How the Cold War Began

by Amy Knight

  14. Montreal Star, July 23, 1946.

  15. Pavlov, Operatsiia “sneg,” p. 86.

  16. Ibid., p. 88.

  17. Ibid., pp. 91-93. The chief of Foreign Intelligence, now part of the MGB, was Pavel Fitin.

  18. Pravda, August 3, 1946. English translation in TNA, KV 2/1423.

  19. Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin's Cold War, p. 40.

  20. WMK Diary, August 14, 1946.

  21. Newton, The Cambridge Spies, pp. 95-96; Bower, The Perfect English Spy, pp. 94-95.

  22. nara, U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, S.3437. Fuchs Case, 882012-359-383; Bower, Ibid; Lamphere, The KGB–FBI War, pp. 133-136.

  23. West, Mortal Crimes, p. 133.

  24. RC Report, pp, 97-105.

  25. “Atomnyi shpionazh,” p. 15.

  26. FBI Gouzenko, 100-342972-1664, memorandum to Hoover, January 26, 1949; 100-342972-1748, memorandum from Whitson, February 28, 1949.

  27. FBI Gouzenko, 100-342972-1164, memorandum to the Director from Ladd, January 16, 1949; 1666, memorandum to Ladd, January 31, 1949; 1668, from the Attorney General to Hoover, January 28, 1949; 1733, memorandum to Ladd, March 1, 1949; 100-342972-1689.

  28. Harry S. Truman Library, RG 118, Grand Jury Testimony in Alger Hiss case, February 1, 1949.

  29. Ibid.

  30. FBI Gouzenko, 100-342972-1808.

  31. Royal Canadian Mounted Police, “Soviet Espionage in Canada,” p. 43.

  32. RC Report, pp. 481-493.

  33. Ibid; Littleton, Target Nation, p. 21; Montreal Gazette, April 12, 1949.

  34. Papers of Arthur Steinberg, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA, response to questionnaire of a loyalty review board, 1964.

  35. RC Report, pp. 396-397.

  36. Telephone interview with Dr. Steinberg, January 30, 2002; also see exhibit 182 of the Royal Commission investigation, a letter from Steinberg to “Nicholls,” dated July 17, 1944, and apparently found by the RCMP in one of the offices at McGill. See LAC, RG 33/62, Microfilm no. 3425.

  37. RC Report, p. 491.

  38. Original transcript of commission hearings: RG 33/62, vol. 1, book 1, pp. 314-316; RC Report, pp. 491-492.

  39. CSIS Fred Rose, AH 2003/00014, vol. 4162, box 123.

  40. As reproduced by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, December 1, 1953, NARA, RG 46, Name file, Arthur Steinberg.

  41. “Soviet Espionage in Canada,” RCMP, November 1945, p. 44.

  42. Papers of Arthur Steinberg.

  43. RC Report, p. 493.

  44. Papers of Arthur Steinberg, letter to Dr. S. Farber, December 1953. Unfortunately, Steinberg's FBI file is unavailable. The FBI messages on Steinberg cited here are from the Gouzenko file.

  45. nara, RG 46, Arthur Steinberg file; papers of Arthur Steinberg.

  46. Papers of Arthur Steinberg, letter from Dave Rife, dated April 21, 1948.

  47. Telephone interview with Dr. Steinberg, January 30, 2002.

  48. nara, RG 46, SISS name file, Arthur Steinberg.

  49. HUAC Investigative Name Files, Arthur Steinberg, memo dated July 12, 1950, from Owens to Russell.

  50. Ibid.

  51. See Mike Marqusee, “Patriot Acts,” The Nation, December 13, 2004; and a recent biography of McCarran: Michael J. Ybarra, Washington Gone Crazy: Senator Pat McCarran and the Great American Communist Hunt (Hanover, NH: Steerforth Press, 2004).

  52. nara, RG 46, Records of the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, Arthur Steinberg name file; Transcript of the interview: nara, RG 46, Records of the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, vol. 32.

  53. Steinberg Personal Papers, letter to Dr. Farber, December 11, 1953; U.S. National Archives, RG 46, Arthur Steinberg name file.

  54. Steinberg Personal Papers, letter to Dr. Mayo; letter from Mayo to Steinberg; letter to Ephraim Martin.

  55. Wang, American Science in an Age of Anxiety, pp. 280-281.

  56. Steinberg Personal Papers, draft of letter, undated, to Mrs. Hobby.

  57. Ibid., draft of letter, undated, but apparently sent in April 1954.

  58. LAC, MG 26, N1, vol. 33, Gouzenko I, 1953-54, pt. 1, #D1-35A, Department of Justice, Transcript of the Proceedings of a meeting held on January 4, 1954.

  59. Interview with Dr. Steinberg, January 30, 2002.

  Chapter 8: THE SOUTH AGAINST THE NORTH

  1. Whitaker and Marcuse, Cold War Canada, pp. 161-206; Sawatsky, Men in the Shadows, pp. 116-125.

  2. Whitaker and Marcuse, Cold War Canada, p. 197.

  3. David McCullough, Truman, pp. 552-553.

  4. See Craig, Treasonable Doubt, pp. 68-79; Theoharis, Chasing Spies, pp. 114-120.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Craig, Treasonable Doubt, pp. 43-58.

  7. See letters to the FBI Director from the New York office, dated May 14, 1942 and March 26, 1946 (available on the website www.algerhiss.com). The 1946 letter observes that Chambers “recalled that after 1937 he was of course no longer actively associated with the Communist Party . . . and had lost all contact with Alger Hiss and the only information that he has concerning him is that which has appeared in various newspapers.”

  8. FBI Hiss, 101-2668, sec. 02-52.

  9. Belmont to Ladd, November 23, 1953, FBI Hiss, 100-342972-2022.

  10. LAC, RG 2, vol. 54, file 1-40-3; MG 26, N-1, vol. 33, file Gouzenko, I 1953-54, pt. 2 #D 1-35a.

  11. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Supplement “J.” Corby case – Testimony Before United States Senate Subcommittee.

  12. LAC, MG 26, N-1, vol. 33, file Gouzenko I, 1953-54, pt. 2 #D 1-35a.

  13. Toronto Daily Star, October 27, 1953; Sawatsky, Gouzenko, pp. 124-129.

  14. LAC, MG 26, N-1, vol. 33, file Gouzenko I, 1953-54, pt, 2 #D 1-35a. Pearson statement before the House of Commons, November 17, 1953; memorandum for Pearson, November 25, 1953. Also see Sawatsky, Gouzenko, pp. 125-126.

  15. Ibid., memorandum for Pearson, November 28, 1953.

  16. Toronto Telegram, November 22, 1953.

  17. FBI Pearson, 65-60356-35.

  18. FBI Pearson, 65-60356-25.

  19. Sawatsky Papers, 84-38, box 1, file 8, interview with Robert Morris, February 22, 1984.

  20. FBI Elizabeth Bentley, 134-435-69; Kessler, Clever Girl; and Olmstead, Red Spy Queen.

  21. Transcript of Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate, Washington, D.C., August 14, 1951, vol. 96, reproduced in James Barros, No Sense of Evil: Espionage, the Case of Herbert Norman (Toronto: Deneau, 1986), pp. 185-192.

  22. FBI Pearson, 65-60356-14.

  23. FBI Pearson, 65-60356-11; 65-60356-14.

  24. FBI Pearson, 65-60356-35.

  25. See a message from the Canadian ambassador to the United States, Heeney, to Pearson, dated November 17, 1953, LAC, MG 26, N1, vol. 33, Gouzenko, I, 1953-54, part 2, #D1-35A.

  26. LAC, MG 26, N1, vol. 33, Gouzenko I 1953-54, part 1, #D1-35A, Press Conference-L.B. Pearson-November 21, 1953.

  27. The information on Bentley's charges and the Grand Jury request is in the FBI's file on Sise: 100-364301-S. Letter from Sise to Pearson, September 13, 1948. LAC, MG 30, D187, vol. 7, file 27 (Hazen Sise). Sise by this time had left the public service.

  28. LAC, MG 26, N-1, vol. 33, file Gouzenko I, 1953-54, pr. 2 #D 1-35a, message from Heeney to Pearson, dated November 19, 1953. In the meantime, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney General, as part of an attack on former president Truman for being soft on communism, dredged up the Harry Dexter White case and mentioned publicly Canada's alleged warning about White to the FBI. Much to the annoyance of J. Edgar Hoover, Pearson told the Canadian Parliament that no member of the Canadian government ever warned the FBI about White.

  29. LAC, MG 26-N1, vol. 33, Gouzenko, I 1953-54, part 2 #D 1-35A.

  30. Times-Herald, November 25, 1953.

  31. Counterattack: Facts to Combat Communism, November 27, 1953, vol.
7, no. 48.

  32. See Kessler, Clever Girl, pp. 276-78.

  33. WMK Diary, July 16, 1946.

  34. Sawatsky, Gouzenko, pp. 99-107; Archives of Ontario, F1322, MV7494, Joseph Sedgwick Fonds, Transcript of the Investigation for Discovery of Igor Gouzenko.

  35. The Montreal Gazette, April 1, 1947.

  36. TNA, KV 2/1419, Letter from Wood to Sillitoe, December 13, 1946.

  37. Pat MacAdam, “The Cipher Clerk Who Knew Too Much,” Ottawa Citizen, February 13, 2000.

  38. LAC, MG 26L, vol. 99, file E-14-G, letters dated May 1 and May 7, 1951.

  39. Transcript of the Investigation for Discovery of Igor Gouzenko, pp. 35-36.

  40. Gouzenko's daughter Evelyn was unaware of what Krysac meant until after her mother died. Interview with Evelyn Wilson, Toronto, December 12, 2002.

  41. LAC, RG 2, vol. 54, file 1-40-3, Letter from Wood to Ilsley, January 20, 1948, referring also to an earlier letter.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Sawatsky, Gouzenko, pp. 112-113.

  45. Ibid., p. 118; interview with Evelyn Wilson, December 12, 2002.

  46. Transcript of the Investigation for Discovery, p. 22.

  47. The Toronto Daily Star, October 30, 1953; Sawatsky, Gouzenko, pp.121-123.

  48. Transcript of Gouzenko testimony, January 1954, LAC, MG 26, N1, vol. 33, Gouzenko I, 1953-54, pt. 1, #D 1-35A, p. 10.

  49. Ibid., p. 67.

  50. Ibid., pp. 74-78.

  51. Drew Pearson, Diaries, 1949–59, ed. by Tyler Abell (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974), p. 296.

  52. Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum, Personal Papers of Drew Pearson, “Television Interviews from 1954,” interview with Gouzenko.

  53. The Washington Post, January 7, 1954; Toronto Daily Star, January 4, 1946; New York Times, January 6, 1954; April 14, 1954.

  Chapter 9: “ELLI,” PHILBY, AND THE DEATH OF A DIPLOMAT

  1. Intelligence Department of the Red Army in Ottawa, p. 30

  2. Peter Wright, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer (New York: Viking, 1987), p. 345.

  3. TNA, KV 2/1425, telegram to RCMP from Captain Liddell, September 23, 1945.

  4. CSIS Gouzenko, transcript 000009, interview 2, October 29, 1945.

  5. In fact, a message reprinted from Russian archival files shows that Philby reported to the NKVD in the mid-1940s that the local MI6 representative in the Soviet Union had a source in Moscow who was code-named “Temny.” See West, The Crown Jewels, p. 315. If it were not for the fact that Gouzenko's “Elli” was a GRU agent with a Russian background, this piece of information would point us straight to Philby as the Elli suspect.

  6. Genrikh Borovik, author of The Philby Files mistakenly assumes that Gouzenko was referring to Philby but this is because Borovik thought Gouzenko mentioned an NKVD agent in British Intelligence, rather than someone from the GRU.

  7. Transcript of 1954 Gouzenko interview, pp. 63-64. In the copy of the transcript the name of the organization to which the individual belonged is blackened out, but it is clear from the context that Gouzenko is talking about “Elli.” In fact, Gouzenko said nothing to the Royal Commission beyond that there was an agent named Elli in Britain, but the commission probably had access to his statements made in earlier interviews. See LAC, RG 33/62, vol. 1, book 1, p. 230.

  8. Transcript of 1954 interview, pp. 62-63.

  9. Bower, The Perfect English Spy, pp. 296-329; Wright, Spycatcher, pp. 344-346.

  10. Ibid., Wright claims that Gouzenko talked about a spy in MI5 from the very beginning, in 1945, but that was not the case.

  11. Wright, Ibid.

  12. Kristmanson, Plateaus of Freedom, pp. 123-124.

  13. Bower, The Perfect English Spy, p. 354.

  14. Lamphere, The FBI–KGB War, p. 244.

  15. Sawatsky, Gouzenko, pp. 217-223.

  16. “kgb Connections,” cbc, June 8, 1981; Sawatsky, Gouzenko, pp. 217- 223. Gouzenko apparently met Chapman Pincher, author of the explosive and largely discredited book Too Secret Too Long (1984) on more than one occasion. Pincher was a strong proponent of the theory that Hollis was a mole, and he probably had little trouble persuading Gouzenko to agree with him.

  17. Lamphere, The FBI–KGB War, pp. 132-137.

  18. Ibid., p. 238.

  19. Borovik, The Philby Files, p. 266.

  20. nara, s. 3437, Fuchs Case, 882012-379.

  21. Whitaker and Marcuse, Cold War Canada, pp. 413-414; also, p. 487, n 24.

  22. For an illuminating and informative study of Norman's life and career, see Roger Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough:The Life and Death of Herbert Norman (Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 1986). Also see Reg Whitaker, “Return to the Crucible,” The Canadian Forum, November 1986, pp. 11-28.

  23. See Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, pp. 55-65, for a discussion of Norman's time at Cambridge, based on interviews and a careful examination of all the sources. For a dissenting view, see Barros, No Sense of Evil, pp. 6-11. When questioned by the RCMP in 1952 as to whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party, Norman replied “No, I considered myself very close to it for about a year, but I didn't accept any posts or responsibilities.” CSIS Norman file.

  24. Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, pp. 65-78.

  25. See The Washington Post, April 19, 1957, for the full story on Walsh.

  26. Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, pp. 80-81.

  27. Ibid.; Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes, pp. 244-245.

  28. Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, pp. 172-200.

  29. CSIS Norman, RCMP report, dated October 17, 1950.

  30. Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, pp. 148-168.

  31. See FBI reports, dated October 16, 1946, and March 11, 1947, from Boston. In FBI Norman.

  32. See Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, pp. 206-208.

  33. Ibid., p. 208.

  34. CSIS Norman, undated secret RCMP report: “The Norman Case: Some Factors and Considerations.”

  35. CSIS Norman.

  36. LAC, RG 33/62, vol. 2, book 10, p. 5063, April 26, 1946. When mentioning this episode in an earlier testimony before the Royal Commission (February 16, 1945), Gouzenko had been less specific, but he nonetheless made it clear that he thought that the Norman in question was Norman Freed. Interestingly, only the February testimony has been cited by historians, who apparently have not realized that Gouzenko had more to say about “Norman” when he appeared before the Royal Commission again in April.

  37. CSIS Norman, “E.H. Norman: Summary of the Case,” top secret, 23 pages, undated; interview with Lt.-Gen. Vitalii Pavlov, Moscow, Sept. 29, 2001.

  38. Secret memorandum, dated October 24, 1950, CSIS Norman.

  39. The report is in CSIS Norman.

  40. FBI Norman, 100-346993-24.

  41. See FBI Norman, memorandum from Boardman to Belmont, April 12, 1957; memorandum, Belmont to Roach, April 16, 1957; memorandum to the Attorney General, to the Director, April 26, 1957.

  42. Ybarra, Washington Gone Crazy, p. 547. Also see Theoharis, Chasing Spies, pp. 210-223. The Norman case illustrated this point. On August 7, 1951, someone from the McCarran Committee called the FBI with a request for background information on Norman. FBI Norman, memorandum from Laughlin to Ladd, August 7, 1951.

  43. In a March 12, 1957, SISS hearing, for example, SISS counsel Robert Morris stressed that Wittfogel was “a distinguished professor” and referred to his academic career as if to say that his scholarship enhanced his credibility as a witness. No such reverence for scholarly accomplishments was shown toward Norman.

  44. FBI Norman, file, memorandum from Laughlin to Ladd, August 23, 1951. Laughlin reports that “no information was found in Bureau files indicating that Norman had ever attended Columbia University.”

  45. FBI Norman, 100-346993.

  46. CSIS Norman, “Egerton Herbert Norman: Brief of Information and Investigation,” undated; “E.H. Norman: Summary of Case.”

  47. CSIS Norman, �
�Summary of the Case,” undated.

  48. “The Suez Crisis,” Canada World View, issue 6, Winter 1999, www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/CanadaMagazine; Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, pp. 273-289.

  49. Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, p. 289.

  50. Ibid., p. 174; 387, note 3.

  51. Barros, No Sense of Evil, pp. 108-110.

  52. FBI Norman, mimeographed copy of Emmerson testimony before SISS, March 21, 1957.

  53. FBI Norman, memorandum from Roach to Belmont, April 11, 1957.

  54. Bowen, No Sense of Evil, pp. 318-319.

  55. FBI Norman, 346993-98; 346993-107; Ottawa Citizen, April 11, 1957; Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, pp. 324-327.

  56. Ibid., RG 46, E.H. Norman file, Box 235.

  57. FBI Norman, 100-346993.

  58. nara, RG 46, Country Files-Canada, Canada 1951–1967. Note dated April 18, 1957.

  59. FBI Norman, memorandum from Legat, Ottawa to Director, April 12, 1957.

  60. Pearson's comments are in the CSIS Norman file.

  61. Globe and Mail, April 20, 1957.

  62. Montreal Gazette, April 15, 1957.

  63. nara, RG 46, E.H. Norman file, Box 235.

  64. As cited in Ybarra, Washington Gone Crazy, p. 656.

  65. RCMP files, Kilgour to Leger, April 10, 1957, as cited in Bowen, Innocence Is Not Enough, p. 305.

  Chapter 10: TRAITORS AND SPIES

  1. Sawatsky Papers, 84-38, box 1, file 7, interview with Lloyd Tararyn, April 19, 1984.

  2. cbc Archives (www.cbc.ca), program dated March 11, 1966.

  3. As one observer of the Canadian legal scene expressed it: “Stringent libel laws may have made sense five hundred years ago, when British royalty wanted to stop the nobility from duelling by giving them a legal remedy against character slurs. But we don't live in the time of Henry vii any longer.” Jeffrey Shallit, “It's Time to Reform Canadian Libel Law,” http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/libel3.html.

  4. Archives of Ontario, Joseph Sedgwick Fonds, Transcript of Investigation for Discovery, Frazer, p. 45.

  5. Sawatsky Papers, 84-38, box 2, interviews with Lloyd Tataryn and Frank Rasky.

  6. Ibid., interview with Tataryn; Sawatsky, Gouzenko, pp. 245-251. The apology appeared on April 26, 1982.