The Catcher Was a Spy
Page 41
69 “There were also accounts”: OSS file, August 4, 1944.
70 “On August 10”: OSS file, August 15, 1944.
71 “He hung a”: Interview with Aldo lcardi, Winter Park, Florida; and Terry Curtis Fox to Thomas Powers.
72 “By August 20”: Kaufman, pp. 183–87.
73 “Shell and sniper fire”: Corvo, p. 188.
74 “He spoke with the owner”: Interview with Dr. Ing Gianni Luzi, Florence, Italy.
75 “the company produced range”: OSS file, August 21, 1944.
76 “Furman’s gaze meanwhile”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 313.
77 “There were other plans”: OSS cables, August 21, 22, 1944; and Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 313. 188. “As far as”: OSS cable, August 22, 1944.
78 “By the time”: OSS cable, August 25, 1944.
79 “By this time”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 314.
80 “Martin Chittick”: OSS cable, August 30, 1944.
81 “On September 6”: OSS cable, September 6, 1944.
82 “As for Moe”: CIA file.
83 “A few days after”: Berg to his family, September 20, 1944.
84 “Finn named Helvi”: Michael Burke, Outrageous Good Fortune, p. 120; interview with Henry Ringling North, Maison de Beauregard, Switzerland.
85 “In London, Berg”: Interview with Clare Hall Smith, Washington, D.C.
86 “With H. P. Robertson”: Interview with John Wheeler, Princeton.
87 “The OSS European Headquarters”: Interview with Horace Calvert by telephone.
88 “Estella was also”: OSS cable, September 28, 1944.
89 “The first involved”: R. H. Smith, p. 243.
90 “I have to confess”: Interview with Hans Bethe by telephone.
91 “Kidnapping and murder”: Interview with Hans Bethe by telephone; and Powers, Heisenberg’s War, pp. 190–92.
92 “It was probably”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 257.
93 “In January 1944”: Furman interview with Morrison, January 12, 1944, R. G. 77, entry 22, Box 170.
94 “Carl Eifler never”: Interview with Carl Eifler by telephone. Also Brown, pp. 412–16; R. Dunlop, pp. 327, 381, 421–25; Powers, Heisenberg’s War, pp. 260–69; Bradley Smith, pp. 131–32; R. Harris Smith, pp. 246–48; and Barbara Tuchman, Stillwell and the American Experience in China, 1941–1945, p. 340.
95 “A German scientist”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 265.
96 “Eifler doesn’t like”: Interview with Carl Eifler by telephone.
97 “They would fly”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 265.
98 “Stanley Lovell supplied”: Ibid., p. 312; and interview with Carl Eifler by telephone.
99 “By the autumn”: Goudsmit, p. 69; interview with Thomas Powers, South Royalton, Vermont; and Irving, p. 224.
100 “In his autobiography”: Leslie R. Groves, Now It Can Be Told, p. 217.
101 “Groves’s account”: See OSS document, November 10, 1944, from Donovan, which says, “We recognize Furman’s chief Groves as only office of active control for AZUSA.” AZUSA file.
102 “Berg soon complained”: OSS cable, January 3, 1945.
103 “If Marsching seems”: OSS cable, November 23, 1944; and Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 389.
104 “With Marsching gone”: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, military collection document, November 6, 1944.
105 “Brodie was on”: Interview with Earl Brodie, San Francisco.
106 “Chittick hadn’t yet arrived”: Interview with Ed Mroz by telephone; and Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 389.
107 “The professor’s files”: Robert Jungk, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, p. 164; and Goudsmit, pp. 69–71.
108 “On one letterhead”: Goudsmit, p. 69.
109 “ ‘No, no,’ he”: Pash, pp. 68–71.
110 “Germany had no”: Goudsmit, p. 71.
111 “Immediately he was”: Groves, p. 218.
112 “A bit of digging”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 377.
113 “As a young man”: Interview with Heinz Albers, Georg Busch, and Herman Waftler, Zurich, Switzerland.
114 “During the war”: Interview with Thomas Powers, South Royalton, Vermont.
115 “With this in mind”: Dulles cable, September 12, 1944, OSS file.
116 “Nazi spies were”: Interview with Heinrich Medicus by telephone.
117 “After Dulles warned”: OSS document, November 15, 1944.
118 “The choice for”: OSS document, November 20, 1944.
119 “Berg’s annual salary”: OSS documents, November 15 and 28, 1944.
120 “On December 8”: Interview with Bud Leavitt by telephone.
121 “Goudsmit was fascinated”: Goudsmit to Ethel Berg, June 21, 1976.
122 “That fellow Goudsmit”: Daniel Lang, “A Farewell to String and Sealing Wax,” New Yorker, November 14, 1953, p. 59.
123 “Goudsmit was particularly”: Interview with Stanley Goldberg, Washington, D.C.
124 “In March 1943”: Goudsmit, p. 47.
125 “As for his”: David Cassidy, Uncertainty, p. 485.
126 “That may explain”: There are other possibilities. Goudsmit’s postwar memoirs become, at times, almost fustian in their scorn for the Germans. But at the Ritz, without the benefit of hindsight and Hiroshima, he may still have had more doubts then about what the skilled German physicists were doing in Hechingen than he was later willing to admit. Either way, it didn’t matter. Goudsmit’s job was to pass along orders from Groves, and Groves wasn’t yet convinced of anything.
127 “Nothing spelled out”: Berg notes, September 6, 1962; and Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 392.
128 “Toward the end”: Interview with Ken Gloss, Boston.
129 “It was nearing”: Interview with Earl Brodie, San Francisco. Berg told a briefer version of the story to Harvey Yavener and Bus Saidt (interview with Yavener by telephone) and to Elizabeth Shames (interview, Portland, Maine).
130 “The last person”: Interview with Horace Calvert by telephone.
131 “In Rome, liberation”: Studi E Fonti Per La Storia Dell’Universita Di Roma/Registo Delle Lauree Honoris Causa Dal 1944 AL 1985/Jole Vernacchia-Galli, p. 18. Translation by Renata Ferri.
132 “They say that”: Ibid.
133 “When Moe Berg”: Interview with Ken Gloss, Boston; interview with Elizabeth Shames, Portland, Maine.
134 “To support this”: Interview with Bernie Levy by telephone; interview with Ted Sanger, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
135 “By various accounts”: Groves, pp. 216–17. Interviews with Heinz Albers, Zurich, Switzerland; Willie Klein, New York; and Edwin Putzell by telephone.
136 “Berg arrived for Heisenberg’s”: Berg’s detailed written account courtesy of Thomas Powers; Powers, Heisenberg’s War, pp. 397–400. Interviews with Markus Fierz by telephone; Herman Waftler, Zurich, Switzerland; and Werner Zünti by telephone. All of them attended the meeting.
137 “very interesting because”: Interview with Herman Waftler, Zurich, Switzerland.
138 “The pistol stayed”: Tablets were standard issue for such work. Berg told Elizabeth Shames that he carried one.
139 “There was plenty”: Berg draft cable courtesy of Thomas Powers. See also Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 401.
140 “I am working”: Werner Zünti to Heinz Albers.
141 “We assumed that”: Interview with Werner Zunti by telephone.
142 “I am not”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 402.
143 “When Gregor Wentzel”: This is often quoted. See Cassidy, p. 493; Goudsmit, p. 114; and Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 402.
144 “This was one”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 403.
145 “Berg asked more”: Ibid. Note that Elisabeth Heisenberg’s memoir of her husband says, “A young man whom he had noticed throughout the evening and whom he found exceptionally agreeable accompanied him back to his hotel. On their way the conversation was relaxed and animated.” E. Heisenberg, Inner Exile, p. 97
. Her manuscript is rife with errors, so I tend to doubt this account.
146 “I have no doubt”: Interview with Philip Morrison, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
147 “It is our hope”: Dix to Berg, December 22, 1944.
148 “There were several reasons”: Interview with Ines Jucker, Bern, Switzerland.
149 “secretive and ebullient”: Interview with Herman Waftler, Zurich, Switzerland.
150 “Berg took a room”: Interview with Ines Jucker, Bern, Switzerland.
151 “Between 1915 and 1919”: All this information was gathered during a visit to this beautiful restaurant.
152 “Scherrer was a teacher”: Interview with Herman Waftler, Zurich, Switzerland.
153 “My explanation”: Document courtesy of Charles Owen.
154 “On other days”: OSS cables, December 30 and 31, 1944.
155 “The OSS had”: Dix to Berg, January 5, 1945.
156 “Bushie”: Interview with Ines Jucker, Bern, Switzerland.
157 “In Belgium”: Calvert to Furman, January 15, 1945.
158 “The Scherrers thought”: Interview with Ines Jucker, Bern, Switzerland.
159 “Such strange things”: Interviews with Heinz Albers, Georg Busch, and Herman Waftler, Zurich, Switzerland; Ines Jucker, Bern, Switzerland; Kurt Alder, Werner Bantle, Markus Fierz, Heinrich Medicus by telephone; and Ina Scherrer to Ethel Berg, undated.
160 “We never saw”: Interview with Ines Jucker, Bern, Switzerland.
161 “Dulles had slipped”: Bradley F. Smith, pp. 189–93, 222–26; Corey Ford, pp. 285–89; and R. Harris Smith, pp. 211, 267–68.
162 “Bern was even quieter”: Interview with William Hood, New York.
163 “American legation”: Mary Bancroft, Autobiography of a Spy, p. 134.
164 “Dulles liked calm”: OSS cable, September 12, 1944.
165 “Twenty-four Dufourstrasse”: Bradley, pp. 149–50; and interview with William Hood, New York.
166 “I remember I”: Interview with William Hood, New York.
167 “The Germans, for”: Interview with William Hood, New York; Bancroft, p. 182; Bradley, p. 149.
168 “Berg ate alone”: Interviews with Edwin Putzell and Duncan Robertson by telephone.
169 “At night, Berg”: Interviews with William Hood, New York; and Cordelia Hood, Edwin Putzell, and Robert Wallace by telephone.
170 “If Berg was”: Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, The CIA and American Democracy; and Leonard Mosely, Dulles, pp. 73–74, 92–94, 299–301.
171 “Moe was secretive”: Interview with Edwin Putzell by telephone.
172 “There were a lot”: Interview with Cordelia Hood by telephone.
173 “Confidentially, he is”: Dulles cable to Donovan, March 25, 1945.
174 “Donovan’s approach”: Interview with Edwin Putzell by telephone.
175 “Scherrer wanted badly”: OSS cable, March 19, 1945.
176 “This is very”: Separate OSS cable, March 19, 1945.
177 “Nothing doing”: OSS cable, March 20, 1945.
178 “Please trust my”: OSS cable, March 23, 1945.
179 “A few days later”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 390; OSS cable, April 20, 1945; and Sam Berg’s schedule written by hand given to me by Tom Powers.
180 “And what I was doing”: Berg notebook, December 1, 1965.
181 “At the famous”: Interview with Robert Furman, Washington, D.C.
182 “In Hechingen”: Goudsmit, p. 108.
183 “It was so obvious”: Ibid., p. 106.
In the winter of 1944, the ETH was full of rumors that an atomic bomb was possible, and Scherrer, more than anyone else, must have realized both its inevitability and the divisive impact it would have on scientific politics. Scherrer had worked closely with Heisenberg on S-matrix theory, and he had also anticipated fission before Hahn’s and Meitner’s discovery. For a physicist, he was a shrewd and political man. His enemies whispered that he was “jealous like an old wife,” and made up a slogan about him: “Only Scherrer is allowed to speak.”
Enthusiasm is one thing, risking your life is another. Many Swiss scientists hated Hitler, and it’s impossible to say what drove Scherrer to move beyond silent protest and make himself available to an American intelligence organization. “We were all against the Nazis,” says Herman Waftler, exaggerating somewhat. “Nobody knew Professor Scherrer was more than anyone else.”
Chapter 12. Always Good Company
1 “On May 2”: OSS cable, May 2, 1945.
2 “Berg’s itinerary was”: OSS cable, May 4, 1945.
3 “One of the reasons”: Interview with Milton Katz by telephone.
4 “Berg went along”: Interview with Monroe Karasik, Chevy Chase, Maryland.
5 “In London”: OSS cable, May 24, 1945.
6 “Scherrer would be”: OSS cable, May 19, 1945.
7 “John Kieran turned”: Interview with Monroe Karasik, Chevy Chase, Maryland.
8 “And your name is”: Interviews with Monroe Karasik, Chevy Chase, Maryland; and Edwin Putzell by telephone. Berg told a different version to Margaret Feldman, but Karasik was there.
9 “On May 30”: OSS cable, May 30, 1945.
10 “Groves placed”: OSS cables, June 5 and 6, 1945.
11 “Back in London”: CIA file.
12 “She had fits”: Meitner to Otto Hahn, June 27, 1945. 221. “Dr. Berg was”: Meitner to Scherrer, June 26, 1945. 221. “Berg would see”: Berg notes, September 6, 1962.
13 “I feel that”: Meitner to Otto Hahn, June 27, 1945.
14 “Otto Hahn was not”: Powers, Heisenberg’s War, p. 428.
15 “Eventually the letter”: Berg notes, September 6, 1962.
16 “On June 30”: OSS cable, June 30, 1945.
17 “It was hoped”: CIA file.
18 “he and Scherrer”: OSS cable, July 26, 1945.
19 “Berg suggested that”: OSS cable, July 31, 1945.
20 “They traveled using”: OSS cable, July 21, 1945.
21 “He invited Scherrer”: Kaufman, p. 217.
22 “At Washington’s Griffith”: Interview with Rick Ferrell by telephone.
23 “Berg was reluctant”: Kaufman, p. 217.
24 “He passed one”: Interview with Margaret Feldman by telephone and correspondence.
25 “We are entitled”: Shepardson to Berg, August 9, 1945.
26 “With the Manhattan”: OSS document, September 14, 1945; and interview with Heinz Albers, Zurich, Switzerland.
27 “It would wind up”: OSS cable, September 19, 1945.
28 “At the same time”: Berg file, September 23, 1945.
29 “As for Berg”: Dix to Berg, October 1, 1945.
30 “In a third”: Dix to Berg, October 9, 1945.
31 “Warner thought this”: Joe Mooney, “Profiles,” Seattle Post Intelligencer, October 21, 1976.
32 “If the offer”: Interview with Horace Calvert by telephone; and Kaufman, pp. 222–23.
33 “Came November”: Berg kept the ticket stub; CIA file. 227. “In early January”: CIA file.
34 “Meitner had been”: Meitner to Max Planck, January 1, 1946.
35 “Why didn’t the”: Berg notes on the meeting dated January 9, 1946, given to me by Thomas Powers.
36 “he talked about her”: Harvey Yavener (interview by telephone) and Joe Crowley (interview in Washington, D.C.) are two.
37 “Rather, they sent him”: SSU documents, February 15 and 26, 1946.
38 “Two days after”: Dexter Masters and Katharine Way, One World or None, Introduction, p. x.
39 “Then Berg checked”: Dix to Colonel Quinn, September 30, 1946; Kaufman, pp. 226–27; interview with Thomas Powers, South Royalton, Vermont. Charles Owen showed me the Bohr-inscribed book.
40 “Skinner recommended”: SSU document, February 14, 1946.
41 “He always liked”: Interview with Lyall Johnson by telephone and correspondence.
42 “Mr. Berg has”: SSU memo, March 6, 1946.
43
“Lieutenant Colonel Skinner argued”: SSU memo, March 12, 1946.
44 “I have no concern”: SSU memo, March 20, 1946.
45 “The Dutch, for”: Berg cable, May 24, 1946.
46 “At Nuremberg”: SSU cable, July 2, 1946.
47 “You are ordered”: Quinn to Berg, CIA file; interview with Larry Houston by telephone.
48 “In one draft”: Dix draft, September 30, 1946.
49 “In a position”: CIA file; a copy was also supplied to me by Arnold Kramish.
50 “On December 2”: CIA file, December 2, 1946.
51 “Houston remembers that”: Interview with Larry Houston by telephone; SSU document, January 30, 1947 (CIA file).
52 “Houston got back”: CIA file.
53 “In April”: Documents of April 2 and 8, 1947, CIA file.
54 “Everyone I knew”: Interview with Larry Houston by telephone.
55 “the most dangerous”: Masters and Way, p. 59. 234. “In notes he”: Courtesy of Charles Owen.
Chapter 13. A Life Without Calendar
1 “A moment later”: Terry Hauser to Ira Berkow. 238. “the partnership did well”: Novelart documents, Berg file.
2 “When Berg left”: Kaufman, p. 234.
3 “The government proceeded”: FBI file. Note that in New York State, bankruptcy records are destroyed after ten years.
4 “Ted Lyons, the”: Newark News, November 27, 1946.
5 “Berg paid $500”: FBI file.
6 “He appears to be”: Ibid.
7 “According to Ethel”: Ethel Berg to Sam Goudsmit, May 11, 1973.
8 “Of the 13,000”: Interview with Thomas Troy by telephone.
9 “You can’t get”: Berg notebook entry, November 14, 1951.
10 “Must learn to”: Ibid., November 20, 1951.
11 “He holed up”: Interview with Charles Owen, Washington, D.C. Owen owns the text of Berg’s proposal describing a new Eastern European policy for the CIA.
12 “A Jew must”: Berg notebook entry, November 27, 1951.
13 “Did any mail come”: Sam Berg notes, March 10, 1979.
14 “Or, as Richard Helms”: Interview with Richard Helms, Washington, D.C.
15 “far more regulations”: General Walter Bedell Smith, DCI from 1950 to 1953, was a flinty man with a reverence for organization. The transition to what might be called a corporate approach to American intelligence occurred years beyond Smith, but “Beedle’s” imprimatur at CIA was to infuse the Agency with a taste for discipline.