A Covert Affair
Page 39
The decrypts are also ambiguous and open to interpretation. The Zarubin telegram from 1942 is speculative in nature, merely outlining their plan to recruit Jane in the future. While Zarubin was later convinced Jane was working as an agent and passing them information, the reports are still all secondhand, and Jane’s state of mind—whether she was under the impression she was helping the Sterns and the Communist cause or was fully cognizant that she was serving Soviet intelligence—is unclear. Finally, given all the testimony on record from the Sobles and other Soviet recruits to the effect that they were under enormous pressure to keep Moscow supplied with information, and Jack Soble’s admission under oath in the Soblen trial that he told Morros “lies” just to keep him happy, there is no way to be certain of the accuracy or verisimilitude of these messages. They all had an obvious interest in exaggerating their progress to their Soviet handlers, and their inflated claims about new recruits and espionage coups may have been closer to empty boasts than actual achievements.
Apart from the Venona decrypts, a wealth of new material about Soviet espionage has also come to light in recent years from the notebooks of a former KGB officer, Alexander Vassiliev, who was permitted unprecedented access to Stalin-era intelligence archives in 1993. Sorting through Vassiliev’s extensive notebooks of transcribed KGB material, two historians, John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, have provided a thorough and carefully constructed account of Soviet intelligence operations in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. These official communications include much new material about the Soble ring and the activities of the double agent Boris Morros. There are KGB memos referring to Jane and George, confirming the Venona cables and again implicating the pair as members of the Soble network. In one KGB memo, Zarubin listed “‘Slang,’ Jane … of the Far Eastern Department of the ‘cabin’ [OSS]” as one of the sources recruited under his watch. In a later retrospective memo dated 1957, he wrote, “On a lead from ‘Liza’ the agent ‘Slang’ was recruited, followed by ‘Slang’s’ husband, the agent ‘Rector,’ who once worked for American counterintelligence in Austria.” The authors go on to observe that the notebooks reveal that the KGB developed “more than a dozen sources in the OSS,” eleven of whom were “secret Communists” who came to the KGB via the American Communist Party, which is the same route Jane followed.
The Vassiliev notebooks, like the Venona transcripts, provide a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of Soviet espionage, but it is impossible to simply accept the claims of the KGB authors or their American sources as fact. They were all too adept at spinning their successes and failures to have any of their accounts taken at face value. Once again, Vassiliev’s access was partial and restricted, and, as Haynes and Klehr are careful to note, “even contemporaneous documents can sometimes mislead because their author didn’t correctly understand the events he was reporting for some reason, harbored prejudices and assumptions that distorted what was reported, or for self-promotion or self-protection distorted what actually happened.”
In spite of all these caveats, the existence of multiple documentary sources describing Jane Foster and George Zlatovski as Soviet assets establishes that they were deeply enmeshed in the Soble espionage ring. How they became caught up in the Soviet network, and whether or not there were mitigating circumstances, is another matter. The fact remains that in her book Jane never acknowledged even being aware of any Soviet espionage, let alone becoming a participant, and lied about the true nature of her complicated relationship with the Sterns, the Sobles, and Boris Morros. Even at the end of her life, she was too accustomed to half truths and evasions to permit herself to be completely candid. By writing a memoir about her wartime service and postwar travails, Jane hoped to have the last word about her fascinating life. Unfortunately, her flawed and incomplete account raises more questions than it answers.
For those who are interested in reading more about Soviet espionage against America during this era, I recommend the following:
Benson, Robert Louis, and Michael Warner, eds. Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939–1957. Washington, D.C.: National Security Agency / Central Intelligence Agency, 1996.
Haynes, John Earl. Red Scare or Red Menace?: American Communism and Anticommunism in the Cold War Era. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1996.
———and Harvey Klehr. Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials That Shaped American Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
———. Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
———and Alexander Vassiliev. Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
Klehr, Harvey, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson. The Soviet World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
Klehr, Harvey, John Earl Haynes, and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov. The Secret World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
Lamphere, Robert J., and Tom Shachtman. The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agent’s Story. New York: Random House, 1986 / Macon Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1995.
Romerstein, Herbert, and Eric Breindel. The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2000.
Sibley, Katherine A. S. Red Spies in America: Stolen Secrets and the Dawn of the Cold War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007.
Weinstein, Allen, and Alexander Vassiliev. The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era. New York: Random House, 1999.
West, Nigel. Venona: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War. New York: Harper-Collins, 1999.
NOTES
Sources frequently cited have been identified by the following abbreviations:
EM
Elizabeth P. McIntosh, aka Betty MacDonald, interviews by the author.
ET
Eleanor Thiry, unpublished diary and private family letters.
FAP
Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Foreign Service Spouse Series, Julia Child Interview, November 7, 1991. Frontline Diplomacy, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Record/Information Dissemination Section, Records Management Division, Washington, D.C. All documents are referred to by case file number and name of subject.
JC
Julia Child Correspondence, Julia Child Papers, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
PC
Paul Child Correspondence, Julia Child Papers, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. All of Paul Child’s quotations from his letter-diaries to his twin brother, Charles—which cover years of his life and many thousands of pages—and letter-diaries to Julia during his security check in Washington will be referenced by the carton and file folder for that specific time period.
OSS/FIR
OSS Field Intelligence Reports, Jane Foster, Theater Officer Correspondence, Draft Histories, RG 226, box 21.
SMITH
Oral History Interview with Julia McWilliams Child, Smith College Centennial Study, conducted by Jacqueline Van Voris, October 10, 1972.
SS
Elizabeth P. McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998.
ST
Susan Tenenbaum, Jane Foster’s niece by marriage and closest surviving relation, interview.
UG
Elizabeth MacDonald, Undercover Girl. New York: Macmillan, 1947.
UL
Jane Foster, An UnAmerican Lady. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1980.
1. Special Inquiry
All Paul Child quotes in this chapter are drawn from his letter-diaries to Julia Child from 1955 found in PC, carton 2, folder 46.
All of the references to Paul C
hild and Julia Child background checks, and details of Paul Child’s FBI interrogation, including the agents’ questions and his answers, are drawn from FBI case file 123–192, Paul Child.
The same FBI reports, plus some additional memorandums, can also be found in summarized form Paul Child’s Department of State / USIA dossier, case file IOS-4454.
Additional sources are identified below.
1 “REPORT SOONEST …”: PC, carton 2, folder 46.
1 “head of the …”: FAP, p. 7.
2 “Woodenhead the First”: ibid., p. 9.
3 “horrified”: SMITH, p. 25.
3 “To think of …”: PC, carton 2, folder 71.
3 “Woe—how did we …”: Noël Riley Fitch, Appetite for Life (New York: Anchor Books, 1999), p. 218.
4 “had enough of that …: ibid.
5 “a peculiarly depressing …”: James B. Conant, My Several Lives (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), p. 577.
5 “rampant right wingery …”: PC, carton 2, folder 71.
6 “dear old Pop”: ibid.
6 “good-hearted …”: ibid.
7 “still working …”: “McCarthy Charges Reds Hold U.S. Jobs,” Wheeling Intelligencer, February 10, 1950.
7 “security risks”: Conant, My Several Lives, p. 563.
7 “positive loyalty”: Gary May, China Scapegoat (Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books, 1979), p. 269.
8 “vague, but dirty”: PC, carton 2, folder 69.
8 “two young bloods”: ibid.
8 “during most of …”: ibid.
8 “a desperately dangerous …”: PC, carton 2, folder 71.
8 “Eisenhower appears …”: ibid.
9 “Quite a number …”: FAP, p. 5.
9 “ever meet up …”: PC, carton 2, folder 65.
9 “You have no …”: ibid.
9 “After the events …”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 215.
10 “SITUATION CONFUSED”: PC, carton 2, folder 46.
11 “It would have …”: ibid.
11 “SITUATION HERE …”: ibid.
19 “Paul is being …”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 225.
19 “As soon as …”: FAP, p. 7.
20 “hyperpatriotism”: Washington Post and Times-Herald, April 19, 1955.
21 “You are finer …”: PC, carton 2, folder 46.
21 “A horrible experience”: FAP, p. 7.
23 “INVESTIGATION …”: PC, carton 2, folder 46.
2. Initiation
24 “Look, just what …”: UG, p. 2.
24 “That was …”: EM.
25 “a wild, messy …”: PC, carton 1, folder 28.
26 “whispered overtures”: UG, p. 4.
26 “on the spot”: EM.
26 “This is not …”: ibid.
27 “to do something …”: ibid.
27 “terrible, terrible …”: ibid.
27 “the Japanese came to us”: SS, p. 198.
27 “sent off somewhere”: EM.
28 “ever considered …”: UG, p. 4.
28 “hadn’t described …”: ibid., p. 3.
28 “something like …”: Elizabeth P. McIntosh Papers (AFC/2001/001/30838), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
29 “overcome by …”: UG, p. 4.
29 “caused trouble”: UL, p. 57.
29 “study painting …”: ibid., p. 58.
30 “silent and …”: ibid., p. 59.
30 “three-kinds of …”: ibid., p. 61.
30 “wide-eyed …”: ibid., p. 62.
30 “romantic idea”: EM.
31 “probably have …”: UL, p. 89.
32 “My mother …”: ibid., p. 91.
32 “You girls …”: UG, p. 4.
35 “at the very …”: ibid., p. 1.
35 “a large proportion …”: UL, p. 106.
35 “hardly beloved”: ibid.
36 “sneeringly said …”: ibid.
36 “MO Manual …”: UG, p. 7.
36 “when done right …”: ibid., p. 2.
37 “Morale operations include …”: ibid., p. 7.
37 “blow cover …”: ibid.
38 “Our black radio …”: ibid., p. 8.
38 “If it worked …”: EM.
38 “It takes all kinds …”: ibid., p. 8.
38 “It was …”: ibid.
39 “pistols, machine …”: UL, p. 108.
39 “understood nothing”: ibid.
39 “The first thing …”: ibid.
39 “I did not join …”: ibid.
41 “mental hazard …”: UG, p. 45.
41 “Besides …”: ibid., p. 49.
41 “a half-consumed pint …”: ibid.
42 “After ten minutes …”: UL, p. 109.
42 “It was permissible …”: UG, p. 45.
42 “a charming …”: ibid., p. 46.
42 “leaving Kilroy …”: ibid.
42 “by what sounded …”: ibid., p. 47.
43 “The idea …”: UL, p. 109.
43 “neurotic intellectual”: ibid., p. 109.
43 “open-face-sandwich …”: UG, p. 39.
44 “whether to salute …”: UG, p. 6.
46 “Safecrackers …”: Dan Pinck, interview by the author.
46 “a weird …”: UL, p. 106.
46 “elephant laboring …”: UG, p. 20.
47 “From a pathetically …”: ibid., p. 38.
48 “The Japs, we …”: ibid., p. 54.
49 “admirably adapted …”: ibid., p. 31.
49 “inherited from Eve …”: ibid.
50 “crept up …”: ibid., p. 11.
50 “a singularly …”: ibid.
50 “The professor …”: UL, p. 111.
51 “Why not …”: UG, p. 14.
51 “cast suspicion …”: ibid.
52 “We were flat …”: ibid.
3. Late Start
53 “five major …”: UG, p. 18.
53 “stomach-full …”: PC, carton 1, folder 28.
53 “Brooks Brothers …”: ibid.
54 “a princeling”: Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), p. 221.
54 “rather confused …”: UL, p. 117.
55 “the most important …”: ibid.
55 “suspicious of …”: E. Bruce Reynolds, Thailand’s Secret War (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 125.
55 “door to India …”: UG, p. 18.
56 “to obtain New York …”: Reynolds, Thailand’s Secret War, p. 125.
56 “full operational control …”: ibid., p. 126.
56 “other complications …”: UL, p. 117.
56 “with a monumental hatred”: ibid.
57 “his wife, his child …”: ibid.
57 “keeping China …”: Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 241.
57 “a blend of …”: Edmond Taylor, Awakening from History (Boston: Gambit, 1969), p. 347.
57 “We must take orders …”: ibid., p. 18.
58 “bursting to blab”: ibid., p. 20.
58 “highly developed …”: ibid., p. 26.
59 “the distilled reports …”: ibid.
59 “lady novelist”: SMITH, p. 17.
59 “social butterfly”: PC, carton 2, folder 58.
60 “too long”: FAP, p. 7.
60 “good impression”: National Archives, OSS Records, Julia Child.
61 “a cross between …”: UG, p. 21.
61 “fish-squeezing unit”: SMITH, p. 28.
61 “Julia was a woman …”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 85.
62 “a plain person”: FAP, p. 7.
62 “The idea of going …”: ibid., p. 28.
63 “never been anywhere …”: ET, diary.
63 “We presented …”: ibid.
64 “Julia, Rosie …”: Thibaut de Saint Phalle, interview by author.
64 “I never would …”: ibid.
65 “The times when …”: ibid.
65 “Easte
r Sunday …”: ibid.
66 “a killing train ride …”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 92.
66 “number three air …”: UG, p. 39.
67 “Just think …”: Alexander MacDonald, My Footloose Newspaper Life (Bangkok: Post Publishing, 1990), p. 80.
67 “We were just so …”: EM.
67 “C’est la guerre”: Alexander MacDonald, My Footloose Newspaper Life, p. 80.
67 “problems”: PC, carton 1, folder 28.
67 “designed to test …”: UG, p. 40.
68 “It took all …”: UL, p. 109.
68 “from the hip …”: UG, p. 51.
69 “We had been …”: ibid., p. 52.
69 “the professionals …”: UL, p. 107.
69 “Foster, here’s …”: ibid., p. 111.
70 “several boxes …”: UG, p. 52.
70 “wouldn’t hear …”: ibid.
71 “did not mind paying …”: UL, p. 112.
71 “OSS girls bound …”: UG, p. 53.
71 “wishful packing”: ibid.
71 “disemboweled …”: ibid., p. 54.
72 “recalled the era …”: ibid., p. 56.
72 “One of them …”: UL, p. 112.
73 “The following will …”: UG, p. 60.
73 “The prospect of …”: ibid., p. 61.
4. A Fine Sort
75 “Breakbone fever”: UL, p. 78.
75 “Toonerville Trolley”: ibid., p. 113.
76 “cubbyhole …”: ibid., p. 114.
78 “red from head …”: ibid.
78 “the drains of …”: ibid.
78 “Delhi Belly …”: PC, carton 2, folder 49.
80 “lonely …”: ibid.
80 “Zorina”: ibid.
81 “a new and interesting …”: PC, carton 2, folder 50.