBI Special Agent, whom I had known briefly in
Pittsburgh. He was in a naval uniform; and he had been
commissioxits an ensign. I outranked him, and we had a big
laugh over my super grade. He asked me how long I had been
in, and I told him the whole history of my Habana assign-
ment, the transfer to Cleveland; and of my attempt to get
into the Marine Corps and of my having been sworn in as a
JG, only to find out that very day that I was to be sent to
a laboratory to work on radar research. He then told me of
his great and good luck; and promised to try to help me to
follow in his footsteps. He said that a friend of his,
James R. Murphy, had accepted the job as Chief, Counter
Intelligence, Office of Strategic Services. He said that
he, Hurley, was to be sent within the next few weeks to
London, from where he would be assigned to some place to
work on counter espionage and counter intelligence for OSS.
Because of his Spanish, which he had from a Mexican mother,
Hurley said he hoped to get sent to Spain --- and this sub-
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sequently happened.
Hurley telephoned Murphy, although it was after nine
o'clock, and found him still at his office in a temporary
building. Murphy agreed to see us; and said that he had
to pass near the Wardman Park Hotel and would drop into the
bar at about nine thirty. He did; and, because General
"Wild Bill" Donovan, perhaps the greatest hero of World
War I, had been given the right to draft personnel from
the armed services, I was drafted on the very next day, by
. Jim Murphy, for "an urgent job in London."
James R. Murphy, is, like Donovan, Irish; and Murphy,
a lawyer by training and profession, had counter espionage
and counter intelligence by nature. He had all the innate
traits of the Irish, plus a well trained and incisive mind.
He could put his native ability together with his masterful
legal ability and come up with a wonderful mixture of logic,
legality, common sense and pure practicality---- and apply
it all to problems in the foreign intelligence world, so
essential in those wartime days.
I never saw my first commanding officer in the Navy,
Lieutenant Senior Grade J. G. Elliott again --- for Jim Murphy
gave me a paper ordering me to report to OSS --- and be
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arranged to have my assignment to the radar research__
laboratory cancelled.
Again, luck had come to my rescue, had saved me from
a fate which could have changed my life --- which, in fact,
would likely have ended my brief intelligence career.
Certainly, if I had gone into, and got enmeshed in, the
work of a laboratory doing radar research, I would not have
arrived in London at the time I did; I could not have met
and worked with and made friends with the people I came to
know; and I could never have had the experiences I have had.
The following day I reported to the Temporary Building,
along the Reflecting Pool, in front of the
Lincoln
Memorial, as Jimmy Murphy had told me to do; and I showed
the paper he had given me as identification. After a few
brief interviews and several forms which I had to complete,
I was told to store my uniform for a few weeks and get back
into civilian clothes.
Within two weeks, I was back in Training School. This
one was on a beautiful farm in Virginia. The farm, farmhouse,
stables and other buildings, had been taken over by the OSS
and was used as a training site.
Here, I again went through firearms training, had much
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more close combat training; and was taught how to kill an
enemy silently. For five weeks, every waking hour of
every day was devoted to either physical training exercises
or to firearms practice or reading and listening to lectures
on espionage and counterespionage. Some work in intelligence
procurement was also given. All in all, these five weeks
were the most concentrated dose of study and physical
exercise I have ever undergone --- even more concentrated
than the weeks in the FBI Training School at Quantico.
Each student had been given a false identity and a
false name. All documents and identifying items were re-
moved before we were allowed to go to the Training School;
and one continuing exercise was to keep one's real identity
secret from all persons at the School. Anyone who let him-
self be identified was given a poor mark, because of his in-
ability to keep his identity secret.
After graduation, I went back to the Temporary Build-
ing to which I had reported first; and was sent to another
Temporary Building in the same complex, where they assigned
me to desk work in support of the London-2/OSS Office.
The Chief in London at the time was Professor Norman Holmes
Pearson, famous scholar on American Poets and Professor at
Yale. He, like Jimmy Murphy, who was Assistant Director of
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OSS in Charge of the X-2- Branch, world-wide, was a quick-
minded inquisitive and, at times, very incisive person.
How Jimmy ever decided to put a poetry professor in charge
of the most important of his offices is still a puzzle to
me; but, I admit, the choice was an excellent one.
At the time I worked in Washington on the desk
supporting the X-2 Office in London, a grocery store
manager from Cleveland, Ohio, who was a major in the U. S.
Army (due to his having been in the National Guard for
years), was head of that desk. He was pompous, and tried
to give the impression that all the others in his staff were
ducking front line duty, while he, because of the importance
of his position was doing more than the front line soldier,
just as Mr. J. Edgar Hoover had written me I would be doing,
had I remained in the FBI in Habana. Anyway, Major James
Botter was areal pain in the ass to every person, man or
woman, who had to work for him.
I was greatly relievedwhen, after four weeks duty under
pompous Major Botter, I was told that I was "catching a ride"
on a naval bomber which would land me in Lough Neagh, North
Ireland. I went to New York, where I spent one night; then,
took off as the only passenger on a Coronado for Lough Neagh
--- and subsequently, took a U. S.' Aiill'orce (-then Army) plane
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for my destination, London.
From Lough Neagh, I was able to get a flight to Croydon
Airport, London; and there I was met by John Houghran, who
became one of my best friends; and who made it possible to
live happily, in wartime London. A Californian, he hated the
rain, fog �and cold of London; a gourmet, he hated the wartime
rationing which he, a civilian, because of poor eyesight,
and I, not being eligible to eat in army messes (because of
the Navy's higher per diem payments in London) had to bear;
and a connossieur of wines, he hated the lack of anything
better than Truman's ales. But John had such an innate
happiness that he was always able to laugh, even at his awn
sufferings; and he could make others laugh with him, even if
they also were suffering. His quick wit, range of timely
jokes and acts and overall good humor have made him an un-
forgettable and wonderful friend, and the years spent with
him have become a form of legend to those who met and had
the good luck to be around long enough to get to know him.
John tobk me to a little mews flat over a milk bar,
just off Berkeley Square, where he and one other man lived
at the time in bedrooms the size of a normal walk-in closet.
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They had an extra for me; and I was thrilled to be able to
have this space awaiting me --- but, I did not realize for
several days how lucky I was to be brought into a private
bedroom, no matter how small, at that time in London.
The other apartment-mate was Second Lieutenant Eduardo
Samaniego Galvdn, brother of the movie star, Ram6n Novarro.
Eddie was thrilled to have a person who knew some Spanish,
one who had recently lived in La Habana; so, I was made
welcome. Eddie was a character and a perfect straight man
for many of John's best jokes. Eddie's Mexican accent, his
stories about the size of his family, in which he did not
know Ram6n, because they belonged to different gangs, and
his good humored love of life, made this a pair of friends
one would dream about meeting,but would rarely in life have
the opportunity of actually having as mates in a small
apartment.
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CHAPTER VIII
On the following day, I went to work in the X-2 Of-
fice, Which was on Ryder Street, in a partially bombed out
building. I was put in charge of the German Desk in the
X-2 Office and found that we shared the building withrSec-
tion V (Counter Intelligence and Counter Espionage --- Cl/CE
Section) of the British Secret Service (also known as M.I.-6).
My opposite number, Chief of the German Desk of Section V,
was
a learned schoolmaster, who, as soon
as the. war ended became Headmaster at a famous preparatory
(public, in the English sense) school in England.
I had a small staff at that time, with the principal
ones being John, my apartment mate, and two young girls we
called. the "Gold Dust Twins, n Barbara and Betty. We four
sat in one large room with a fireplace, hurriedly used our
one bucket of soft coal, the total allowance for a day, and
even though we dressed in overcoats and kept our gloves on
--- and John and I wore long drawers --- we shivered for the
remainder of the day, except when John could swipe something
to burn. John was a miraculous scavenger; and one day he
beat all his previous efforts, when he scrambled to the up-
per floors of the building. The top of the building had
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been bombed out and was considered too dangerous for anyone
to explore. John had made several surveys; and on this very
cold day, he said, "Today is the day for me to make the
supreme effort:"
He left the room and did not appear for some time.
When he came back in, quietly, he had an arm load of toilet
seats, which he had broken off the johns on the upper bombed-
out floors. He said, "I have about ten more hidden up above
--- but we must not let anyone in while these are burning,
for I might get arrested for destruction of British Govern-
ment property!" We warmed our hands and enjoyed a cup of
tea, while the salty seats burned with green, red and yellow
flames, which shot up high in our fireplace, our only source
of heat.
We kept much warmer than others for several days, with
the remaining seats John brought down, a few at a time.
Finally, as we knew would happen, Captain
R. N., Administrative Chief of Section V and of the entire
building, caught us, just as we had thrown on a new toilet
seat: He gave us a tongue lashing and threatened to report
us to Mx. Norman Holmes Pearson, our Chief and, finally, he
said that, if he ever caught us burning portions of a British
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Government Building again, he would report us to the police
authorities and see that we got what should be coming to usl
The Captain refused to accept our apologies --- and
watched us very carefully from that time on. He even sub-
sequently accused John and me of using toilet tissue too
wastefully, in a note in which he set out the hardships under
which the English were living and the lighthearted manner
which we apparently used toilet tissue --- and failed to
realize that there were quotas, on toilet tissue as well as
on food and other essentials.
Captain was-a descendant of the famous
an excellent Administrative Officer for our
offices; and both John and I were sorry to have offended
him twice. He subsequently was friendly; but, I am sure he
never forgot our misdeeds --- and we surely never did forget
them. We have joked about them both many times since the
war.
Soon, principally from intelligence successes of our
British friends, we learned a great deal about the German
Intelligence Services: the SicheVienst, the Abwehr �and
others. And with both the British Security Service (M.I.-5)
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and the Secret Service (M.I.-6) scoring successes with their
penetrations and double agents, a great deal of the organi-
zational structure and operational techniques of the Germans
were learned. The British were unlike any other services in
the world ---and took the American neophytes, from oss/X-2
into their own offices and shared almost everything they got
in the way of intelligence and counter-intelligence with us.
As a result, my Section grew rapidly and got to be the
largest of the oss/X-2 Sections in London.
For a time, I was sent to work on special cases in
M.I.-5; and had the privilege of meeting and working with:
Sir David Petrie, Director of the British Security Service;
Mr. Guy Liddell (net�phew of Alice Liddell, the Alice of "Alice
in Wonderland"), who was Sir David's Deputy; and many others,
principally among whom was:
worked on double agent cases..
was called
who
by his initials; and he taught me a great many things about
double agents and how to check on them and their stories and
the intelligence requirements and instructions they received
from their "masters" at the other end.
ran Eddie Chapman, a fabulous German/Englishman who
had been a crook and who, after being captured by the Germans,
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convinced them that he would work for them against the
British who had jailed him unjustly. His story is one of the
most exciting series of human adventures of World War II.
Chapman's story was told in a book called, "The Eddie Chap-
man Story," written by Frank Owen and published by Allan
Wingate in 1953. This fabulous agent, run by
was a gangster turned patriotic spy; his exploits reached
unbelievable heights of daring and successes. This one time
safe-cracker, one time German agent, was the only Briton to
be decorated with the Iron Cross during World War II. He
was a Guardsman, turned bandit, who subsequently became one
of the great heroes for England.
allowed me to meet
and talk with this fabulous spy, under pseudonym --- a thrill
I shall never forget.
During a tour with M.I.-5, I was assigned to Marl-
borough Castle for a time. A Section of which worked
on double agent cases and, concomitantly, on deception cases
was located there. Winston Churchill's birthplace was an
inspiring location for people who needed to think, deeply
and patriotically; it was a particularly thrilling place for
an American admirer of this Greatest Man of our Times to be
sent, even if for only a few weeks.
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One of
Committee in
the most thrilling cases executed by this
1942, long prior to my arrival, was 31er decep-
tion case which is now talked and written about as, "The
Man Who Never Was," by Ewen Montagn, published by J. B.
Lippincott Company (1954) --- and by which the Germans
were completely deceived when they found what they thought
was the body of a courier with top secret messages strapped
around his drowned body. This ban, as is now well known,
was selected from a morgue in London, had food from Soho
pumped into his belly and was floated to the coast of Spain
from an English submarine. This developed into one of the
most successful deception operations of the war.
This, and other cases of deception were the brain-
children of a Committee which the British labelled the
"Twenty Committee." The name "Twenty" came from "Double .
Cross" --- written like XX --- or "Double X," which could
be translated into "Twenty." This was the Deception Commit-
tee, responsible for so many excellent operations that, in
my opinion, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they
played a major role in winning the war against the Nazis.
I played a very minor role in a very few of the activ-
ities of the "Twenty Committee"; but one of them is worth
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repeating. Together with
and others. I had participated
in drafting what we thought was a great deception project,
probably even better than "Plan Nightmare," one of the
famous ones.
(b)(6)
dressed in his Scottish Black Watch (b)(6)
Colonel's uniform, let me tag along with him to present
this marvelous plan to the Prime Minister, who had taken
the responsibility of approving personally all deception
operations, in order to be sure that nothing was done Which
was counter to planning and strategy of the Allies.
was very nervous; and I was even more shaky, as
we walked through the halls, past the guards at Ten Downing
Street.
We were finally admitted into the Great Man's private
office; and he received us with a grunted welcome.
made his brief speech and handed over the summary of the
proposed operation, which had been put on one page for the
Prime Minister's convenience.
Mr. Churchill read it, slowly; and I thought, with
great interest. Then, without a word, he reached for his
pen --- and I thought he was ready to sign it without a
question to
Later/ I learned that
had the same
impression; and that he was thrilled at not having to reply
(b)(6)
(b)(6)
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to penetrating questions which Mr. Churchill was always
able to ask.
Mr. Churchill then drew a line diagonally across the
entire sheet of paper, wrote the word "galls" at the right
hand lower corner and, without so much as a word, handed
it back to
and let us know that we were dismissed!
I did not realize, for a brief period, what had
happened; but
was close enough to read the word the
Prime Minister had written, so he knew fully well what had
happened to our "dream plan"! We had looked for Much, and,
lo, It came to Little!
We hurried outside; and, when we had arrived at the
street,
said, "Let's find the nearest pub. I need a
mild and bitter!" As we made our way to St. James Street,
where M.I.-5 had its offices during the war, we talked of
our disappointment and of how this complete turndown could
best be reported to our companions,_ who had done a lot of
the work. We could think of nothing to say, except for the
very brief, factual report on what had taken place.
handed me the document --- and, I have it as one of my
treasures, a piece of loot gathered during World War II.
Within a few weeks, I moved back to Ryder Street as
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Chief of the now very large German Section of OSS/X-2; and
to work with my friends, John and our Gold Dust Twins and
some fifty others who had come into the Section to help
handle the bulk of paper, to digest the reports received
(mainly from British sources and given to us by Section V)
and to decide which merited dissemination to higher American
officials. With the deciphering of almost all German wire-
less traffic, the Section V officials had mountains of excel-
lent intelligence; and we, due to the friendliness of the
. .
British, were able to use these data, so long as we always
let the British know where and to whom our disseminations
would go. The British took a great risk when they allowed
us to use this sensitive intelligence in the form of
intelligence disseminations to our chiefs --- but, they were
correct in trusting the Americans this time, for no breach
of security pertaining to this highly sensitive material
occurred on the American side.
My only sea duty came in August 1944, after the lall
of Cherbourg. I, because I was a naval officer --- then, a
Lieutenant Senior Grade, was allowed to go on a PT boat
captained by Captain Raymond Guest, to Cherbourg to pick up
and bring back to London, one of the few agents OSS/X-2 had
had operating behind the German lines in this area. On the
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way over, we were chased by some E-Boats; and a Colonel
Sam Rosenberg, American Army, who was being given a ride
to Cherbourg, got seasick, went below and got into a bunk.
He fell from the bunk and broke his arm; and was later
awarded the Purple Heart for having been wounded in action!
I had the trip to Cherbourg, a night there and the trip
back to Portsmouth, as my total sea duty, although I was
in the U. S. Navy (as a USNR) for four years.
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CHAPTER IX
In London, during the times of the V-1, and later
during the more damaging and less predictable V-2 bombings,
one saw what great people the English are. They exhibited
an endurance, sense of humor and fortitude beyond belief;
they might have complained --- but it was against the
Germans and Hitler, the Jerries; they suffered untold
hardships --- but not once did they think of giving up the
fight against Nazism; they were hungry and they missed
their mild and bitter, their evenings at the pub --- but
they knew that if they could only hold out this would all
return; they lost their loved ones in battle and in bombings
--- but they held on to their hopes of better days for
England.
Winston Churchill typified and exemplified the English.
"Good Old Winnie:" they would say, and, "God Bless 'im,".
would be added.
John and I lived through the V-1 and the V-2 days but
not through the Battle of Britain, the worst and most danger-
ous days for London and the Empire. The V-1, with its putt-
putt which when it cut off meant that it was beginning the
descent and one should run for cover when it was near; the
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V-2, which hit first and one heard the sound later, if he
were alive; both these were like the dying gasps of a monster
which had struck its mightiest blows already and had now
begun to thrash about in its death agonies. But still,
deaths came to several thousands from these two frightening
instruments; and damages to London were added to the already
terrible destructions from the bombings which took place
during the Battle of Britain.
The British Rescue Forces were so well organized that
immediately following a V-1 (and later, a V-2) hit, the
area in which it fell would be sealed off, wounded would
be hauled off to hospitals and damaged areas would be guarded
and dead taken to morgues. They were as efficient as was
humanly possible --- and many heroic acts by these non-
combat (at the front) personnel went unnoticed and were
taken for granted.
One night, after I had received my ration of whisky
from the U.S. Navy's Wine Mess, which amounted to some five
bottles monthly --- and which was not wine at all, but was
the choice of Scotch, Bourbon and gin --- John and I went
out pub-crawling, after a few nips of Jack Daniels. We went
to the Grapes of Wrath, a pub noted for its noise and for
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its tarts. We saw a very pretty girl, obviously a tart,
with a hat pulled down over, one side other face, so that
she looked like Veronica Lake, the vacuous but beautiful
blonde who hid one side of her face with her hair.
John sent me to sit beside her; and soon I asked her
to come to our apartment for a drink of Scotch whisky, a
rarity in those days. She agreed --- and we made our way
in the black-out to our mews flat. As soon as we had
entered and drawn the black-out curtains, we asked her to
sit, take off her hat and coat and share a Scotch with us.
She did --- and she exhibited a huge scar, which she said
was a war wound, which ran across and hit one eye. She was
suddenly horrible looking! Never had I thought of going to
bed with a One-Eyed Whore; and John showed that he had the
same thought, for he immediately said, "Old Man, you are
first!" I tried to argue that he should go first; but, he
insisted.
She also insisted, for she said she wanted to earn her
.five pounds sterling, Which we then learned was her price for
going to bed with the two of us, separately.
I took her to my small bedroom; and she turned out to
be one of the best pieces of tail I have ever had in my life.
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We both undressed -- and I tried not to.look at her
face. I found her body to be very nicely proportioned;
and her breasts were lovely forms and just the right size.
Then, just before turning out the light, I looked her
straight in the eye! Even after the light had completely
gone out, that slash of a scar, red to the point of almost
bleeding on the rims of her eyelids, and the white non-
seeing eyeball, were all visible. Just as a light from
a light bulb, at which one has been staring, appears to
stay alight for a time after it has been turned off)so did
this blind eye and its transgressing scar stay with me for
a while after I turned off the light.
felt that I could not make love to her; but when
she stretched cat like and sighed; and when she began to
fondle me, I forgot all about the scar --- I felt her firm,
but silky breasts; I played my hands over her body, until I
found her sensitive spot; and then I mounted and entered
her --- and she quivered as if this were her first time to
reach a climax; she let herself go, as if she were grateful
for this chance to release the tensions which must have been
pent up inside her. I soon felt like I was riding atop a
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high and mighty wave. She was wonderful!
Afterwards we relaxed; and suddenly I was sound asleep
and knew no more, until I was awakened by the putt-putt of
a V-1 which was very near and which stopped suddenly as it
came over us. My bedmate, who had told me her name was Ona,
grabbed me and squeezed hard in fear. She had come so close
to me, held me so tightly, that I thought of nothing but
making love again. I entered her; and she responded, with
a sigh.
As the V-1 hit the top of our building, she said, "Did
you ever make love while flying?"
I say, "No, but I believe we will both have had the
experience of making love while dying!"
Our small building bounced, but I remained at it and
tried not to let her suffer needlessly from the fear, which
I knew must have been more intense because she had got her
scar and lost her eye from a bombing. We continued to make
love.
Then, suddenly the water tank to my small bathroom,
fell from its ceiling-high position and, I being the one on
top, got it full on the back of my head. A flash, like
lightning, came from behind me; and then all went black. I
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was knocked unconscious by this piece of metal.
John later told me that Ona had screamed, jumped up
and dressed and fled. She thought that I had been killed;
and she wanted no part of an investigation of her role in
my death. Anyway, she fled and we never saw her again ---
which I regretted very much, for she was a wonderful night-
time companion, after lights were out.
When I awoke, John was standing over me, saying,
"Hello Dare! Old Man!"
I soon dressed; and very shortly afterwards a lieu-
tenant senior grade from the U. S. Naval Headquarters on
Grosvenor Square, arrived. He tried to take me to the
hospital; but I refused to go. However, an overly efficient
seaman, who accompanied the lieutenant, took notes; and my
wound became recorded and undeniable fact --- a part of U.S.
Naval History --- for which I was awarded the Purple Heart,
the award begun by General George Washington, to be given to
members of the U. S. Armed Forces Who suffered wounds, while
on duty and serving their country! This is probably the only
Purple Heart ever awarded for being slightlywoundedwhile
servicing a One-Eyed Whore!
John had a long-time friend, who let us stay with him
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until our flat was repaired; so we moved our few belongings
--- and the remainder of my monthly naval ration of scotch
and bourbon to the apartment of Wee Bobby Phelan.
Wee Bobby often got drunk; but he never, never fell or
appeared to be drunk. He merely became mechanical. The
drunker he got, the straighter he walked and the more erect
he stood. In fact, John always enjoyed getting Wee Bobby
tight, even if the rest of us had to go without drinks.
John had known Wee Bobby for so many years; and was so
trusted by Wee Bobby, that he could give him five drinks,
heavily loaded, without a protest from Wee Bobby.
After this, John could stand behind Wee Bobby and give
him a push; and Wee Bobby would walk, like a mechanical man,
straight ahead, however he was faced. He would continue,
with his legs moving mechanically, until someone stopped him,
or, until he hit a wall or fell over a chair or another ob-
ject. When he hit the wall, or fell over a chair, John would
hurry to him, pick him up, turn him around and give him a
slight push in another direction and he would repeat the
performance.
This would make a hit with people who had not seen the
performance previously --- and we who had seen it many times,
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always enjoyed seeing Wee Bobby "walk in his sleep again."
We always expected that someday Wee 'Bobby would wake up and
tell John to go to hell; 'but, I never saw Wee Bobby do
other than John's bidding, when he was in one of these
sleepy-mechanical-alcoholic moods.
One night, while John and I were still living in Wee
Bobby's apartment, Eddie came back to town. He told us
very confidentially that the invasion, across the channel,
WAS to take place very soon. This happened to be incorrect
information --- but we did not know at the time that it was
not true; so, we decided to celebrate. I had five bottles
of whisky I had been given by a friend in the Navy; and he
had asked that I guard it for him --- but we decided that it
was time to break into this store of liquor, and give Eddie,
who was the only one of us .who would go across to land in
France, a proper send-off.
We drank one bottle, John tucked another into his jacket
and we took off for Soho, where the food could be good and
was, in most places, more reasonable than in the more re-
spectable places in London. As we walked along, in the dark-
ness, we heard someone banging on a piano. We went inside
and saw a man with long hair and a Christ-like face. Eddie,
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who is a devout Catholic, resented this man's trying to
imitate Christ while, at the same time, he played boogie-
woogie music on a piano in a dump, like the one we had
entered. Eddie told us that he could not stand to see
this man, dressed like Christ, look like Christ and play
such music, while tarts and their companions danced lewdly
on the floor around him. Eddie kept saying, "Jesus Cristo!",
shouting above the noise of the piano and loud talk of the
room full of people.
Before we knew it, Eddie had jumped aboard the
pianist's back and, while the pianist continued to play and
tried not to miss a beat, Eddie pounded him on top of his
head. The pianist was obviously a very strong man, for he
ignored Eddie's beating. However, some of the tarts around
the piano began screaming, trying, I suppose, to appear very
feminine and each tart appeared to be trying to show the man
vat-) a
who would soon screw and pay -in-that ;b:ff_-_--y.ete,real women.
With the noise, a big, ex-pug, with cauliflowered ears, ran
through the crowd and grabbed Eddie and threw him out the
door. With that, John and I tackled the bouncer; but, he
took us both on and knocked us both out the door --- which
he then closed.
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A bobby helped us locate Wee Bobby, who had run out
after us and had failed to stop for .a while. The bobby
then said, "You Yanks never know when you've had enough
to dririk! Are you sure you know where you live?" We
assured him that we did; and we agreed that the four of us
had had a little too much to drink. He helped to locate a
cab; and we went back to Wee Bobby's flat, where we washed
up, had a nightcap and went to bed.
The next night, despite hangovers, John convinced us
all that we had not done a proper job of giving Eddie a.
send-off; so, we decided to do it respectably and go to a
nice restaurant where there was music and a floor show with
girls. We had no dates; and did not want any, for they �
would have interfered with our plans to give Eddie a nice
send-off to capture Old Hitler.
First, we finished another. of my friend's bottles;
then we went to the Milieu, a first rate night club. In fact,
Bob Hope was scheduled to appear that night, to entertain
the GI's who were in London on leave, and to help to raise
the morale of the English ---.which no actor in the allied
world could do like Bob Hope. We got into the Milieu; but
we had to take a table just under the stage --- just under
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where Bob Hope would stand when he spoke to the audience.
Hope was late --- and the crowd began to get restless and
noisy, so John, who had had a fog drinks at Wee Bobby's
apartment and a few more at the Milieu, jumped onto the
stage and began to give a very good imitation of Bob Hope
and his fast talking opening remarks. The crowd went
wild, apparently thinking that John was Bob Hope --- but
we were frightened about what would happen when Hope showed
up. Eddie, Wee Bobby and I got up and went to the stage
to drag John off; and the crowd thought this ,a part of the
act, and shouted for "Hope" to return, in the person of
John Houghran. We were afraid of what would happen to us,
of what the management might do to us, so we ran out the
stage entrance and decided that this was not the place for
us to celebrate Eddie's departure for France, on D-Day, so
we again went pub-crawling.
John thought that we should find the One-Eyed Whore,
so we went to the Grapes of Wrath --- but, we had no luck at
all in locating her. We went to The Doves, down on the
Thames, in a sordid part of town, where gangsters were
supposed to hang out --- and where each person could write
his name and stick it up into the ceiling to remain there
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until he returned to take it down.
After a few minutes in The Doves, which was so crowded
that we could not stay together, and could hardly breathe, .
we decided to hunt another pub nearby. We reasoned that,
with The Doves so popular, it was bound to be true that
nearby another pub would try to cash in on the clientele of
The Doves who could not be taken care of in The Doves. So,
we wandered up the River Thames, seeking a pub, a drink,
even if it had to be mild and bitter.
Suddenly we heard noises, many people talking, someone
singing; and, because of the blackout we could not locate
the place, but we thought it certainly must be a pub. We
divided into four separate groups, of one each, and began
to give each other whistles, indicating where each one was
situated. Suddenly, we heard the "come here" whistle of
John --- and we knew he had found the pub, from which the
noise came. We all ran to him --- and he indicated that the
pub, the jolly house, was just in front of where he was
standing, slightly swaying, from all the alcohol he had
consumed in the past four hours.
We entered a smoke-filled airless drinking den; and we
saw, by the dim lights, British sailors, men from the Royal
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Navy, who appeared to resent our interruption of their
conversations and songs. They obviously resented the in-
trusion of the Yankee civilians, a Yankee Army officer and
an American Naval officer --- and though they must have
known immediately that this was not a raid, not a police
entry, they were resentful to the point of asking, "What
the Hell do you want here?"
We said we had thought this a pub and had come for a
drink; but they did not believe our story and apparently
thought we had come for some unknown, but sinister, purpose.
They all began to talk at once, until a large, very muscu-
lar sailor got up and said, "Leave this to me." Then, h
walked over to me, since I was the Naval officer, and said,
"What the Hell do you and your friends want here?"
I repeated that we were merely looking for a drink;
and added that we had,been to The Doves, but could not get
in and had thought that, from the noises we heard emanating
from this place that it must be another pub. Then he said,
"We don't want to out-number you Yanks, but we do mean to
show you not to stick your noses into our private affairs."
Then he called upon three other sailors, each as large
and as muscular as he, and said, "Men, let's show these
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Yanks that they should not go sticking their noses into a
place they know nothing about."
They rushed us; and, again, we took a beating. Even
Wee Bobby, who tried again to run out of danger, was
caught and pummeled. He wound up with a bleeding nose, a
twisted arm and muddy clothes. We all wound up with good
beatings --- and we decided not ever to wander around near
The Doves, again.
John had his glasses broken and was almost blind for
days while they were being repaired. He decided that
night that Eddie would have to go to France without a real
send-off, because each time we tried to give him arousing
despedida we ran into troubles. John said, "Hell, Eddie,
if you cannot even get through a send-off without running
into bad luck, how are you going to get across that Channel,
with all those German E-Boats after you and all those
cannons pointed at you?" Eddie was depressed; so we went
back to Wee Bobby's flat for more drinks.
When we got to the flat, John said, "Eddie, we should
help you learn how to pack and make yourself ready for that
landing in France." With this, John got all the items he
could find in Wee Bobby's flat; and we packed them onto
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Eddie's back. Into the packs, we put bricks, pieces o
metal and anything heavy we could find about the place
--- without Eddie's knowledge. John then said, "Eddie,
this is the weight you are to be carrying when you hit the
beach; now let's see you run around the room with it."
Eddie was so heavily packed that he could hardly
move --- and he could see himself going down into the
waters and not able to swim or walk. He began to worry;
and to pray --- but, a part of his concern was due to the
weight of the alcohol he had in his belly. -We all had a
good laugh, showed Eddie the bricks and other junk we had
packed onto his back. This made him happy; so we ended
the farewell parties to Eduardo Samaniego Galvdn, who a
few months later did go across on D-Day and who performed
very creditably for Uncle Sam in the invasion and sub-
sequently.
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CHAPTER X
Soon after the fall of Paris, General Dwight D. Eisen-
hower, set up Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expedition-
ary Forces (SHAEF) at Versailles.
I had the good fortune to be selected, along with my
friend Colonel
to go to Versailles to try to aw6)
convince Major General Kenneth W. D. Strong, Britisher, who
was G-2/SHAEF, that we needed to establish a SHAEF Counter-
Intelligence War Room; and that that War Room should be in
London. Just prior to this trip, I had been promoted to
Lieutenant Commander, USNR.
We were able to get the SHAEF (CI) War Room. approved;
and to have the General Strong approve the order to Special
Counter Intelligence Units (SCI Units) (then attached at all
levels up to Army Group Level) giving authority to collect
all German intelligence documents and send them to the SHAEF
C.I. War Room in London; and, in addition, to have the SCI
Units empowered to take over the interrogation of persons
(German and others) who were of intelligence interest. In
this way, it was hoped that intelligence materials and
persons of interest could be put into the hands of specialists
who could get more from them than the ordinary soldier, inter-
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ested only in fighting the war.
was made Director of the SHAEF Counter Intelligence m(6)
War Room; and it proved to be a great success -- and docu-
ments returned from the fronts during the war and from
Germany immediately after the war, are still available and
have proved very valuable to historians and others. At the
time, we screened the documents rapidly, primarily for leads
to Germans we wanted, German intelligence groups and their
locations, and German operations we wanted to know about.
One document was a particularly interesting and sen-
sitive one --- and
gave it to me to send to'Waghington. 0:0)
It was a Sicherheitsdienst document, purportedly listing
homosexuals in strategic positions in the United States
Government. This was sent to Washington --- and so far as
I know no copy was made in London.
Some two years later, when I was on a visit t0 Wash-
ington, I was questioned about this document and its contents
by a Security Officer. I told him and his colleagues all I
could remember about it; but the document could not be
located. It has not been found to this day; because-two --
young German-speaking Americans who had worked for me in
London at the time the document came through, later destroyed
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the document when they were transferred to Washington and
could locate it. These two, who were bedfellows, talked
about how they had destroyed this (to them) pernicious docu-
ment, while in bed together. They did not realize that the
Security Officer had bugged their quarters, and listened
to their chuckles over the difficulties we were having in
locating the document which they had burned!
Due to the pack rat characteristics of the Germans,
the files of the German Intelligence Services were filled
with reports on their successes, their plans, even their
failures and their knowledge and assessments of Allied .
Intelligence Services. Never in the history of the world
have the intelligence services of a large country been so
completely documented by enemies as the services of the
Nazis were after Allied Armies went through the Third Reich.
Many traitors were documented; and many heroes were found
in these papers. In addition, the evaluations given to
British, American, Soviet and other Allied Intelligence
Services operations, by the Germans were most interesting.
Their reports on deception operations run by the "Twenty
Committee"; their comments on double agent. operations and
straight penetration operations, were very valuable and
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extremely interesting to intelligence officials in London
and Washington.
As a result of my work with British Intelligence
Services personnel, I was able to get to be a friend of
such people as: Major General Sir Stewart Menzies, Chief,
British Secret Service (M.I.-6), during and just after the
War; Sir David Petrie and, later Sir Percy Sillitoe,
Directors of the British Security Service (M.I.-5); Major
General Kenneth W. D. Strong, who, after the war became
Director of the (then newly formed) Joint Intelligence
Bureau (JIB), established for the purpose of collating
intelligence from all components of the British Government
for Governmental clients and customers; and many others.
Because of the war, the British Intelligence Services
brought in many men, from varied walks of life. An officer
in M.I.-6 at that time was Graham Green, the famous author; k.
a professor from Oxford, who wrote "The Last Days of Hitler,"
mostly from documents he garnered while working in the SHAEF
Counter Intelligence War Room, was Hugh Trevor-Roper, brilliant
Oxford historian; a'renowned professor at Oxfonl, who was also
an author, J.C. Masterman, worked in M.I.-5;'and many other
such men worked for no glory and very, very little pay in
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the service of Britain, against Nazi Germany.
There were also those who worked against their own
country, even while Great Britain was in a death struggle
against Hitler and Nazism. Among these were: Harold Adrian
Russell Philby, "Kim" Philby, now known as one of the most
sinister and infamous spies in the world's history. His
-
story, or stories have been told, as thoroughly as known by
the British who are loyal to their country; and Kim's version
had been told in a Soviet KGB propaganda book, entitled, "My
Silent War," published by Grove Press, New York, in l96,
Guy Burgess was as intent a spy as Philby; but, he did not
have the ability, nor did he have the stability to do more
than he had been told in advance to do. George Blake, Donald
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Duart McClean and others were traitors to Britain and to
themselves; but they, and not even Philby, can destroy the
marvelous record of the loyal and hard-working Englishmen
who worked in their intelligence services during and since
World War II. For after the invasion of Russia, Soviet
agents like Philby could work with enthusiasm against
Germany, so long as it helped communism and the U.S.S.R.
I knew Philby; but, obviously, I did not know him well
enough or I would have reported long before his defection
to the Soviets and past work for them became public knowl-
edge. However, I can say, with proof, that I never trusted
Philby; that I always suspected him of being anti-American.
I did not, in time, suspect him of being a Soviet Agent; but,
I did suspect him of being overly nervous, taut and, at one
time, I reported that, in my opinion, he would soon have a
nervous breakdown.
that she was a communist and that Kim sympathized
- with-her,. Further,-.I :reported that Kim.. once said, when y_
drunk 7-- which state of inebriation he reached quite
frequently --- that a small Russian restaurant in Soho was
ry
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the place at which he met his Soviet friends.
accounts.
Guy Burgess was on the Yugoslav desk in M.1.-6 at one
time during the War; and his actions at a crucial time illus-
trate how completely he was under Soviet (and possibly Philby's)
controls and it also illustrates how a law level official can
have serious and important influences on high level policies.
Burgess was a weak, drunkard, homosexual --- a man who
was overwhelmed by the mere act of trying to be a man, when
he knew he was not. His performances in Washington in the
very late forties and early fifties, just prior to his flight
withD_o.naIdDuart M4Clean to Moscow, are proof enough of this
statement. I was with a friend one day at lunch, in George-
town, at Martin's, when we saw this human, covered with vomit,
dirty from falling in a nearby Georgetown ditch, stagger in
the door. UnfortUnately, he saw my friend, with whom _I was
sitting; and came to us, in spite of the efforts of the
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waiters to keep him out of the place. He said, blubbering-
ly, "Please help me. I have no money; and I must get home
and have a wash!"
I handed him a five dollar bill, and he left. The
waiter had to clean our table, from the spittle and vomit
he had dropped on it, as he leaned over to ask for the loan
--- which he never paid back.
Guy Burgess at the time this happened was a First
Secretary in the Embassy of Great Britain in Washington;
and he was living with Harold Adrian Russell (Kim) Philby,
another First Secretary in that same Embassy in Washington.
An operation in which Guy Burgess played a vital role
illustrates the influence which a low-level official can
have in matters of even strategic importance. As noted
above, Guy Burgess, during World War II worked on the
Yugoslav Desk in the British Secret Service --- and he had
access to Most Secret Information, including that derived
from breaking German codes and ciphers. One of the jobs
assigned to Burgess, because of his ability to read rapidly
and write well was that of selecting the important_ messages
of the German services which pertained to Yugoslavia and
summarizing them for higher up officials.
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Burgess did this; but, he did it in the manner he was
instructed to do it by his masters, the Soviet Intelligence
Service officials, with whom he and Philby were in touch
and by whom these two British Secret Service Officers were
controlled.
Burgess rewrote the messages, under orders from the
Soviets, to prove that Draga Mikhailovich, the anti-communist
guerilla fighter in Yugoslavia was an ally of the Nazis. It
has now been proved that Burgess lied, and his superiors did
not bother to check on his statements, and caused Draga
Mikhailovich, a great Yugoslav patriot to be shot as a
traitor, while the (then) Soviet Agent, Tito, was made a hero
and a great anti-Nazi fighter. The truth is that Draga
Mikhailovich had to fight Nazis on one side and communists,
led by Tito, on the other, while Burgess had his lies go to
Prime Minister level --- and be believed to the point where
Sir Winston Churchill allowed his only son, Randolph Churchill,
to be parachuted into Yugoslavia to meet with the great anti-
Nazi fighter (according to Burgess), Tito. To repeat, Tito
had the task assigned to him by the Soviets, of eliminating
_
Draga Mikhailovich, who was anti-Soviet; and this assignment
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was given priority over any fight against Hitler's forces
--- which were left to Draga Mikhailovich to fight.
This case alone, should show to higher executives
that reports sent by subordinates should be checked as to
bases, as to fact and as to source. If any superior of
Guy Burgess had asked to see the actual messages, purported-
ly from Draga Mikhailovidh and purportedly showing that
Mikhailovidh was an ally of the Nazis --- if any one had
asked to see these messages from the source, and not from
Burgess' files, Burgess would have been uncovered as a Soviet
spy in at the time. But no one bothered --- for,
after all, Burgess was a Cambridge graduate, one of the
"Old Boy" class in England, whom "no right thinking English-
man" could question!
The same attitude prevailed concerning Harold Adrian
Russell (Kim) Philby. He was a Cambridge graduate; and,
although his father had been interned at the outbreak of the
War because of his anti-British speeches and acts, Kim was
one of the "Old Boys" --- one whose loyalty could not be
questioned!
I remember talking once to Kim about the need for the
British to use the Lie Detector, particularly to try and weed
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out some of the many homosexuals everyone knew and all
admitted they had in M.I.-6. But he said, "We know who
can and who cannot be trusted, simply by looking at his
background and by knowing who his friends were in univer-
sity!" How very correct this remark turned out to be, when
we know that Guy Burgess, Donald Duart Mtipean and Kim
k
Philby were Cambridge classmates and friends!
I am now convinced that Philby got by, hundreds of
times, by his pronounced stammer. He could, "Puh,puhpuhpuh
" some six to ten times; and appear embarrassed, and
we all thought that he and we were embarrassed by his in-
ability to speak for some minutes. In actual fact, I believe
he hid behind this defect, pronounced though it was, many,
many times, in order to prevent his colleagues in
and the Americans with whom he had to deal, from knowing how
embarrassed he was at the topic under discussion; and to
give himself time to settle down and calm his nerves over
the possible breach in his cover as a Soviet Agent!
Later, I learned that Kim Philby, while on assignment
in Washington, had gone to great lengths to try to malign
the Lie-Detector, saying that its results were never known
to be trustworthy. He was very obviously, with his highly
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nervous disposition, his frequent heavy drinking and ex-
tremely guilt-ridden conscience, afraid he would break down,
if put on a Lie Detector. The more he talked against the
Lie Detector, the more our higher officials in Washington,
wondered why.
I remember that Mr. J. Edgar Hoover strongly disliked
Kim Philby from the day he met him. He said, "That man
cannot look a person in the eye. There is something very
suspicious about him." Also, Mr. Allen Dulles disliked him,
because he found Philby evasive and he believed even dis-
honest. How right these two great men were They only
needed to convince others; they only needed to have Kim re-
moved from Washington, in disgrace, to have caused him to
flee long before he did, in my opinion.
Before I got out of the Navy, prior to my demobili-
zation, I was put in charge of the overall OSS Office in
London, succeeding Colonel John Bross, who had succeeded
Mr. David Bruce, later Ambassador to Great Britain.
One day in late 1946, while sitting in my office, at
71 Grosvenor Street, W.1, I had a call from an Aide to
Admiral Hewitt, then CincNelm (Commander in Chief, North
East Atlantic and Mediterranean), who was stationed in
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Grosvenor Square. The Aide said, "Admiral Leahy, who is
here on a visit, wants to see you." This Aide was a
prankster, so I naturally thought that he could not be
serious about the Military Adviser to President Harry
Truman wanting to see a Lieutenant Commander, USNR (with
a capital "R"), so I said, 'You tell Admiral Leahy that I
am here at 71 Grosvenor Street, and will see him any time
he wishes to come over."
I soon found that the request was a serious one; and
I was scared out of what wits I had. I was called the
second time, by Admiral Hewitt's secretary, who was a
serious young Lieutenant, J.G., who told me to get over
there Immediately. I ran all the way; and presented my-
self to Admiral Leahy's aide. When I was called in,
Admiral Leahy said, "How are you?" and I told him that I
had been frightened, and recounted the story of my dis-
belief to him. He was very amused by this; and Immediate-
ly made me feel at ease. He then told me that the cover
story and overt reason for his visit to London was to dis-
cuss mandates of certain Pacific Islands with the British;
but,- he said, his real purpose-in making the visit .was that
President Truman had decided to establish an overseas
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intelligence service and wanted him to discuss the British
system with certain high level British Intelligence Offi-
cials. He said that he had been advised that I knew them,
and could get them to come to see him, at some safe place,
and that I could explain his reason for wanting to see them
to these Britishers. I told him that I could do this; and,
I offered to take notes of his conversations, after he said
that he would want me --- and only me --- to sit in on
these talks.
Admiral Leahy met with: Major General Kenneth W. D.
Strong, who had founded and headed the Joint Intelligence
Bureau; Major General Sir Stewart Menzies, Chief, Secret
Service; and with Sir Percy Sillitoe, Director, British
Security Service (M.I.-5). He asked penetrating questions
about their own organizations, which all of these British
officials answered with what I believe was complete frank-
ness; and he asked for their advice on how they would, if
beginning now, establish a world-wide intelligence service
for the United States of America. All had helpful and
thought-provoking replies.
Admiral Leahy was a very intelligent man, with one of
the best memories I have ever encountered. He never forgot
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a young Naval Reservist, who had been scared stiff at see-
ing him; and much later he sent for me twice, upon seeing
me enter the Army and Navy Club in Washington --- and once
asked me to lunch with him. This was long after I had been
demobilized; and long after his work on the foundations of
the Central Intelligence Group, which later by congressional
statute, became the Central Intelligence Agency, had been
the embryo from which that intelligence organization developed.
In a few months, three other well known Americans,
all then civilians, came to London to pursue the study of
the British Intelligence System. Allen Welsh Dulles, headed
the trio; William Jackson, lawyer and former army intelli-
gence officer during the war; and Kingmann Doug/lass, invest-
(
iment banker, made up the threesome. Dou lass was so in love
with Lady Cavendish, who had until her marriage been known
as Adele Astair, dancing partner and sister to Fred Astair,
that he spent most of his time studying the Irish countryside.
He subsequently married Lady Cavendish, who is now Mrs. King-
man Douglass, living on a farm in Virginia.
Dulles, Jackson and I, as their legman, errand-boy and
note-taker and assistant drafter, worked long hours for many
days, gathering data on the British Intelligence System. In
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particular, we tried to determine what happened to intelli-
gence collected by the Secret Service and other components
of the Government; we repeatedly looked for methods and means
by which another Pearl Harbor could be prevented. We wanted
to assure that intelligence about such a possible event, as
Pearl liarkor, would get to the officials who needed to know
it; and not be buried like the excellent intelligence con-
cerning the forthcoming attack at Pearl Harbor was buried.
William Jackson was particularly interested in the
Joint Intelligence Bureau, the JIB, 1Which was headed by his
friend, Major General Kenneth W. D. Strong; and he spent
many days studying in detail the actions taken by that 4
Bureau on intelligence items they considered of significance.
Mr. Dulles spent more time on the Secret Service and Securi-
ty Service aspects; on both the collection and protection
sides --- although he also studied in detail their handling
of intelligence items they considered of value to customers
in their Government.
The final report was drafted in Washington, by Messrs.
Dulles, Jackson and Douglass; and this became the basis for
the law which President Truman asked Congress to pass,
establishing the Central Intelligence Agency and its authori-
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ties, responsibilities and limitations, as well as the
position of Director, Central Intelligence (DWCI), who
has certain authorities over all intelligence producing
. and collecting elements of the U. S. Government.
I also had the great misfortune to work with Harold
Adrian Russell (Kim) Philby, Soviet Agent; to know George
Blake, traitor and Soviet Informant; to know Guy Burgess,
Soviet Informant, homosexual and drunkard; and to have met
Donald Duart MacLean, homosexual Soviet Agent --- and others
who I now suspect were penetrations for the Soviets of the
famed British Secret Service and of the British Government.
This amazing conglomerate of Soviet Agents and Informers
�
are another story --- and will only be mentioned occasionally
and as they participated in the events recited herein.
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CHAPTER XI
In addition
to the provable damages to clandestine operations, the
Soviets now have many American clandestine intelligence
personnel in their files today, because of the close
association American clandestine intelligence had with the
Secret Service (M.I.-6), where Philby, George Blake, Guy
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Burgess and others were required by their Soviet masters
to report every detail they could get about all American
clandestine intelligence personnel, as well as officials
of the FBI they met.
"Operation Cicero" was the German code name for an
operation against the British Ambassador in Turkey. This
operation ran from about October 1943 until about mid-1944.
The story of the operation was subsequently made into a
movie entitled "Five Fingers," which was a misnomer, for
the film version of the story, as shown publicly, never
showed the five fingers of the unusual hand of Cicero.
Cicero was the Reichsicherheitsinauptamt (RSHA) operation
k-/
by which the Germans obtained photographs of all the docu-
ments kept in the safe of British Ambassador Sir Hughe
Knatchbull-Hugessen, during at least the period of some nine
months.
These documents, including the most secret papers sent
to the British Embassy in Turkey, were photographed by the
valet of Sir Hughe, periodically; and it is known that at
least three thousand separate classified documents --- some
of the most secret category --- were passed to the RSHA by
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this valet. The RSHA case officer who directed the valet,
Cicero, was L. C. Moyisch, who most certainly directed one
of the most successful operations for the RSHA during
World War II.
When the operation became known to M.I.-6, which I
believe was in early 1945,
who was my (b)(6)
counterpart, had to deal with the reports on this success-
ful RSHA operation; and the identity of Cicero, the valet
of Sr. Hughe, was made positive by the fact that his hand
(his "five fingers") which was malformed, was included by
him in several of the photographs, when he held documents
being photographed.
I was allowed to read the documents and reports per-
taining to this operation; and, afterwards, when the German
captured documents came into the SHAEF/CI War Room, the
operation and the German evaluation of the documents procured
through Cicero were of great interest.
All communications-and documents pertaining to "Oper-
ation Cicero" were restricted, by the nature of the case.
But in this operation, everything having to do with the case
had to be kept closely guarded, for the daughter of Sir
Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen worked in Section V of 14.I.-6.
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Had the Germans used the information obtained through
Cicero intelligently, and had not Foreign Minister Joachim
von Ribbentrop not believed this operation to be a clever
and diabolic trick of the British Secret Service, this un-
believable lack of security on the part of Sir Hughe could
have had an adverse effect on the War. But the Germans,
and particularly von Ribbentrop, could never be convinced
that such stupidity could exist in a British Diplomatic
Installation --- and they failed, as they did on so many
occasions during World War II, to take advantage of abso-
lutely authentic information which could have helped them
and damaged the allies.
There were stories that Sir Hughe was involved homo-
sexually with his valet; and there were rumors that Sir
Hughe shared the L 300,000 (pounds sterling), near
$1,500,000.00 (dollars at that time) paid by SS General
Kaltenbrunner, Chief of the RSHA, through Moysich to Cicero.
But, so far as I know, the tremendous intelligence take
from this operation was due solely to Sir Hughe's lack of
security, including his hiring and keeping a valet (Cicero)
of highly questionable background. Of course, one must
give Cicero and his case officer L. C. Moyisch credit for
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Cicero's continued daring and the excellent handling of
Cicero by Moyisch.
In Europe, as the American, British and other
allied armies pulled out, it was feared that the vacuum
would be too inviting for the imperialistic Soviets; and
that the USSR would not stop at gobbling up the Balkans,
Poland and East Germany, would not stop at the borders of
their new colonies, Czechoslovakia and East Germany, but.
would expand.this new Empire. It was feared that the
surging Soviets (who have always had and as long as they
are communists, according to Lenin, will have the spread
of the Communist Empire as their principal reason for
existence) would over-run the low countries, Scandinavia,
France and Italy, at least.
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(b)(1)
(b)(3)
burying weapons,
food, communications equipment and systems and cold cash.
These items were buried in the ground at marked sites; and
it was intended that, when the Soviets over-ran the country
or caused communists to take over the government, previous-
ly recruited and trusted agents, likely to be able to stay
in place, would be given the sites and would have supplies
needed for survival and for communications with a base out-
side that country. The recruits were to be from cripples,
very old people and others who,
would likely stay on and be free to some extent
--- at least free enough to dig up the supplies and report
to a wireless operations (likely through a cut-out) who
could send the information to a base outside the Soviet area.
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
pprovecl tor Release.
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It is well that the
Soviets were too exhausted by the Nazis to make their
additional advances; for, due to various problems, most
of free Europe would have been without this possible
coverage.
There were many high level officials in almost all
allied countries who thought the Soviets would take advan-
tage of the disarray, disarmament and very rapid demobili-
zation of the U. S. and other allied forces to over-run
Europe and add it to the Soviet Empire.
The Soviets missed a marvelous opportunity to add
these European countries to their communistic empire and
take a giant step towards their ultimate goal of making
the whole world communist.
One of the things which we did not then know was that
a Soviet agent was in charge of Section V, of M.I.-
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Kim Philby, this Soviet agent, had sure-
ly reported all these (even prospective) agents in detail
to his Soviet control, or case officer. This means that,
even if we had succeeded in establishing networks in all
the countries we dealt with, they would still have been
rolled up f and, it means that, with Kim Philby occupying
the position he then held, the problems solved, money and
time spent and despite the dedication shown by many, "It
All Came to Little." This, in itself, makes this gigantic
attempt worth mentioning.
Philby got to know the American Intelligence officer
in charge of each country at headquarters, for Washington,
always anxious to send large numbers of officers to meet-
ings, sent different delegations to deal with each individ-
ual country and its planned network. Because of this,
Philby was able to report on many persons and on details of
the stay-behind network project for each of the countries
involved. Washington, as usual, sent far too many people
to each and every meeting --- and thus added to Philby's
reporting and to the "blown" clandestine intelligence offi-
cers working for the U.S.A�
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ipated in
116.
I sat in on and partic-
discussions; and, I lived
to see and know of the futility of all this effort and
expense, simply because everything being done or planned was
known to far too many people, of course, in this case, in-
cluding the "unofficial representative" of the Soviet Intel-
ligence Services, Kim Philby.
So, I repeat, the Soviets missed an opportunity to
further Lenin's World Conquest Plan --- an opportunity, the
likes of which, I hope they never again have!
Perhaps, with the help of Kim Philby, the Soviets got
far richer from the cash they dug up and got better and more
fully equipped with radio sets, cipher pads and other mate-
riels than they had ever been before. Whatever happened,
the items disappeared,
and very little was recovered and acknowledged by officials
who had been involved in these buryings.
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117.
At the time of my demobilization from the Navy, I was
awarded the Bronze Star, to add to my few medals and ribbons,
which included the Purple Heart, an Army Commendation Medal
and Ribbon, and, of course, the Theater and Duty ribbons each
serviceman received for spending time in an area. Admiral
Hewitt,CINCNELM, pinned this Bronze Star medal on my chest
with a flair which would have been good enough for a
Congressional Medal of Honor!
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118.
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119.
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120.
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121.
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122.
Just after the war ended G. I. Bride Ships began to
sail frequently from Southampton to New York --- loaded with
British wives and babies and wives-to-be, girls who had
either married or had probable plans to marry American Army,
Navy or Air Force personnel. Many of these English girls
were married to hillbillies from the Tennessee, West Virginia
or Kentucky, some were married to, or planned to marry slum
dwellers in the large cities and a few were married to, or
planned to marry, Negro men who had been stationed in England
and with whom they had fallen in love. They all seemed to
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believe that every American was wealthy; and they all thought
of themselves as being a wife in a large California style
home. Many of these girls were disappointed; and many
letters were received by the U. S. Embassy in Grosvenor
Square asking for the money to pay for a return passage to
England.
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124.
An interesting item to me was that professional
prostitutes were the only adults, male or female, who were
not drafted for war service. All other women, and of
course, men were required to serve either in the armed
forces, in factories or in some other war work. But
prostitutes were apparently considered vital to the war
effort in their own professions.
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125.
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Ilk
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126.
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127.
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milir
128.
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mor
129.
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muir
130.
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131.
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....
132.
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Nor
133.
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134.
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135.
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I
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�pr
136.
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ilw
137.
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W
138.
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139.
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mor
140.
CHAPTER XII
had been outside the U.S.A. for over seven of the
_
past eight years. In this eight-year period I had spent
one month at Cleveland in the FBI Field Office there, two
months in the OSS/X-2 Training School and on a desk in
Washington;
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mar
141.
I believe that most of my colleagues would agree that
I and others who got close enough to work on real live
operations with the British Intelligence Services brought
to CIA a discipline and a deep appreciation for clandestine
operations work, which helped CIA to mature more rapidly
than it would have without this seasoning. But, as previ-
ously stated, Americans paid dearly for their associations
with M.I.-6 particularly, because of lax personnel security
on the part of that organization, due primarily to the
British belief that an Englishman with the right background
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AI&
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142.
could do nothing against England and the British Empire.
The numbers of sensitive and valuable CIA operations which
had to be considered worthless because of Philby and Blake
made the price of what we learned very high indeed!
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143.
CHAPTER XIII
I arrived in Washington to learn that I had been as-
signed to the position of Chief, Western Europe, in the
clandestine services.
After a very few days in which I was told of
operations, personnel and problems,
I was called by General Walter Bedell Smith, then Director
of CIA and asked for a briefing on the Division and what I
saw as problems and what I planned to do about them.
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144.
In Washington, I found two acquaintances, from Euro-
pean countries: Harold Adrian Russell (Kim) Philby, repre-
senting the British Secret Service in its dealings in Wash-
ington with the FBI and CIA;
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Al II\
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146.
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,..L
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.....,.
147.
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148.
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
Guy Burgess, whoas living at Philby's home, was at
the party --- and he became very drunk in a short time
after drinks were passed around. Philby's second wife,
Ailene, who was a very thin emaciated and tubercular woman,
tried to get Burgess to go to bed --- to disappear from the
party. But Burgess would not agree to leave.
Instead, he disappeared briefly and when he returned
he sat in a corner of the large living room, with a.pad of
white paper and pencils. He was an excellent cartoonist;
and he drew many people as they were sitting or standing
around the room. Among those caricatured by him was the
(then) wife of
She happened to be sitting ODA
on the floor with her legs spread apart; and Burgess
in her most sensitive parts, covered with hair and
drew
made the
face in his drawing plainly identifiable as Mrs.
(b)(3)
Before the drawing, which Burgess was brazen
or drunk
enough
to
pass around, got to me, it arrived in the hands
of
who was and is a large and strong man, of some (b)(3)
two
hundred
forty pound's.
I did not know what had happened, but I saw
(b)(3)
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149.
grab Burgess and knock him to the floor, get astride
Burgess, and put his large hands around Burgess' .neck
--- and I saw that Burgess began to turn purple, or black.
Philby and I jumped to
back and pulled him off
Burgess, with considerable effort.
Burgess then took Ailene Philby's advice and went to
his room --- and I believe he went to bed and rested for
hours, for he waswithin a few minutes of death.
After this --- and after purgess, McLean and Philby
were all revealed as Soviet spies and traitors to their
country, I regretted that I had taken part in the effort
which saved Burgess' life. I regretted this until I
thought that had Burgess been killed by
there could
have been two very bad results. One, Philby would prob-
ably have been able to become Chief of the British Secret
Service while still a Soviet spy; and, secondly,
was used any time
save Burgess.
Now that Burgess has died, while in his beloved Soviet
"paradise," and now that Philby, who always hated the cold,
might have been arrested and brought to trial for murder-
ing a worthless drunken homosexual. This latter argument
chastised me for helping
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150.
has to live in Moscow under the dire and cruel conditions
this implies, I am very happy that I pulled
off
Burgess, and assisted Burgess to die a natural death, be-
cause natural for Burgess would mean a drunken death,
soaked in vodka and filth.
Philby refers to this incident on Page 235 of "My
Silent War," by saying that Guy Burgess had bitterly in-
sulted
wife by a convivial party at his (Philby's)
house. Philby continues that he had apologized handsomely
for Burgess' behavior; and that it was, therefore, diffi-
cult to understand
spite" when
"retrospective exercise in
had, according to Philby, assisted
General Bedell Smith in drafting a letter to Sir Stewart
Menzies, suggesting, in very strong terms that Philby not
be returned to Washington to deal with CIA.
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151.
Later, Philby must have been pleased to learn that
George Blake, Soviet agent in the British Secret Service had
reported on
the underground tunnel
in Berlin which was dug under the Soviet headquarters in East
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152.
Berlin and by means of which Soviet communications were
being taped by the millions of groups.
traitor had reported the tunnel; for, the Soviets came di-
rectly to the place above the tapping room and dug straight
down into this tunnel --- breaking up one of the most fabu-
lous operations designed. Blake allegedly stated that he
had reported on the tunnel from its inception, from the
time it was merely drawings --- but, one cannot believe that
� the Soviets would have allowed an enemy to tap their total
communications with Moscow from East Berlin for over a year,
if they had known of its existence.
In May 1961, Blake was sentenced to forty-two years in
prison for this and at least five other traitorous acts he
performed against the British and their allies. On 22 Octo-
ber 1966, he escaped and is now in the U.S.S.R.: perhaps Kim
Philby believes the reporting on the tunnel by Blake gives
him, in a way, revenge
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CHAPTER XIV
As one of his acts as Director of the Central Intelligence
Agency, General Bedell Smith re-organized the clandestine services.
Since legal formation of CIA there had been two distinct and even
at times rival organizations, each claiming to work on clandestine
matters having to do with intelligence and counter intelligence or
subversion and black propaganda.
The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) which had been in the
Department of State, probably because no one knew where to place it
as the propaganda branch of OSS, after OSS was abolished.
The head of OPC was Frank Wisner, a brilliant layer, but a man
who talked in long and scrambled sentences when discussing operations
of a clandestine nature. OPC had got permission to be placed in CIA;
but, due primarily to Wisner's influence, had been allowed to continue
its independence, so far as personnel, pay scales and operations were
concerned.
The Office of Special Operations (OSO) was the clandestine in-
telligence procurement and counter-intelligence, counter-espionagel
branch
�
branch of CIA. Throughout the world OSO also had stations,
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
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General Smith, despite very strong objections from both groups,
combined the OSO and OPC and said that the combined unit would be
headed by a Deputy Director who would be termed the Deputy Director
for Plans. Inside the "shop", of course, people called the DD/P's
organization the "Clandestine Services".
The biggest error General Smith made was in trying to keep all
the officers from both OPC and OSO, when only about half that number
was needed. Had he abolished the OPC, he could have.let most of the
officers go; he could not.abolish the OSO, for their assignment was
one of the basic ones in the legislation founding CIA --- but, he
could also have rid CIA of many officers at that time, many who were
not up to the standards needed by that Agency. But, to hold them all
--- and have doubly large staffs at headquarters and in the field --
caused many hardships on almost all officers from both groups.
, I became Chief of the combined division when OPC and OS() were
put together; and had cables from some stations saying, "If (that OPC
� officer) stays in this country, please accept my resignation"; and
some two very similar ones from OPC officers saying, "If (that OSO
officer) stays here, please 'accept my resignation as of Ole receipt
of this message." After a lot of changing we were able to survive
--- but, the combination.of these
and carry out the Director's orders
'
(b)(3)
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.w
/.!
two groups caused a set-back for many months and made many people
unhappy and caused a few regrettable resignations.
I agree that, if CIA had to take on the task of counter-subver-
sion and black propaganda, then the clandestine services had to be
the place to put these operations; but, I had hoped that the clandes-
tine services would be left with the quite big enough tasks of pro-
curing intelligence by clandestine means (which could not be got by
overt means) and the jobs of counter-intelligence and counter-espio-
nage. But, this was not to be --- and the best had to be made of the
added responsibilities and tasks.
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CHAPTER XV
A few months prior to his departure General Smith called me
into his office and informed me that he was forming a staff to
make inspections of all the units in the clandestine services; and,
he did not ask whether or not I wished to head this Inspection Staff,
he told me, "You are, as of next Monday, the Chief of this staff."
I was further advised by the General that he admired the disci-
pline and work of the FBI very much; and, he said that he attributed
much of this to their inspections and inspectors. "So", he added, "I
have made an appointment for you and whoever you choose as your deputy
to go to see Mr. Hoover, Director of the FBI, on next Tuesday."
On the following Tuesday l. called on Mr. Hoover and told him why
I was there and added that I had been in the FBI for a short period.
He was very cordial to me and my deputy; and, after a very few minutes,
buzzed for Mr. Hugh Clegg, old "Trout-Mouth" himself.
We were taken by Mr. Clegg into his offices, where it was very
apparent that he had already been advised by Mr. Hoover to have things
arranged for our introductory few hours to the mystique and methods of
FBI inspections and the work of FBI inspectors. Mr. Clegg told us
that things had changed considerably since we were, either of us, in
the FBI. He said, "You may not believe it, but we now have Special
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Agents in Charge begging us to come out and inspect their field
offices and other chiefs pleading with us to inspect them and their
units:"
Of course we could not believe this, for one of the most dreaded
experiences of any Special Agent (including the Special Agents in
Charge) was to have Bureau Inspectors pop in, always unannounced, to
give the offices and the personnel a thorough series of checks.
However, Mr. Clegg said that now the offices of the Bureau were
so perfect on a continuous basis that, each and every time his people
did inspections, there were many promotions and many special awards
which were granted because of the outstanding work, cleanliness and
results from examinations given by the inspectors.
My Deputy and I had our doubts; but, it was our job to learn
exactly how the FBI inspectors did their work, what they looked for
and how they reported and to whom. We tried, after several hours
with Mr. Clegg and his subordinates, to set up our Staff and have it
perform in a similar manner --- except that we did not stress clean-
liness of offices and housekeeping as much as did the FBI inspectors.
We devoted much more of our time to operations and-how they were
run; and how the records concerning them were kept. We found many
operations being run out of some case officer's hip pocket, with
little or no record of what he had done in the past or planned to do
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Is
in the future.
We made many enemies in this job; but, we performed as we
thought we should for the betterment of CIA; and we let the people
who wished to become angry join the group of people we ignored.
I had almost four years in this arduous position, which meant
much travel, many unfriendly receptions and very hard work. But,
before his departure, General Smith called me in and said that I was
doing the work just like he had intended it be done; and he congratu-
lated me and gave me another promotion, this time to GS-17.
The later years in this job were under Mr. Allen Welsh Dulles,
great man and the man made for the job of Director of Central Intelli-
gence and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Despite the fact that I liked and admired Mr. Dulles above every-
one of stature in the CIA, I was a pleased to leave Washington as I
had been sad to depart
Farewell parties, meaning that (b)(3)
my date of departure was near, were a pleasure this time.
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CHAPTER XVI
I have often wondered how I came to be so lucky in foreign
assignments. When one thinks of having been assigned to Habana,
and, then afterwards, have Western Europe as a whole as an
assignment) and, finally, to the most interesting and fascinating
of all and the most beautiful of places to live and have friends,
Mexico) it is a thing which cannot happen to many people who make a
career of this service.
(b)(3)
I came to Mexico City to find the largest and by far the most
active Soviet Embassy in the Western Hemisphere. Ever since Igor
Gouzenko had defected in Ottawa, Canada, and caused the large net
of spies there to be caught and convicted, the Soviets had awakened
to the fact that Mexico was a Much better place from which to operate
against the USA. The Soviet Embassy in Ottawa was drastically reduced
in number of personnel --- and almost concomitantly, the Soviets sent
officers of the GRU and KGB into Mexico to do the work which had been
done or planned against the USA, with Canada as a base.
The Soviets are great believers in "third country" operations
and they apply this in their operations against the USA with vigor.
Their philosophy is that operations against the USA 'should be based
in a third country. I believe that the principal reason for this is
that they are so afraid of the FBI and its enormous manpower and faci-
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lities and its efficiency.
With the millions of crossings made annually the Mexican/USA
border cannot possibly be patrolled completely; it is virtually
impossible to check on each person who crosses at some point along
this frontier. This makes Mexico an ideal location for a base which
runs Soviet operations into the USA. Both the GRU (the military in-
telligence organization) and the KGB (the political and economic in-
telligence organization) have primary targets in the USA; and many
of these targets are easily _accessible to visitors, including those
sent by the Soviets.
In addition, the facts that birth certificates and even passports
of many Latin American countries can be purchased, some of them inex-
pensively, make the location of the Soviets in Mexico, our friendly
neighbor with over three thousand miles of land border with us, an
almost perfect site for this Soviet operational base.
(b)(
(b)(
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In the late fifties the Soviets had put over one hundred men
into their Embassy in Mexico City; and, had the Mexican Government
asked for job descriptions of each, the Soviets would have found it
impossible to prepare statements which would have justified more than
ten to fifteen officials.
For example, the Commercial Section of the Embassy of the USSR
has grown so large that they had to rent a building outside the Soviet
compound. In the late fifties and early sixties the Soviets had seven
officers, several clerks and assistants, enough to make a twenty per-
son staff which was allegedly here to handle commercial matters with
the Mexicans. Soviet trade with Mexico was about one-tenth of one
percent of the total Mexican foreign (export and import) trade; and
the commercial business of the Soviets with Mexico could have been,
and still could be, handled by one girl working two hours weekly for
one man who would have less than four hours weekly to work. Their
�
commercial business with Mexico is practically nil; and the Soviets
do not seem to care to increase it --- perhaps because of some of the
very embarrassing results they have had from the very few sales they
have made, or, perhaps because they do not want to have the time their
"commercial" employees spend on clandestine intelligence work reduced.
One of the embarrassing results of a sale the Soviets made. to Me- .
xico, which resulted from the visit of pro-communist former President
General 'Azar� Cardenas del Rio to Moscaw, came from the sale they
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made, through Cardenas' intervention and help, of one hundred farm
tractors to Mexican farmers. After many, many months of delay the
long-awaited tractors arrived at Tampico; and were off-loaded. But,
they could not be used, for the gear shift levers broke as soon as
;
they were touched forcefully. Also, they were rusty-looking, as a
result of the ea voyage and improper coverage, while at sea. These
tractors were a complete flop --- and everyone connected with that
transaction would like to forget it, entirely.
The attempt to export automobiles to Mexico resulted in just as
much embarrassment for the Soviets. New cars broke down, without re-
placement parts; and the entire effort was as complete a failure as
has been seen ever in a foreign trade venture.
At the Soviet Trade Fair in 1959, then President Adolfo Lopez
Mateos asked Soviet Ambassador Bazykin if he could start the motor
of one of the large Soviet automobiles on exhibit there in Mexico City.
Bazykin had a Soviet "mechanic" grind .for minutes on the starter;
but the automobile never hit, never got started. Then, President
Lopez Mateos said to Bazykin, "Mr. Ambassador, I now see why you drive
an American Cadillac!" and walked away leaving a flustered and red-
'faced Bazykin to chastise the "mechanic". The Soviet automobile, which
had failed to start, appeared to be a very old Packard, with new polish
and paint.
The visa section of the Soviet Embassy has since 1950, been si-
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milarly overstaffed. They always have several officers with the
titles of consul or vice consul, and these officers, of course,
have their assistants) secretaries and clerks. Yet, the visa section
of this Embassy is open four hours weekly, only: from 11:00 hours to
13:00 hours, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The staff is always about
ten people in size; and each and every one of them is a KGB employee
or officer. They do not even pretend to be busy with consular work,
as is evident from the hours they are open to the public. In any case,
most visas to the USSR are handled by Intourist; and, we estimated
that the number of visas issued annually never reached one thousand,
which is less than the number of visas issued daily by the consular
section of the US Embassy in Mexico City.
Their military attache's office is almost openly a GRU office;
and any person who thought of it would ask immediately, "What do the
Soviets wish to know from the Mexican Armed Forces?" The Soviets do
not give any military aid or assistance to the Mexicans; and they do
not need anything the Mexicans could give them, either in the way of
materiel or information --- so, why do they need a sizeable military
attache's office in Mexico ? A little investigation would reveal
that not many of the officials assigned to the military attache's .
office know much about military matters --- and both the officer and
civilian specialists are GRU officers. They are in Mexico to try and
procure military information from targets in the USA.
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The political section always has so few problems to discuss
with Mexico that most members of that section are not known to
any Mexican in the Foreign Office. This section, like all others
in this Embassy, is over-staffed; and their counselors, first and
second secretaries are more frequently out on the street or in a
safehouse meeting with a clandestine agent than they are working
on overt political reporting to their foreign office.
Even the administrative section has personnel of either the
GRU or the KGB assigned to it.
(b)(1
(b)(3
A very definite indication of the principal target of the Soviet
clandestine intelligence services situated in Mexico City is the
very large number of officers of these services who speak English,
fluently. It is also interesting to note that a great many more of
these officials speak Englh than Spanish, although they are assig-
ned to a Spanish speaking country.
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In Mexico, Mexico, I saw the GRU, KGB and their underlings
operate in a raw, wild West fashion, contrasted to their
modus operandi in Europe, where I had previously been able
to observe their methods.
In 1959, for example, the Soviets had two high ranking
officers (one of whom was the Naval Attach�attend a meet-
ing of a Mexican Labor Union, when that Union was attacking
the Mexican Government. As a result, each of these two offi-
cers was declared persona non grata by the Mexican Govern-
ment. They left at once, and their replacements were in the
Soviet Embassy within a week.
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These and many other wild and almost open operations
would make an uninformed person and casual observer wonder
whether the Soviet clandestine services might not be, like
so many of the falsely claimed accomplishments of the USSR,
just false propaganda. But, beneath this surface, the Soviets
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were busily engaged in running spies into the U.S.A. (prin-
cipally), with successes. We often wondered whether these
wild West ventures were not set up as diversionary opera-
tions --- to take our attention and time away from the real
and worth-while (to them) operations they gave most of
their time and attention.
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Now
A case which was of special interest in Washington, and especially
to the FBI, was that of Alfred Kaufman Stern and his wife, Martha Dodd
Stern. Alfred had become a millionaire when his first wife, the daugh-
ter of Julius Rosenwald, of Sears, Roebuck & Company, died and left him
several zillions of dollars.
He and his wife, Martha Dodd Stern had been subpoenaed by court
authorities in the USA, because of their involvement in the Rosenberg
case; but, they had been of interest in Mexico, prior to this time, be-
cause the Mexicans knew that they had helped to finance certain cover
businesses for the Soviets in Mexico.
As soon as they heard that the subpoena was coming from the USA,
they hired exp.:ambassador William O'Dwyer, who had some thre4onferences
with them, during which he advised them not to allow themselves to be
talked into going back to the USA and for which he charged them $25,000.00
(dollars) in cash.
They took O'Dwyer's advice seriously; so seriously that Alfred made
an appointment with his Soviet friend who was serving in the Soviet Em-
bassy at the time. Through this Soviet's contacts, Alfred was able to
buy three Paraguayan passports, one for himself, one for Martha and one
for their very unhappy adopted little boy, for thirty thousand dollars,
paid in cash to the Paraguayan consul, who had them made out in the names
of Horacasitas. With these, and with the help of the Soviet friend and
Cuban Embassy officials, they flew to La Habana and t* to Moscow, be-
fore the slow-moving consul in the US Embassy could deliver the subpoe-
na to them.
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According to her letters to Ralph Scott, her American hegro lover,
who remained in Mexico, they all three hated Moscow; and, after a brief
stay there, they moved to Prague, which they also found cold and unin-
viting. They are now in Habana; but, Martha stil] writes, frequently
to Scott, at his dry-cleaning establishment which she gave him in appre-
ciation for his being such a good bed-mate.
Martha has long suffered from what the Mexicans call "furore va,-
ginal"; she is a nymphomaniac and to sleep with and make love to
three and four men a day is nothing unusual for her. Since she was
young and in Berlin, where her father was US Ambassador until Pearl
Harbor, she has had trouble being satisfied with men. She had young
Nazi lovers, just as readily as, later, she took to communist lovers.
Dodd, so the story goes, was accidentally appointed ambassador to Ber.,
lin. It is daid that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked one of
his aides to see that Professor Dodd was appointed to the post, US Am.
bassador to Germany.. The aide, innocently, picked the wrong Professor
Dodd; but, since Roosevelt did not see him until he was ready to take
off for his post, it was too late to change the error, without a great
deal of embarrassment; so, Martha Dodd's father vent to Berlin, and she
-went along.
The Paraguayan consul who sold the passports to the Sterns was sum-
manly fired by the then Paraguayan Ambassador to Mexico, as soon asAbe
US Ambassador told him what had happened.
Prior to his departure, Alfred Kaufman Stern had arranged to sell
stocks.- and bonds he held in the US market for several millions of dol-
lars, which he transferred to Swiss accounts. He should, therefore; be
able to pay off communist officials who will give him and his family asy-
lum. I do not believe that he or Martha Dodd Stern will ever enter Mexim.
co again; and I feel sure that they will stay away from the USA for the
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remainder of their lives. It is possible that, after they both die,
Bobty Stern, their adorted eon, may ask to return to either Mexico
or to the USA.
But, I_believe that both Alfred Kaufman Stern and Martha Dodd
Stern are in a permanent flight to avoid prosecution/
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CHAPTER XVIII
Very soon after Fidel Castro Ruz took over in Cuba, in
1959, almost all personnel in the Cuban Embassy in Mexico
City defected and asked for asylum, either in Mexico or the
U. S. A.
As I recall, only one woman, a suspected communist,
who later caused trouble at the United Nations in New York,
remained in the Embassy --- as sole occupant, along with
Mexican gardeners and cleaning people and the cook. I think
her name was Teresa Casusa.
Within a few days, of course, Castro sent some barbu-
dos to occupy the Embassy offices and living quarters. Oc-
cupy was all they could do, at first, for they knew abso-
lutely nothing of an Embassy and what they were supposed to
do. The woman who had remained, declared herself ambassa-
dress --- and she got by with this for a few weeks.
However, it took only a few weeks for this place to
begin to "shape up"; for, the Soviets took over the manage-
ment of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico. If this had not been
evident from close observation, it should have been known to
all interested intelligence people in Mexico --- because of
the radical changes which took place in the intelligence and
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security activities of this Embassy.
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To watch these many drastic changes (from both in-
ternal and external vantage points) made it immediately and
abundantly clear that the Soviets had taken over and were
giving the orders to Cuban Embassy personnel in Mexico.
The many changes we documented were absolute proof
that Fidel Castro Ruz, as we had already known, was a com-
munist, who was, from the day he took over in Cuba, under
Soviet control. But, no matter how many times Ambassador
Robert C. Hill, U. S. Ambassador to Mexico, reported this
to the Department of State and I reported it to my head-
� quarters (from where it was also reported to the Department
of State), Department leaders refused to believe that Cas-
tro was other than an agrarian reformer who wanted to help
the people of Cuba. Most of the failure to believe these
� reports can be attributed to a low level (country desk)
officer for Cuban matters, William Wieland. Wieland, like
Guy Burgess, sat at a low level; but, he led his superiors
into a never-never land, where there were no communists
--- and where certainly audo-gooder" like Wieland's beloved
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gIV
)559
Fidel Castro Ruz could never-never be a communist. In fact,
Wieland and others denied that Castro Ruz was a communist,
even after Castro Ruz himself publicly announed that he was
and had for many years been a communist:
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160.
CHAPTER X IX
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Nor
CHAPTER XX
It is sometimes hard for people in the democracies
to understand Soviet morals (if they have any, after being
taught by Lenin that to lie is an excellent thing, if it
helps communism and to kill, maim and confuse a non-com-
munist person or group of persons are honorable accomplish-
ments, if these aid the spread of communism in its effort
to take over and control the world).
One illustration of this lack of our sense of morals
is illustrated by a small case which developed in Mexico
City. The Soviet Naval Attach�a Naval Captain, we will
call Boris Prokovich, was Chief of the GRU, military intel-
ligence service in Mexico --- and a person who was watched
as closely as possible, for he would be the principal officer
directing the efforts of the Soviets to obtain information
on U. S. military installations and on missiles of the U.S.A.
It was soon learned that the second man in the Naval
Attach� office, a lieutenant commander, would leave the
office he shared with Captain Prokovich and visit the
Captain's wife, who lived in an apartment easily watched.
Lieutenant Commander Yuri Masevich would screw the wife of
his superior; and when they were both satisfied, he would
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164.
return to the office he Shared with the husband of his very
recent piece of tail.
From conversations and gruntings and other noises in
the apartment of Captain Prokovich we knew exactly what was
taking place on these visits by Masevich.
With the permission and assistance of Headquarters,
we had a Russian speaking officer intercept Captain Proko-
vich one morning as he was walking to the Soviet Embassy.*
Captain Prokovich was told orally what was happening between
his wife and his principal subordinate; and he was given a
piece of paper on which the story was detailed in Russian.
He listened and took the paper and walked briskly to his
Embassy, without a trace of emotion showing on his face.
A few days later the Captain was intercepted again
by the same Russian speaking officer. After stopping and
looking the American straight in the eye, the Captain said, '
"I cannot see what you hope to gain by telling me this story.
I do not object if my aide makes love to my wife. We had
much rather he made love to the wife of a Soviet Embassy
officer than that he go off and get too friendly with a
non-communist:"
Since the Soviets in Mexico City do not hire any non-
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1W.
Soviet personnel, even for cooking, sweeping and most low-
ly chores, they had no unmarried girls for the single offi-
.
cers, like Masevich to sleep with, so Soviet morals and
philosophy and fear of penetrations by an unfriendly serv-
ice, made it necessary for married men to share their wives
with the unmarried ones assigned to Mexico City.
Another call was made, on a later date, to Captain
Prokovich, advising him that his aide was at that moment
making love to his wife --- but, the Captain replied that
he did not care and hung up the telephone, immediately
after he was told that his Ambassador would be informed of
the fact that his aide was almost daily making visits to
the Captain's apartment and having an affair with the
Captain's wife. The "I don't care:" was his reply to both
the threat to tell his Ambassador and to the story that his
wife was, at that time, shacked-up with his aide in the
Captain's bed.
Ambassador Bazykin was advised in writing of Mase-
vich's behavior and of the fact that Captain Prokovich knew
of this --- and Bazykin, whose wife lived in Moscow during
his entire five years in Mexico and who was known to sleep
frequently with another Soviet officer's wife, did nothing
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about poor Captain Prokovich's being a cuckold. It is
probable that, in the U.S.S.R., such sacrifices on the
part of a husband is a purifying experience, making the
husband a better communist!
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But
as well as some others did prove to us that
in spite of all the encumbrances, all the walls and wire
fences and compounds behind which Soviets are made to live
their miserable lives, some are human, some will disobey
even though it could mean Siberia; and, they showed that
there is hope that some day this prison will have its walls
broken down, its jailers and guards eliminated and at this
time the U.S.S.R. can be renamed Russia and become one of
the family of nations and not the lying, cheating, two-faced
dictatorship it is today.
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CHAPTER XXI
A great deal has been written about Lee Harvey Oswald, the
assasin of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Much of what has
appeared in print was written by persons who knew nothing and who
tried to conjure up, from some mysterious sources, materials which
they hoped would sell. A great deal was written by people who
knew a smattering and tried to divine, from that little they knew,
a story in which they hoped that what they said would eventually
be taken as fact.
I learned something of Lee Harvey Oswald in the period from
Friday, 27 September 1963, when Lee Harvey Oswald, having just
arrived in Mexico City, made his first contact with the Soviet
Embassy in Mexico, giving them his name very slowly and carefully,
and saying that the Soviet Embassy in Mexico should have received
word from the Soviet Embassy in Washington that he (Oswald) would
contact them about a visa for himself, his wife, who he said was
a Soviet citizen and their child. He said that he wanted to go
to the Crimea to 2 October 1963, when Lee Harvey Oswald
boarded Bus No. 340 of Transportes Fronteras for Laredo, Texas, at
08:30 hours on that morning.
fact, Lee Harvey Oswald became a person off-great interest
to us during this 27 September to 2 October 1963 period. He con-
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tacted the Soviet Embassy on at least four occasions, and once
went directly from the office of Sra. Sylvia Tirado de Duran,a
Mexican employee of the Cuban Consulate to his friends, the So-
viets. During the conversation with the Soviet official, he
said, "I was in the Cuban Embassy--- and they will not give me
a transit visa through Cuba until after I have my Soviet visa".
This contact became important after the Warren Commission Re-
port on the assassination of President Kennedy was published;
for, on page 777 of that report the statement was made that it
was not known that Oswald had visited the Cuban Embassy until
after the assassination:
Every piece of information concerning Lee Harvey Oswald
was reported immediately after it was received to: US Ambassa-
dor Thomas C. Mann, by memorandum; the FBI Chief in Mexico, by
memorandum; and to my headquarters by cable; and included in
each and every one of these reports was the entire conversation
Oswald had, so far as it was known. These reports were made on
all his contacts with both the Cuban Consulate and with the So-
viets.
Because we thought at first that Lee Harvey Oswald might be
a dangerous potential defector from the USA to the Soviet Union,
he was of great interest to us, so we kept a special watch on
him and his activities. He was observed on all his visits to
each of the two communist embassies; and his conversations with
personnel of these embassies were studied in detail, so far as me
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knew them.
Soon after his arrival and first talk with the Soviets, we
received a brief sketch on Lee Harvey Oswald from headquarters,
in answer to our request for information on him. We learned then
that he had spent some two and one-half years in the USSR, had
married a daughter of a Soviet (who, I believe, was with the KGB) V.-
and had one child. Further, we learned that he, his wife and child
were given permission to leave the Soviet Union for the USA ---- an
unusual fact, on the face of it suspicious, when it is knoWthat
the USSR builds walls and that they use every means available to
them to hold all inhabitants (no matter how miserable and unhappy
these individuals may be) inside the Soviet "paradise".
Further, we learned from headquarters that, after the years in
the USSR, Oswald visited the Embassy of the USA in Moscow; and an
officer --= who failed to use his head at a1,1 --- gave Oswald an
American passport and saw that the US Government helped Oswald fi-
nancially to return to the USA with his Soviet wife and child.
Not long after arriving in the USA from Moscow, Oswald showed
his true colors by joining and becoming a leader of the,Fair Play
for Cuba Committeein New Orleans, Louisiana. The Fair Play for Cu-
ba Committee is and was a communist front organization.
In New Orleans, Oswald worked openly for the Fair Play for Cu-
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ba Committee; and I have a recording of one of his appearances
on television in that city, an appearance in which he spoke out
strongly for Communist Dictator Fidel Castro Ruz and communism;
and strongly chastised the USA. Oswald made no secret at all of
his dissatisfaction with President Kennedy and his anti-Castro
policies.
Above all, Oswald's visits at both the Communist Cuban Embassy
and the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City, during his brief five-day
stay in September-October 1963, are, together with what is known
of what took place during these visits, sufficient to make him a
suspect agent, acting on behalf of the Soviets, in several things,
possibly including the assassination of President Kennedy. When
one studies the conversations Oswald is known to have had with of-
ficials of both these embassies of communism, it is evident that
there are sufficient data for this suspicion.
As stated above, Oswald is known to have visited both the So-
viet Embassy and the Cuban Consulate in Mexico City and to have had
several conversations with officers of the Soviet Embassy in Mexico
City and with employees of the Cuba Consulate. The Cuban Embassy and
Consulate are only two blocks distance from the Embassy of the USSR.
Oswald had a long and argumentative conversation with a Mexican girl
(Sylvia Tirado de Duran) who worked in the consular section of the
Cuban Embassy; and, because of arguments with her and her superior,
Eusebio Azcue, he got hopelessly entangled in the massive red tape
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of these two communist bureaucracies.
Oswald told a high ranking officer of the Soviet Embassy
that that officer should have had word from the Soviet Embassy
in Washington about his visit and its purpose, after he had
spelled out his full name, slowly and carefully, for this Soviet.
He further told this Soviet that he should know that Oswald, his
wife and child wanted to go to the Crimea, urgently; and the he
(Oswald) had learned that he would have to go by way of Cuba.
Oswald was then directed to the Cuban Embassy by the Soviet, who
told Oswald that he would need a Cuban transit visa.
These visits and conversations are not hearsay; for persons
watching these embassies photographed Oswald as he entered and left
each one; and clocked the time he spent on each visit. The conver-
sations are also known to have taken place, including the one in
which he told the Soviet to whom he was talking that he should have
heard, received a message, from the Soviet Embassy in Washington,
indicating obviously that a Soviet Embassy official in Washington
had offered to help Oswald.
While he was in the Cuban Consulate, in Sylvia Tirado de Duran's
office, Oswald decided to ask the help of a Soviet Embassy official
in convincing the Cubans that they should give Oswald the transit
visa through Cuba, even before he had his Soviet visa. This, he did.
Oswald got disgusted at the wait required by the Cubans, who
had to send a cable to Habana requesting clearance for a transit
visa for him. The reply, on about 15 October. days after Oswald had re-
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turned to the USA, confirmed that no Cuban transit visa could
be granted to Oswald until after he had received a Soviet visa.
Oswald boarded Bus No. 340 of Transportes Frontera at 08:30
hours on Wednesday, 2 October and arrived at Laredo, Texas, at
about 13:35 hours on 3 October 1963. His trip to Mexico had been
a failure. He had been unable to get either of the two required
visas; but, he did not blame the Soviets. He wrote a letter to
the Soviet Embassy in Washington during October 1963 blaming the
Cubans for his failure.
Why did Oswald wish to return urgently to the USSR ? What
did he plan to do in the USA, after his return from Mexico, which
would make such a trip a necessity ? The answer could lie in his
actions of 23 November 1963.
There are those, including Miss Priscilla MacMillan, Associa-
te at the Russian Research Center at Harvard, who claim that Oswald
had planned nothing, that he only thought of killing President Ken-
nedy some two or three days before 23 November 1963; and, as Miss
MacMillan puts it, Oswald "would not have walked across Dallas to
do it." I do not believe such reasoning fits the facts, including
the advance purchase of the gun, the visit to Mexico and many other
known actions of Oswald, shortly before the assassination.
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Aren't the contacts made in Mexico by Lee Harvey Oswald in the
five day period he had in that City and what took place during his
visits to and conversations with communist embassies in September-
October 1963, quite enough to cause a suspicion of Soviet involvement
in the murder of President Kennedy?
If a conservative, or member of a conservative group, had shot
President Kennedy and had been found to have had associations and
conversations pertaining to escape a few weeks prior to the shooting,
with members of that conservative group, what would have been the re-
actions of communists, leftists and of the liberals in the USA? I
believe that there would have been a great outcry advocating the
abolition of the conservative group involved and declarations of guilt
of all members of that organization. But, the fact that communist
embassies dealt with and counseled this assassin a few weeks prior
to the time he murdered President Kennedy, is treated as an irrelevant
bit of news, not worthy of considering. This could be due to the fact
that a serious investigation into this matter would offend the Soviets,
with whom our foreign policy pundits, leftists and liberals, are
constantly trying to be friendly while the Soviets stab us in the back
and insult us to our faces, any time they consider it opportune.
I believe it highly possible that the Soviets wanted to eliminate
President John F. Kennedy; that they had picked this pro-communist ex-
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marine, Lee Harvey Oswald, who had repeatedly shown his sub-
servience to them; and, that they let him down as soon as he
had committed the crime --- after being sure that there were
-
no positive and provable leads to them and their involvement
in the assassination. This would be right in line with their
well known past.
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Nit
CHAPTER XXII
Thomas C. Mann was probably the most popular Ambassador
ever to serve in Mexico. He was very .popular with Mexican Go-
vernment officials, with non-Government Mexicans and he was ex-
tremely popular with the Americans who in Mexico and almost
all others. The only groups or individuals who did not like him
were the far leftists, communists and anti-capitalists.
His outspoken anti-communist views, his belief in competitive
private enterprise, excellently presented in either English or
Spanish were a real thorn in the sides of the communists and those
against private enterprise.
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VII
CHAPTER MI I
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CHAPTER XXIV
There are many, many other examples I could cite of
operations I could tell about in some detail; but, some of
these are still considered sensitive and others involve people
who should not yet be mentioned. I believe the operations men-
tioned and which took place in Habana, London, Washington or
Mexico are sufficiently typical --- as typical as the always
different clandestine operations can be --- of the work into
which I put so many years of my life and so much effort, along
with great expectations.
Clandestine operations all have the common features of seek-
king for wanted information or intelligence information; of looking
for access and access capibility; spotting a potential procurer,
agent or knave; recruitment, after as careful study and assess-
ment as is possible; protection of the agent and of yourself, the
case officer; evaluations of the product obtained; and, always,
careful handling of the agent, the principal agent.
Clandestine intelligence operations officer must be students,
and be willing to spend hours, many hours studying each detail
of each and every operation in which they are involved.
Too, these intelligence officers are often called upon to
deal with other than normal people, for a great many spies are
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far from normal. Each action and reaction of an agent must
be looked for; and always an officer must be on the look-out
for indications of deceit, excessive fear or even of a coming
break-down in his agents, the agents he deals with --- and,
above all, he must know and realize that almost all agents are
knaves, in the worst sense of the word. But, he must treat
them as if he thought them gentlemen.
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CHAPTER XXV
I had noted that, after my years of very hard and arduous
work, I needed to calm down; I needed, also, to be able again
to trust others to a degree, at least; and, I felt that I need-
ed to get completely away from clandestine work.
I believe that a good clandestine intelligence officer should
live two lives, all through his work-career. One of these lives
makes him appear to be a normal man engaged in an overt job, a
business about which he can talk openly and professionally. The
other life he lives --- and it is the over-riding, the primary and
principal life --- is one in which he is strictly prohibited from
talking about his work. He is never able to discuss the work of
of this second (clandestine) life with his family, or anyone, ex-
cept fellow clandestine officials who are working on the same tar-
get, same operation, or those of his superiors who "have a need
to know"- about his work. In this clandestine-intelligence-officer
work he is able to talk of his work only with those people who have
been cleared for such discussions with him; and the clearances must
be given by higher authority than the operations officer, unless be
is chief of the unit in which the work is being done.
I believe it is probable that a clandestine-intelligence-opera-
tions-officer will, after several years of such work, tend to get
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schizoidal. One of the simplest and probably the most used
cover for such an officer is that of diplomat, assignment to
a diplomatic establishment. Such an official is forced to
pretend to be a normal diplomat, performing certain assigned
duties; while his real work, the work which counts to him and
to his superiors, is that of procuring secret intelligence from
a hostile person, installation or group. I believe that a good
clandestine intelligence operations officer must have a certain
amount of schizoidal tendencies --- if he is to be happy while
living his cover and working with success in his primary field.
Due to this double life --- and because so much is expected
of him ---- a clandestine intelligence operations officer wears
out, burns out and, in my opinion, should be retired in a much
shorter time than the normal man with overt work.
Just as psychiatrists believe that a schizophrenic person
wears out more rapidly than does a normal person, so, I believe,
does a clandestine intelligence operations officer, because of
the schizoidal life he is forced to live and have imposed upon
his mentality and physical being, wear out more rapidly than a
man who can discuss his job assignments and accomplishments with
almost anyone.
The work of a counter-espionage officer is even more burden-
some. At times these officers are assigned the task of protecting
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the security of operations and operations personnel from their
own organization; and they can find personnel of their own or-
ganization; and they can find personnel of their own organiza-
tion either acting as traitors, or, for some less vile reason,
breaking security. A less vile reason could be that an opera-
tions officer has become tired, worn out and begins to drink to
get an extra lift --- and perhaps becomes talkative or too lax
in some other way.
In my opinion, a counter-intelligence-operations-officer,
whose task it is to procure information or intelligence informa-
tion (data on personnel, organizational structure, assignments and
modus operandi) on another clandestine intelligence organization,
are not as likely to develop schizoidal characteristics as is a
counter espionage (ce) officer (whose job it is to uncover and coun-
ter the operations of a hostile intelligence service).
I believe that, in the case of a good and active counter-espio-
nage officer, the individual's self-relationship becomes a pseudo-
personal one; and that his true self treats his false self as though
his false self were another person --- if that ce officer has long
worked for years on ce cases.
It is possible, after many years and much involvement in ce work
(which would mean many, successes, or that officer would not be allow-
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ed to continue in ce work), the ce officer's true self could
become de-personalized. The false-self which becomes dominant,
could think, "He (the true self) is too cautious, too frightened
and not daring eough." For, after a few successes, a ce officer
is inclined to believe (or to have his false (ce) self) that his
opponents are incapable of beating him. The false (ce) self
comes to believe, "I am too smart for my opponents; they can ne-
ver outwit me:"
This danger of conceit is something which all chiefs of ope-
rations units in clandestine intelligence organizations must watch.
It can destroy --- and has destroyed --- many of the best clandes-
tine intelligence officers long before they had reached their peaks
as officers, and long before their successes warranted even the
slightest conceit.
Those who become conceited and are not destroyed, ruined for
future use, are frequently so shocked by a failure so deeply that
they useless, at least temporarily, as clandestine operations offi-
cers. Some such failures have been said to have developed micro-
cosms within themselves; and, as a result of such an sutistic, pri-
vate self-contained life, they cannot be used --- since, for a time,
they cannot associate themselves with a life of reality, which must
be lived with, and to a degree, shared with other.
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A ce officer, particularly, should have a comparatively
short periods of active field operational work; and in the in-
terims he should be given less demanding work, work demanding
less of a schizoidal life. The early retirement of clandestine
intelligence officer, who have spent at least five years outside
the USA, is a help in trying to arrive at a solution of the pro-
blem of double lives required of these officers.
Another reason for necessary early retirement of officers
engaged in clandestine intelligence operations, is that they
arrive at a point in life --- having met and dealt with so many
dishonest people, and having, themselves, in their demanding and
dominating (false) selves, lived a lie --- where they mistrust al-
most everyone, look for the hidden meaning and motives behind even
the most sincere statements of friends and loved ones.
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CHAPTER XXVI
The administrators had taken over CIA to the point where
all operations, including the most sensitive clandestine ones,
were subjected to their measurements, and they are auditors, in
the sense of "examine and verify".
In addition, I found it hard to ignore inadequacies, short-
comings of my co-workers; and I could no longer calmly ignore the
lack of proper support from headquarters. The administrative bu-
siness management types, who had no idea of what a clandestine o-
peration was, or what essentials in the way of support were, had
now taken control in Washington.
These administrators wished to run a penetration agent just
as the Board of Directors of a meat packing firm would run their
business. They even got to the point where they advocated paying
agents time and one-half for extra hours spent working, if they
worked over eight hours daily. Further, they wanted a certain
number of pages of "intelligence" from each agent for each hundred
dollars spent on that agent.
They made it impossible for an operations officer to be com-
pletely honest with his own headquarters. Intelligence or counter
intelligence had to be produced in required amounts or the adminis-
trators would refuse further money; and, they could kill an operation
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of great promise, simply because it had not, up to that date,
produced what they thought was the required. Value had very
little meaning to them.
It came to the point where each project, each operation
had to be submitted annually, detailing all expenditures which
were planned for the next or succeeding twelve months, listing
all expected production, citing all past production (citing each
dispatch by which this had been forwarded to headquarters and
practically specifying the weight of each of these dispatches).
Also, each agent had to be listed with his specific job and a justi-
fication for his use had to be given; and, of course, the amounts
to be paid to each agent had to be detailed. All this information
was "weighed" by administrative personnel in headquarters.
If an operations officer had honestly said, "This agent, Joe
Blow, is a complete scoundrel; but, he works for us for money 1.0lich
he can use to get drunk and to visit whorehouses", he would never
have got his project, proposed operation approved, for these admi-
nistrators loved to find reasons for over-ruling a chief of station,
who would have given his prior approval to the proposal. These ad-
ministrative types never agreed with sir Francis Walsingham,
the
founder of the British Secret Service, under Queen Elizabeth I, who
xaid, "If tere were no kanves, honest men should hardly come by the
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truth of any enterprise against them."
The disapprovals of submitted projects gave them, the
administrators, a reason for existence. It enabled them to
show their directors at headquarters how valuable they were,
how intelligently they had surveyed each project and how much
money they had saved the Agency.
A very few examples of hundreds I could cite, will suffice
to elucidate my point.
I once had the opportunity to rent an operational apartment,
with very advantageous views of an important target and a perfect
location for all kinds of electronic work on this target. Believe
it or not, the real estate division of the administrative section
of headquarters, insisted that their very American looking inspec-
tors come to my station and inspect the place, after they had
studied my reasons for wanting to rent it. They insisted that they
would have to enter the apartment itself and carefully inspect it,
to determine whether or not it was worth the price I would have
to pay to get it. I had planned to rent the apartment through a
trusted native, who would then allow other natives to move in on
a sub-let contract. I had to ask permission to go to headquarters;
and, once there, I went directly to see Mr. Allen Dulles and told
him the story. He immediately approved of the request I made to
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him and gave me a written statement to that effect. But, he did
PNI')
not abolish the real estate division, which was my suggestion.
For that division was obviously staffed by people who had never
considered the fact that entry into this apartment by very
obvious Americans, couldtolow the whole operation; and, I thought
that they should have nothing to do or say about clandestine
operations.
Files, as every intelligence officer knows are the absolute
backbone of operations; and clandestine operations cannot be run
without good and correct files. In CIA files began to be subjected
to physical measurements. Each station in the world had its files
subjected to these measurements and each station was allowed only
a fixed percentage of growth per year --- and this percentage was
fixed by personnel from an administrative section, persons who
worried only about the quantity of paper and the space this paper
took up, and who had no more idea of content or quality of content
or usefulness of the documents in the files, than a betsy bug.
These specialists in weights, sizes and space filled by files, were
Sent to stations with over-sized files; and they were empowered to
destroy --- without knowing what untilthe files were down to
the required size:
Similarly, each station was visited periodically by adminis-
tratiVe personnel specialists. These specialists claimed
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42.,1
that they had to visit the station in order to look at the
records and talk with the station chief about pay grades
of each person working under that chief of station. All
the records were in headquarters; but, it was more pleasant
for these specialists to go out and see for themselves that
the poeple to whom periodic payments were being made by
headquarters were actually there at the station. Then, they
went through a second grade mathematical exercise. They mul-
tiplied the grade of each person by the number of persons in
that grade. For example, they would multiply "9" by the num-
ber of persons who carried the grade GS-9 in the station; and,
after doing this for all personnel they added up the total.
For example, if a station had one GS-14, two (2) GS-12(s),
one(1) GS-9 and two(2) GS-7 (s), the total would be: 61. This
61 divided by the number of people assigned to the station
would be them their "grade average" which, in this case, would
be: GS-10. If such a "grade-average" came out for a station,
these administrative grade average specialists would be horri-
fied. They would insist that one or more of the higher graded
people be transferred, and replacity a lower graded individual,
so that the "grade average" would become, in their terms, "more
realistic". What the people were doing and how well they were
doing it meant nothing to these specialists. But, I must admit,
this made many high level jobs for administrative personnel. A
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.111.
group of these "grade specialists" visited my last station;
and they did not know what to say when I presented them with
the "grade average" of their group of three. I appended my
report on their "grade average", which was GS-14.3, to their
report on my station, which had a "grade average" of a little
above GS-9 and which they were trying to get down to an average
of GS-8.5.
These accountants, real estate specialists, "grade averagers"
and their administrative cohorts have bound, tied, gagged and
stymied clandestine operations. These burdensome parasities have
made it almost impossible for the CIA to continue and conduct clan-
destine operations; not realizing that they, like animal and vege-
table parasites, are sucking the vitality from the body from which
they live. They don't realize that they are preventing the Agency
from performing the tasks for which it was established and for
which it is getting millions of U.S. dollars annually, of the tax-
payers money.
As a specific example, during 1968, my last station spent
68.7% of monies received that year, for administrative costs, on
orders from headquarters. The remainder, less than one-third of
- the annual budget, was allotted (by the administrative chiefs in
headquarters) to projects pertaining to procurement of intelli-
gence, or to counter-intelligence or counter-espionage operations.
As previously stated, each clandestine operation had to be sub-
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mitted in great quantities of paper, setting out in minute
detail all expenditures intended for the forthcoming year;
all agents to be used and exactly what each was expected
to do, had to be reported; and potential results of the
operation had to be specifically stated. All this had to
go through and be approved by literally hundreds of people
in headquarters, and, principally, it had to make the admi-
nistrators happy, by its format, its detailed breakdown of
expenditures and its job descriptions and other details.
CIA came to little after 1968, because of these leeches
who became the masters. They, as parasites often do, had by
1968, so strangled the working body that to do the work of
the clandestine services, the work for which the agency. had
been founded, became a practical impossibility.
We, in operations still worked very, very hard; but "We
looked for much, and lo, it came to little."
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?fq
Chapter XXVII
I began as an intelligence and security officer in 1941;
(b)(3)
Ten years before my retirement I became a GS-18, which is
the highest civilian career service grade in the US Government,
the top of the super-grades.
I decided to retire because I could not live a happy life
and have to subordinate myself to people who knew nothing of the
work they were approving for me to do, or disapproving and order-
ing me and my group not to do. Too, I feared that I had become
worn out in the grind of many years in work in which one had to
live two lives, had to become a schizoid, of a type.
The approval of my request for retirement was accompanied by
a request that I come to Washington for a brief visit. While there,
I was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, a very pleasant
surprise for me and a very good way to terminate my official re-
lationships with the Agency.
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.0w
I came away from that, my last official visit to head-
quarters happy and with a feeling of freedom; I definitely
decided to relax, talk about any work I engaged in in the
future, and to try to get back my respect for and trust of
people. I was happy to get out of the sludge of spies and knaves;
pleased to believe that in the future, contacts could be made for
friendship, or openly for business reasons; and I was very happy
to get rid of the necessity to keep secret the work I did and the
contacts I made.
Now that I view the twenty eight years I put into clandestine
operations works, I realize that I devoted myself far too complete-
ly to the work and gave too little time and attention to recreation-
al and normal family life and activities; and, I fully realize that,
in all those thousands of hours of work as I beavered away, "I
looked for much, and lo, it came to little!" for me and for my
country. But, I hope that some of that "little" will serve as bases
for future operations, bases upon which some productive future
clandestine intelligence operations can be built; and I hope that
the clandestine intelligence officers who may build these operations
may get more nearly what they expected or looked for when they began.
I sincerely hope, also, that the present and future directors will
alleviate the administrative binds which have almost completely
constipated the clandestine service; and, in the future, will allow
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freedom to work to those who know what needs to be done in the
field of clandestine operations.
I know that I could never have had the tremendous experiences
I had (some of the ones of lesser importance and of lower classi-
fication have been briefly cited in the preceding pages) if I had
not been fortunate enough to get into the FBI, OSS/X-2
CIG and the CIA. For these experiences and the
hundreds of excellent people I met (many of whom are my friends),
I am most grateful to Lady Luck and my Good Fortune.
-END-
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