2. The standard reference on the Venona decrypts is Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939–1957, Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds. (National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency, 1996). Two excellent studies of the subject, placed against a backdrop of other Cold War data, are Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, The Venona Secrets (Regnery, 2000), and John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (Yale Press, 1999).
3. Valuable studies of data from the Soviet archives include Klehr and Haynes, The Secret World of American Communism (Yale Press, 1995); Klehr and Haynes, The Soviet World of American Communism (Yale Press, 1998); Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood (Random House, 1999); and John Costello and Oleg Tsarev, Deadly Illusions (Crown, 1993).
4. The personal papers of Millard Tydings, as distinct from those of the Tydings subcommittee, are at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md. Various papers of William Benton are in the holdings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.
Chapter 2: The Caveman in the Sewer
1. Rovere, Senator Joe McCarthy, op. cit., pp. 3, 19, 48, 73, 87.
2. On McCarthy’s performance as a judge, see Ted Morgan, Reds (Random House, 2003), pp. 329 et seq.
3. Such denials were made to the author by two McCarthy associates who knew him in his final years, though others who were close to him then confirm the standard version. Most explicit on the subject was committee staffer James Juliana, who was with McCarthy almost daily until May 1957, and who categorically denied the chronic-drunkard image.
4. Morgan, op. cit., p. 329; New York Times, April 20, 1955.
5. Such Russian-speaking occurred on at least two occasions—McCarthy’s interrogation of Corliss Lamont, and thereafter of Igor Bogolepov, the defector referred to in the text. The exchange with Bogolepov was quoted in press accounts but dropped from the hearing record—apparently because the reporter misunderstood a dismissive comment by McCarthy. The exchange with Corliss Lamont is in the transcript. Both episodes occurred in McCarthy hearings, “State Department Information Program—Information Centers,” September 28, 1953.
6. The North Dakota wheat farm stint is recounted in Anderson-May, p. 4, and Oshinsky, p. 57.
7. Among those protesting the Malmedy cases were Christian Century magazine, the Federal Council of Churches and the American Civil Liberties Union. See “Protests Increasing on Malmedy Trial,” New York Times, March 2, 1949.
8. Quoted in Richard Gid Powers, Secrecy and Power (Free Press, 1987), p. 321.
Chapter 3: He Had in His Hand
1. Hearings of the subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “State Department Employee Loyalty Investigation” (hereafter cited as Tydings hearings), June 23, 1950, p. 1376.
2. “William Henry Taylor, Treasury Department,” McCarthy hearings, November 9, 1953, p. 20.
3. “State Department Information Program—Information Centers,” McCarthy hearings, May 14, 1953. Among the Venona papers referring to “UCN9” and identifying him as Belfrage are cables of April 29, May 19, May 29, June 21, June 22, and September 2, 1943.
4. The Venona message pertaining to Bisson and Bernstein is photographically reproduced in the NSA-CIA publication Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939–1957, p. 229.
5. “Transfer of Occupation Currency Plates, Espionage Phase,” McCarthy hearings, October 20, 1953, pp. 25, 19.
6. Major Speeches and Debates of Sen. Joe McCarthy (hereafter cited as McCarthy speeches), Government Printing Office, June 14, 1951, p. 251.
7. Romerstein and Breindel, op cit., pp. 138–39.
8. McCarthy speeches, February 20, 1950, pp. 45–46.
9. “Army Signal Corps—Subversion and Espionage,” McCarthy hearings, December 14, 1953, pp. 159–64.
10. In the Venona decrypts, the cryptologists isolated the code name “Ruff” but were unable to establish the identity of the agent referred to. The identification of “Ruff” as Franz Neumann would be supplied by the so-called Gorsky memorandum of December 1948, which also confirmed many of the earlier identifications. See John Earl Haynes, “Comparative Analysis of Cover Names (Code Names) in the Gorsky Memo and Cover Names in Venona,” October 2005. http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page51.htm
Chapter 4: “Stale, Warmed-Over Charges”
1. “Investigation of Communist Propaganda,” report of the Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in the United States, U.S. House of Representatives, January 17, 1931.
2. Whittaker Chambers, Witness (Regnery, 1995), pp. 331 et seq. Chambers would rehearse these same details about the Washington apparatus in several appearances before Congress, most famously in the hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the summer of 1948.
3. Hearings of the Special House Committee on Un-American Activities, November 22, 1938, testimony of Ralph de Sola, pp. 2430–35.
4. For background on the founding, purpose, and proliferation of the fronts, see Eugene Lyons, The Red Decade (Bobbs-Merrill, 1941), passim. On the specific role of Munzenberg, see Stephen Koch, Double Lives (Free Press, 1994).
5. Lyons, op. cit., p. 47.
6. “Strictly Confidential,” listing eleven organizations (Biddle’s memorandum to department heads, prepared by the FBI). The organizations listed were, in order, the American League Against War and Fascism, the American League for Peace and Democracy, American Peace Mobilization, American Youth Congress, League of American Writers, National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners, National Committee for Peoples Rights, the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties, National Negro Congress, Washington Cooperative Bookshop, and the Washington Committee for Democratic Action. (Document in possession of the author.) These memos were placed in the Congressional Record at various times by Rep. Martin Dies and reproduced in Appendix IX of the House committee (see below). The number of groups on the list would later be expanded.
7. Ibid.
8. The full title of this volume is “Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States, Appendix IX, Communist Front Organizations, with special reference to the National Citizens Political Action Committee,” U.S. House of Representatives, published 1944.
Chapter 5: Unthinking the Thinkable
1. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), House of Commons, November 7, 1955. Kim Philby, My Silent War (Grove Press, 1968), p. 18.
2. There is a considerable literature on the Cambridge spy ring. Of note among more recent studies are Nigel West and Oleg Tsarev, The Crown Jewels (Yale Press, 1999) and, on the American aspect, VerneW. Newton, The Cambridge Spies (Madison Books, 1991). Earlier works include John Costello, Mask of Treachery (Morrow, 1988); Bruce Page, David Leitch, and Philip Knightley, The Philby Conspiracy (Doubleday, 1968); Barrie Penrose and Simon Freeman, Conspiracy of Silence (Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1987); and Chapman Pincher, Their Trade Is Treachery (Bantam, 1983).
3. Berle’s notes are reproduced in toto in the proceedings of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, May 16, 1953, pp. 329–30.
4. Because some of Berle’s comments were construed as meaning he had given the Chambers data to the FBI, Hoover’s agents confronted him on the matter, whereupon he conceded that he hadn’t then given the information to the Bureau. Nichols to Tolson, FBI Silvermaster file, Vol. 142, Sept. 3, 1948.
5. When Duggan apparently committed suicide in December 1948, many eminent people sprang to his defense against allegations of subversion. Notable among his defenders was famed newscaster Edward R. Murrow. Murrow was a personal friend of Duggan and in his earlier career had worked for Duggan’s father. See Joseph Persico, Edward R. Murrow, an American Original (DeCapa Press, 1997), p. 330. In the Duggan case, as in many others, the assertions of Whittaker Chambers (and fellow ex-Communist Hede Massing) would be borne out by Venona and data from the Soviet archives.
6. An extensive discussion of the Cambridge-American connecti
on is provided by Newton, supra. In the specific case of Michael Straight, a recent study by Roland Perry, Last of the Cold War Spies (DaCapa Press, 2005), contends that Straight remained a Moscow agent for as long as the East-West struggle continued. Straight said he broke with the Soviets around the time of the Hitler-Stalin pact.
7. Michael Straight, After Long Silence (Norton, 1983), pp. 249–52.
8. The identifications of Norman and Greenberg as Communist Party member and Soviet agent, respectively, may be found in Institute of Pacific Relations, report of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, 1952, p. 148. (Hereafter cited as IPR report.)
9. Costello, Mask of Treachery, op. cit., p. 481. Of note is that Costello’s reference here to Greenberg, and other comments on his case, were omitted from the paperback edition of this work later published by Warner Books.
10. Numerous details about this operation, Sorge himself, and such of his key contacts as Agnes Smedley and Guenther Stein are set forth in “A Partial Documentation of the Sorge Espionage Case,” prepared by Army G-2 headquarters in the Far East under Maj. Gen. Charles Willoughby and supplied to Congress in May 1950. (Document in possession of the author.) Further data on the case, including the parts played by Ozaki and Saionji, as well as by Stein and Smedley, are given in “Hearings on American Aspects of the Richard Sorge Spy Case,” House Committee on Un-American Activities, August 9 and August 23, 1951, featuring testimony by Willoughby and Japanese prosecutor Mitsusada Yoshikawa. Willoughby and Yoshikawa testified to similar effect in hearings of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee.
11. Maochun Yu, OSS in China (Yale Press, 1996), pp. 164, 280; and “Chen Hansheng’s Memoirs and Chinese Communist Espionage,” Cold War International History Project Bulletin, Issues 6–7, Winter 1995/ 1996, pp. 273 et seq.
12. Ralph de Toledano, Spies, Dupes and Diplomats (Duell Sloane and Pearce, 1952), p. 124.
13. IPR report, pp. 178–80.
14. Vitaliy Pavlov, Operation Snow (Geya Publishers, Moscow, 1996), Chapter I, “I Discover America” see also Romerstein and Breindel, op. cit., pp. 111 et seq., and Toledano, op. cit., pp. 72 et seq. 15. IPR report, pp. 156–57.
Chapter 6: The Witching Hour
1. The language of P.L. 135 appears in the files of the FBI pertaining to this investigation, designated as J. Edgar Hoover Official and Confidential file #59. These private Hoover files are usually cited as JEH O&C, and are so cited hereafter.
2. These standards were read into the record by Rep. Fred Busbey of Illinois in hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, August 4, 1948, p. 626.
3. JEH O&C # 59. The memorandum containing this quote is followed by a lengthy entry setting forth the Dies list. As noted, the organizations used by Dies to track federal workers—the American League for Peace and Democracy, Washington Book Shop, and Washington Committee for Democratic Action—were cited by Biddle himself in the roster of suspect groups he circulated to top officials.
4. Francis Biddle, The Fear of Freedom (Doubleday, 1951), p. 115.
5. Report of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, January 3, 1955, p. 24.
6. Ibid., p. 22.
7. This material was also read into the hearing record by Rep. Busbey, loc. cit., pp. 633, 634.
8. “The Commissioning of Communists in the United States Army, 1941–1946,” extension of remarks of Sen. Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, Congressional Record, January 2, 1951, p. 8002 et seq.
9. Hearings of Special Committee of the House Committee on Military Affairs, March 13, 1945.
10. Willard Edwards, “Bare Red Ties of 10 Officers in U.S. Army,” Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1945; hearings of Special Committee of the House Committee on Military Affairs, March 13, 1945.
11. FBI Silvermaster file, Vol. 42.
12. Report of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, January 3, 1955, pp. 25, 26.
13. “The Commissioning of Communists in the United States Army,” loc. cit.
14. “Hearings of the Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation and Study of Facts, Evidence and Circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre,” U.S. House of Representatives, November 1952, pp. 1852, 1883, 1932.
15. JEH O&C, #102.
16. Ibid.
17. These bizarre allegations were discussed by Lash himself in his book Love Eleanor (McGraw-Hill, 1982), pp. 445 et seq. Lash indicates that there was some kind of blowup by FDR that rebounded on G-2, but attributes this to the President’s resentment that G-2 was spying on his wife.
18. Report of the Select Committee on the Katyn Massacre, December 22, 1952, p. 6.
19. Ibid., p. 8.
20. Ibid. 21. George F. Kennan, Memoirs (Bantam Books, 1969), p. 88.
22. Summary FBI report (untitled) on Soviet espionage activity in the United States, November 27, 1945, p. 19. An unredacted copy of this somewhat celebrated report was in the files of Joe McCarthy (McCarthy papers III). It was frequently cited in congressional investigations of Communist infiltration of the U.S. government and other institutions. See Chapter 11.
23. Ibid., p. 18.
24. “Communist Activities Among Aliens and National Groups,” hearings before the Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, September 15, 1949, p. 805. This Kerley testimony was in essence a paraphrase and digest of the FBI report of November 27, 1945, above cited.
25. Robert Lamphere and Tom Shachtman, The FBI-KGB War (Random House, 1986), p. 23.
26. Department of Justice statement, November 24, 1942.
27. JEH O&C, #102.
Chapter 7: The Way It Worked
1. Arthur Krock, “OWI’s Critics Stirred by Broadcast on Italy,” New York Times, August 1, 1943; and “President Rebukes OWI for Broadcast on Regime in Italy,” New York Times, July 28, 1943.
2. Frederick Woltman, “AFL, CIO Hit OWI Radio as Communist,” New York World Telegram, October 4, 1943.
3. November 27, 1945, FBI report, loc. cit., pp. 30–32; FBI report, “The Comintern Apparatus,” December 1944, p. 349.
4. Hearings of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, April 24, 1956, p. 149.
5. Annual Report of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee for 1956, p. 163.
6. “State Department Information Program—Information Centers,” McCarthy hearings, May 14, 1953; “Activities of United States Citizens Employed by the United Nations,” second report, Senate Internal Security subcommittee, March 22, 1954, p. 22.
7. McCarthy hearings, “Army Signal Corps—Subversion and Espionage,” February 23, 1954, p. 351.
8. Benjamin Mandel, “Memorandum on the Office of War Information for the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,” May 1943, Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Liberty, Tex.
9. “Study and Investigation of the Federal Communications Commission,” hearings before the House Select Committee to Investigate the Federal Communications Commission, August 3, 1943, p. 324.
10. Remarks of Congressman John Lesinski of Michigan, Congressional Record, June 17, 1943, p. 6000; Jan Ciechanowski, Defeat in Victory (Doubleday, 1947), pp. 30–32.
11. Cranston’s role was discussed in both the FCC hearings (August 5 and 20, 1943, pp. 378 et seq.; 1067 et seq.) and the Katyn investigation (November 11, 1952, pp. 1984 et seq.).
12. Remarks of Rep. Fred Busbey of Illinois, Congressional Record, November 4, 1943, p. 91455.
13. The Donovan testimony on Vucinich et al. is in the House Military Affairs subcommittee hearings above cited. Vucinich would plead the Fifth in hearings on “Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments,” proceedings of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, June 11, 1953.
14. Wolff and Fajans would both plead the Fifth before the Senate Internal Security subcommittee on June 16, 1953.
15. Duncan Lee makes frequent appearances in the Venona cables under the code name Koch. He would also be identified by Elizabeth Bentley as a member of the Washington spy ring that she managed
for Moscow in the 1940s. (See Chapter 10.)
16. David Martin, The Web of Disinformation (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990), pp. 201, 150.
17. Ibid., p. 150. Nora Beloff, Tito’s Flawed Legacy (Westview Press, 1985), Chapter 3, “How Churchill Was Hoodwinked.”
18. Martin, op. cit., pp. 363–64.
19. Herbert Romerstein, “Aspects of World War II History Revealed through ‘ISCOT’ Radio Intercepts,” Journal of Intelligence History, Summer 2005.
Chapter 8: Chungking, 1944
1. Louis Adamic, My Native Land (Harper, 1944), pp. 63 et seq.; McCarthy speeches, p. 227.
2. So noted, e.g., by none other than John Service. Tydings appendix, p. 1974.
3. Service would discuss his rooming arrangements with Adler in materials reproduced in the Tydings appendix, loc. cit., and in more detail during conversations recorded by the FBI. See FBI Amerasia file, note 13 below.
4. Don Lohbeck, Patrick J. Hurley (Regnery, 1956), p. 306.
5. An outline of Adler’s career is provided in hearings of the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, December 3, 1953, pp. 1221 et seq.
6. Hearings on the Institute of Pacific Relations, Senate Internal Security subcommittee, August 14, 1951, p. 434. (Hereafter cited as IPR hearings.)
7. Philip Jaffe, The Amerasia Case, from 1945 to the Present, privately printed, 1979, pp. 1–2.
8. The Amerasia Papers: A Clue to the Catastrophe of China, prepared by the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, January 26, 1970, pp. 577, 592, 1015.
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