Intermarium’s own publications are scarce, but those that are available remain a rich source of information on the personalities and politics of the movement. FBI File No. 65–38136, Serials 117 and 132, obtained via the FOIA, contain copies of Intermarium Bulletin, no. 4 (December 1945) and no. 5 (January 1947), in French and English, as well as a copy of The Free Intermarium Charter (1945) and some fragmentary sanitized bureau correspondence concerning the group. The New York Public Library holds a collection of early French-language Intermarium Bulletins. The Library of Congress holds nos. 4 through 12 and 14–16.
Internal evidence in both the Vajda and Dragonovic INSCOM files indicates that a specific group of intelligence reports concerning Intermarium was prepared by U.S. Army CIC in Vienna and Rome. INSCOM, unfortunately, asserts that it is not able to locate that material. Department of State coverage of the evolution of this organization includes Report 800.43 International of Liberty/7–1548, July 15, 1948, from Frankfurt, RG 59, NA, Washington, D.C. OSS reporting appears to have been limited to Report 3145, “Central European Federal Club,” RG 226, NA, Washington, D.C. No CIA reports are known to be publicly available.
10.
Ferenc Vajda, INSCOM Dossier No. XE232094I9C003, Documents 49–51, “Memorandum for the Officer in Charge, Subject: Intermarium.” The incident discussed at this point in the text concerns the escape of Olivar Virtschologi-Rupprecht, an associate of Vajda’s.
11.
On Vajda affair, including his role in looting and other crimes, ibid. Quoted reference letter by Gowen is at “From: HQ Dept of the Army from Dir Intelligence Div, to: EUCOM,” February 11, 1948 (confidential), on Document 36; on Castel Gandolfo incident, see “Summary of Information: VAJTA, Ferenc,” September 9, 1947 (secret), Documents 42–43. See also U.S. Department of State, “Subject: Vajda, Ferenc,” 111.20A/3–3048 (secret) and “Subject: Comments re: Biographical Data,” 111.20A/3–3048 (secret) and “Subject: Ferenc Vajda,” 111.20A/4–1048 (with attachments in French written by Vajda), (secret), all dating from 1948 in RG 59, NA, Washington, D.C. See also Department of State’s cable from Budapest to the secretary of state (no decimal file number; obtained via FOIA) January 10, 1948 (secret) re: Ferenc Vajda and Richard Wilford’s long memorandum on Intermarium titled “Recent Developments Concerning the Establishment in Madrid of an Anti-Communist ‘Eastern European Center,’” December 20, 1947 (secret). The latter document includes a detailed essay by Vajda titled “The History of the Exile Groups” as an appendix, which is particularly useful in its discussion of the political alignments of major Intermarium personalities. Wilford’s study suggests that Vajda may have been plotting to lead a breakaway movement within Intermarium and was traveling to the United States in the hopes of securing substantial U.S. aid for his group. For contemporary coverage of the Vajda affair, see “Ferenc Vatja [sic] Arrested” New York Times, January 10, 1948, p. 6, and “Plan to Hear Consul in Vajta [sic] Case,” New York Times, January 12, 1948, p. 4.
12.
“Nagy Calls Vatja [sic] Nazi,” New York Times, January 16, 1948, p. 4. For Gowen quote concerning Pearson, see Gowen’s “Summary Report of Investigation: VAJTA, Ferenc,” March 22, 1948 (top secret) in Vajda INSCOM dossier, Documents 9–13, with quoted portion in Document 13.
The FBI has recently released a heavily censored group of files concerning Vajda’s stay in the United States. These include copies of a considerable amount of contemporary newspaper coverage and memos complaining that the Department of Justice was being blamed in the media for the entry of Nazis into the United States, when in fact, “the responsibility for [this] clearly lies with other Government departments or agencies” (Ladd memo to director, FBI, February 11, 1948, secret). Among the more interesting bureau records is a copy of a newspaper column by Spencer Irwin noting that Vajda “claimed that he was brought over here by the War Department and would be consulted by it to formulate a plan. This assertion,” Irwin continues, “will bear the most thorough investigation.” In reality, however, the entire matter was quickly dropped following a brief and largely secret congressional inquiry. See Spencer Irwin, “Behind the Foreign News,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 4, 1948.
The Hungarian government attempted to extradite Vajda for war crimes on July 20, 1950, but was rebuffed on the grounds that he was no longer in U.S. custody. See Department of State records 211.6415, Vajtha [sic], Ferenc/7–2050, with attachments, obtained by the author via FOIA.
13.
On congressional inquiry, “Inquiry Finds Vajta [sic] Lacked Passport,” New York Times, January 15, 1948, p. 11. On Vajda’s refuge at College of the Andes, see declassified State Department records: “Memorandum for the files on Ferenc Vajta, 3/27/56” with attached correspondence from Vajda (confidential), 911 6221/4–1756, RG 59, NA, Washington, D.C. Also Allan Ryan interview, May 9, 1984.
On Adolf Berle’s role as a conduit for agency funds, see Jim Schachter, “Adolf Berle, Late Professor of Law, a Founder of 50’s CIA Drug Test Front,” Columbia [University] Daily Spectator October 31, 1977, p. 1.
14.
Gustav Celmins’s role in Intermarium is established in Ferenc Vajda, INSCOM Dossier No. XE23209419C003, Document 55, and in Gustav Celmins’s “From the Idea of Intermarium to Its Realization,” Intermarium Bulletin (Rome), no. 5 (January 1947). For later teaching role and expulsion from the United States, see CIA Eastern Front Study, Addendum E: “The Baltic States,” p. 3, for data concerning Celmins’s Fascist record, entry into the United States, work in Syracuse, and eventual flight to Mexico. On the genocidal role of the Perkonkrusts, see List of Organizations Considered Inimical to the United States Under PL 774, loc. cit. p. 19.
15.
For staffing of ACEN, see Assembly of Captive European Nations, op cit., p. 177ff.; note roles of Alfreds Berzins (p. 183) and Boleslavs Maikovskis (p. 186). For U.S. government statements concerning wartime role of these individuals, see CROWCASS, Wanted List No. 14, loc. cit. (on Berzins); Office of Special Investigations, op. cit., pp. 34–35 (on Maikovskis).
16.
Assembly of Captive European Nations, op. cit., pp. 132, 139, 170–171, 180, and 187 (on Dosti); pp. 153, 183, 187, and 189 (on Berzins).
17.
Ivo Omrcanin interview, January 9, 1986. On Krunoslav Dragonovic’s role in Intermarium, see Ferenc Vajda, INSCOM Dossier No. XE23209419C003, Case No. 5080, “Subject: Intermarium,” June 23, 1947 (secret), Document No. 50. On Dragonovic’s wartime role, see Martyrdom of the Serbs (Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese, n.d. [1943?]), p. 274. On Dragonovic’s role in escape routes for Croatian Fascist Ustachis, see Krunoslav Dragonovic, INSCOM Dossier XE 207018, CIC Special Agent Robert C. Mudd, “Summary of Information: Father Krunoslav DRAGANOVIC [sic],” February 12, 1947 (secret), Document Nos. 311–313. See also Mudd’s report of September 5, 1947 (secret) for list of Ustachi fugitives under Dragonovic’s care in 1947, Document nos. 307–310. Dragonovic’s organization, the Istituto di St. Jeronimus in Rome, is also cited in La Vista, Appendix A, as a channel of illegal immigration. For further information on Ustachi participation in Intermarium, see also “Croatian Activities in the Emmigration [sic],” Report No. R-3–50, January 3, 1950, source: ODDI Hq USFA (Rear) (secret), which notes that “some high ranking personalities of the Ustacha in Austria, in conjunction with … the Catholic Church, are assertedly attempting to establish the ‘Intermarium’ or ‘Inter-Danube States,’ to be composed of all the Catholic nations of Southeastern Europe”—obtained from U.S. Army INSCOM via the Freedom of Information Act. On escape of Ustachi, see 860H.20235/7–2347, July 23, 1947 (secret), with attachments, RG 59, NA, Washington, D.C. Also of interest is an exchange of diplomatic notes between J. Graham Parsons (U.S. Embassy, Rome) and Walter Dowling (EE Division, State Department HQ), dated May 22, 1947, and July 26, 1947, concerning the escape of Ante Pavelic disguised in priest’s robes. On escape of Pavelic and Artukovic, see Ryan, Barbie Report, pp. 136n.-37n., and Howard Blum, Wanted: The Search for Nazis in America (Greenwic
h, Conn.: Fawcett, 1977), pp. 187–88.
18.
Ryan, Barbie Report, p. 135ff.
19.
For Lyon quotes and role of Lyon and Crawford, see CIC Agent Paul Lyon, “Rat Line from Austria to South America,” July 12, 1948 (top secret), and Paul Lyon, “History of the Italian Rat Line,” April 10, 1950 (top secret), obtained via FOIA from U.S. Army INSCOM, Fort Meade, Md. Department of Justice’s version: Ryan, Barbie Report, p. 135ff.
20.
CIC Special Agent Robert C. Mudd, op. cit. See also Mudd’s report of September 5, 1947 (secret) for list of Ustachi fugitives under Dragonovic’s care in 1947, Document Nos. 307–310. Both are in Dragonovic, INSCOM Dossier XE 207018.
21.
Ryan, Barbie Report, p. 28ff. On Barbie, see also Magnus Linklater, Isabel Hilton, and Neal Ascherson, The Nazi Legacy (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1984); Murphy, op. cit.; Tom Bower, Klaus Barbie (New York: Pantheon, 1984).
22.
Klaus Barbie CI Special Interrogation Report 62 (CI-SIR/62), April 15, 1948 (secret), reproduced in Ryan, Barbie Exhibits, Tab 27.
23.
Lieutenant Colonel Ellington Golden to commanding officer, Hq 970th CIC Detachment, “Subject: Klaus BARBIE,” December 11, 1947 (top secret); and E. Dabringhaus, “Agents’ [sic] Monthly Report,” September 15, 1948 (top secret), reproduced in Ryan, Barbie Exhibits, Tabs 18 and 31.
24.
Russ Belant, “Prof. Discusses US Ties to Postwar Nazis,” (Wayne State University) The South End (February 14, 1983). Erhard Dabringhaus interview, January 1986.
25.
Ryan, Barbie Report, p. 69n. On Reny Hardy Affair, see Linklater et al., op. cit. pp. 77–96 passim.
26.
Ibid., p. 78.
27.
Ibid., pp. 150–54. See also George Neagoy, “Memorandum for the Record, Subject: Disposal of Dropped Intelligence Informant,” March 27, 1951 (top secret), reproduced in Ryan, Barbie Exhibits, Tab 104.
28.
Konrad Adenauer, Memoirs 1945–1953, tr. Beate Ruhm von Oppen (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1966), p. 445, cited in Tom Bower, Blind Eye to Murder (London: Paladin-Grenada, 1983), p. 421, hereinafter cited as Bower, Blind Eye. For accounts of McCloy’s amnesties from varying perspectives, see Bower, Blind Eye, pp. 411ff., and Benjamin Ferencz, Less Than Slaves (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979), p. 72ff. On U.S. consideration of a nuclear attack in the Korean War, see Gregg Herken, The Winning Weapon (New York: Vintage, 1982), pp. 332–335.
29.
Bower, Blind Eye, p. 415.
30.
Office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany’s Office of Public Affairs, “Landsberg: A Documentary Report,” Information Bulletin (February 15, 1950) p. 1ff.
31.
Ibid.
32.
Bower, Blind Eye, p. 418. See also Joseph Borkin, The Crime and Punishment of I. G. Farben (New York: Free Press, 1978).
33.
Ryan, Quiet Neighbors, pp. 280–84. See also following correspondence obtained via FOIA for documentary background: Representative Peter Rodino to comptroller general, February 17, 1983; Allan Ryan to Joseph Moore (FBI), February 18, 1983; and GAO Director William Anderson to FBI Director William Webster, March 2, 1983. A sanitized version of Barbie’s FBI file available via FOIA includes similar internal DOJ correspondence on this investigation; see FBI File No. 105–221892 on Klaus Barbie.
34.
Ryan, Barbie Report, p. 212.
35.
Lyon, “History of the Italian Rat Line,” loc. cit.
36.
Lyon, “Rat Line from Austria to South America,” loc. cit.
37.
Lyon, “History of the Italian Rat Line,” loc. cit.
38.
Ryan, Barbie Report, p. 158, and Allan Ryan interview, May 9, 1984.
39.
Lyon, “History of the Italian Rat Line,” loc. cit. Bishop’s name has been removed from the version of this document published by the Department of Justice; see Ryan, Barbie Exhibits, Tab 94.
40.
Bishop and Crayfield, op. cit., p. 7. See Brown, op. cit., pp. 679–81, on Bishop’s work in Bucharest. On Bishop’s intelligence work, see also “American Military Unit in Bucharest” (secret), Mediterranean Theater of Operations Security Histories, Folder 195b, Box 39, Entry 99, RG 226, records of the OSS, NA, Washington, D.C.; based also on Seraphim Buta interview, April 18, 1985. Bishop’s own recounting of the liberation of Romania is found in Colonel Robert Bishop, “I Saw the Reds Taste Freedom,” Collier’s (December 25, 1948). Bishop’s ongoing work for U.S. intelligence is not mentioned in the Collier’s text. The National Personnel Records Center reports that its records indicate that Bishop died on November 28, 1958.
41.
Lyon, “History of the Italian Rat Line,” loc. cit.
42.
John M. Hobbins, “Memorandum for the Record, Subject: Informant Disposal, Emigration Methods of the 430th CIC Detachment,” n.d. (top secret), reproduced in Ryan, Barbie Exhibits, Tab. 96, with quote on pp. 7–8. On Justice Department’s denial of CIA involvement mentioned above in the text, see Ryan, Barbie Report, p. 145n.
43.
Neagoy transfer to the CIA: Ryan, Barbie Report, p. 145n. Dragonovic and U.S. intelligence: Dragonovic, INSCOM dossier XE 207018, “Operational Work Sheet, 20 Oct ’60, Subject: Krunoslav Stefano Dragonovic” (confidential), Document 127.
44.
Linklater et al., op. cit., pp. 195–96. On currency smuggling trial, see documents 038–043 of Dragonovic’s CIC dossier. On association with Bonifacic, see Bonifacic and Mihnovich, op. cit., p. 293ff.
45.
Nathaniel Sheppard, “Arrest of Nine Terror Suspects Brings Uneasy Calm to Croatian-Americans,” New York Times, July 23, 1981, p. 8; Arnold Lubasch, “10 Croatians on Trial on Racketeering Charge,” New York Times, February 21, 1982, p. 6; “Six Croatians Convicted in NY of Plots Against Countrymen,” Washington Post, May 16, 1982, p. 12; “6 Croatian Nationalists Given Long Prison Terms by Judge,” New York Times, July 4, 1982, p. 13; Arnold Lubasch, “Use of Racketeering Law Is Barred in Case Against Croatian Terrorists,” New York Times, January 27, 1983, p. 5. Croatian terrorists have also been very active in Australia and are reported to have been involved in a complex scandal involving tacit sponsorship by the Australian Secret Intelligence Organization (ASIO); see “Australian Police Raid Secret Service,” Washington Star, March 16, 1973, and Joan Coxsedge, “One, Two, Three—Ustasha Are We!” Melbourne (Australia) Unitarian Peace Memorial Church Pamphlet No. 1, 1972.
Chapter Fourteen
1.
Virtually all National Security Council documentation concerning NSC 86, NSCID 13, and NSCID 14 remains classified. Brief declassified discussions of the status and general program of these decisions can be found, however, at National Security Council, Status of Projects Report, for January 18, and 30, 1950 (p. 2); March 13, 1950 (p. 1); October 2, 1950 (p. 4); October 16, 1950 (p. 14); October 23, 1950 (pp. 14–15); November 20, 1950 (pp. 15–16); February 26, 1951 (p. 14); March 26, 1951 (pp. 11–12); April 2, 1951 (pp. 9–10); April 23, 1951 (p. 1); July 28, 1952 (p. 3); August 11, 1952 (p. 1). A small collection of heavily sanitized correspondence and memos concerning NSC 86 was released following an FOIA request by the author. Of this group, see particularly “Memorandum for the Ad Hoc Committee on NSC 86, Subject: U.S. Policy on Defectors,” February 8, 1951 (top secret), with attachments, and Francis Stevens, “In the Present World Struggle for Power … [title and date deleted, 1950?],” Document 10205 (secret), NSC 86 file, RG 273, NA, Washington, D.C., which, although largely censored, outline the main purposes and tactics of the defector program. Stevens argues that the return of General Vlasov and his senior officers to the USSR at the close of World War II was an error. Extending asylum to ROA veterans was later undertaken “at first clandestinely and recently more openly,” he writes. See also National Security Council, Policies of the Government of the Un
ited States of America Relating to the National Security, vol. III, 1950 (top secret), p. 148, and vol. IV, 1951 (top secret), pp. 40–41, RG 273, NA, Washington, D.C. Additional documentation is at National Security Council, Record of Actions, January 19, 1950 (No. 274); March 3, 1950 (No. 281); October 12, 1950 (No. 364); April 18, 1951 (No. 462); and Actions No. 662–663 (all top secret), now at RG 273, NA, Washington, D.C. See also NSC 5706, loc. cit. On the escapee program, which was a major component of U.S. handling of defectors during this period, see Edward W. Lawrence, “The Escapee Program,” Information Bulletin, Office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany (March 1952), p. 6ff. See also James P. O’Donnell, “They Tell Us Stalin’s Secrets,” Saturday Evening Post (May 3, 1952), p. 32ff.
2.
NSC 5706, loc. cit. On International Rescue Committee, see John M. Crewdson, “Group Led by CIA Board Nominee Reportedly Got $15,000 from Agency,” New York Times, February 20, 1976, and U.S. Displaced Persons Commission, The DP Story: Final Report of the U.S. Displaced Persons Commission (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1952), pp. 270, 285–86, 289, and 292–93 on the IRC, National Catholic Welfare Conference, Tolstoy Foundation, Latvian Relief, Inc., United Lithuanian Relief Fund of America, and other beneficiaries of U.S. government refugee relief aid. See also NCFE, President’s Report, for 1953 (p. 18ff.) and 1954 (pp. 18–24), on aid to groups primarily underwritten by the NCFE.
3.
For Saltonstall comment and McCone’s reply, see Wise and Ross, op. cit., p. 130n. On use of CIA funds to lobby Congress mentioned above in text, see Price, op. cit., p. CRS-10, and documents released through Department of State FOIA Case no. 8404249, September 25, 1986, loc. cit.
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