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Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Lists
and Venona
by John Earl Haynes
April 2007
Journalists
and historians have often referred to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s “list” as if it
were a precisely defined entity. It was
not, however. Certainly one would put
his “numbered” list of eighty-one cases, given in a Senate speech of February
20, 1950, as the prime candidate for being McCarthy’s “list.” But McCarthy himself quickly added several
dozen more names to this list in communications to a subcommittee of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee (commonly referred to in the press as the “Tydings
Committee” from its chairman, Senator Millard Tydings). The Tydings subcommittee in its “State
Department Employee Loyalty Investigation” inquired into Senator McCarthy’s
charges.
Most
but not all of Senator McCarthy’s numbered cases were drawn from the “Lee List”
or “108 list” of unresolved DOS security cases compiled by the investigators
for the House Appropriates Committee in 1947.
Robert E. Lee was the committee’s lead investigator and supervised
preparation of the list. The Tydings
subcommittee also obtained this list.
The Lee list, also using numbers rather than names, was published in the
proceeding of the subcommittee.[1]
Senator
McCarthy furnished the Tydings Committee the real names attached to his
numbered cases, and the Tydings Committee received the real names attached to
the Lee list as well.[2] Over the years that followed all of the
names became public one way or another.
Additionally,
in a series of speeches McCarthy named others as secret Communists, spies,
security risks, or participants in the Communist conspiracy. Below these various lists are recapitulated.
Only those he named from 1950 through 1952 (prior to become chairman of the
Senate Governmental Operations Committee) will be considered here. (All lists will be alphabetical.)
McCarthy’s List (1)
McCarthy’s 20 February Numbered List[3]
Real Name: McCarthy list #; Lee list #; Venona status;
Non-Venona Evidence of Espionage
*****************************************************************************
Arndt, Ernest Theodore: McCarthy list # 14; Lee list # 10; Not identified in Venona
Barnett, Mrs. Robert Warren: McCarthy list # 49; Lee list # 59; Not identified in Venona
Barnett, Robert Warren: McCarthy list # 48; Lee list # 59; Not identified in Venona
Berman, Harold:
McCarthy list # 70; Lee list # 85; Not identified in Venona
Brunauer, Esther Caukin: McCarthy list # 47; Lee list # 55; Not identified in Venona
Cameron, Gertrude:
McCarthy list # 55; Lee list # 65; Not identified in Venona
Carlisle, Lois:
McCarthy list # 58; Lee list # 68; Not identified in Venona
Carter, William D.:
McCarthy list # 44; Lee list # 50; Not identified in Venona
Chipchin, Nelson:
McCarthy list # 23; No on Lee List: Benign identification in Venona[4]
Clucas, Lowell M., Jr.: McCarthy list # 26; Not on Lee List; Not identified in Venona
Delgado, Mucio:
McCarthy list # 21; Lee list # 28; Not identified in Venona
Demerjian, Alice:
McCarthy list # 61; Lee list # 72; Not identified in Venona
Dubois, Cora:
McCarthy list # 60; Lee list # 70; Not identified in Venona
Ferry, Frances:
McCarthy list # 11; Lee list # 8; Not identified in Venona
Fierst, Herbert:
McCarthy list # 1; Lee list # 51; Not identified in Venona
Fishback, Sam:
McCarthy list # 43; Lee list # 49; Not identified in Venona
Ford, James T.:
McCarthy list # 76; Lee list # 96; Not identified in Venona
Gordon, Stella:
McCarthy list # 40; Lee list # 45; Not identified in Venona
Graze, Gerald:
McCarthy list # 29; Lee list # 25; Not identified in Venona;[5]
Identified as a Soviet Espionage Source in the Gorsky Memo[6]
Graze, Stanley:
McCarthy list # 8; Lee list # 8; Not identified in Venona; Identified as
a Soviet Espionage Source in the Gorsky Memo[7]
Grondahl, Tegnel Conrad: McCarthy list # 25; Not on Lee List; Not identified in Venona
Gross, Aaron Jack:
McCarthy list # 68; Lee list # 83; Not identified in Venona
Harrison, Marcia Ruth: McCarthy list # 7; Lee list # 4; Not identified in Venona
Horwin, Leonard:
McCarthy list # 73; Lee list # 91; Not identified in Venona
Hunt, Victor:
McCarthy list # 65; Lee list # 79; Not identified in Venona
Ilyefalvi-Vites, Gizella: McCarthy list # 4; Lee list # 3; Not identified in Venona
Jankowski, Joseph T.:
McCarthy list # 74; Lee list # 92; Not identified in Venona
Jessup, Philip:
McCarthy list # 15; Not on Lee List; Not identified in Venona
Josephson, Joseph:
McCarthy list # 30; Lee list # 28; Not identified in Venona
Kamarck, Andrew W.:
McCarthy list # 78; Lee list # 100; Not identified in Venona
Katusich, Ivan:
McCarthy list # 27; Not on Lee List; Not identified in Venona
Kaufman, Arthur Milton: McCarthy list # 38; Lee list # 43; Not identified in Venona
Kopelewish, Esther Less aka Mrs. Less: McCarthy list # 24; Not on Lee List; Not
identified in Venona
Lansberg, Hans:[8] McCarthy list # 28; Lee list # 21; Not
identified in Venona
Lemon, Edythe J.:
McCarthy list # 18; Lee list # 16; Not identified in Venona
Lewis, Mrs. Preston Keesling: McCarthy list # 75; Lee list # 93; Not
identified in Venona
Lifantieff-Lee, Paul A.: McCarthy list # 56; Lee list # 66; Not identified in Venona
Lindsey, John Richard: McCarthy list # 67; Lee list # 81; Not identified in Venona
Lloyd, David Demarest: McCarthy list # 9; Lee list # 99; Not identified in Venona
Lorwin, Val R.:
McCarthy list # 54; Lee list # 64; Not identified in Venona
Maguite, Sylvia:
McCarthy list # 69; Lee list # 84; Not identified in Venona
Mann, Gottfried Thomas: McCarthy list # 42; Lee list # 47; Not identified in Venona
Margolies, Daniel F.:
McCarthy list # 41; Lee list # 46; Not identified in Venona
Margolin, Arnold D.:
McCarthy list # 72; Lee list # 90;[9] Not identified in Venona
Meigs, Peveril:
McCarthy list # 3; Lee list # 2; Not identified in Venona
Miller, Robert T.:
McCarthy list # 16; Lee list # 12; Not identified in Venona;[10] First Identified as a Soviet Espionage
Source by Elizabeth Bentley in her 1945 FBI statement.[11]
Montague, Ella M.:
McCarthy list # 34; Lee list # 32; Not identified in Venona
Neal, Fred Warner:
McCarthy list # 57; Lee list # 67; Not identified in Venona
Ness, Norman T.:
McCarthy list # 45; Lee list # 53; Not identified in Venona
Neumann, Franz Leopold: McCarthy list # 59; Lee list # 69; Not identified in Venona[12] Identified as a Soviet Espionage Source in
Weinstein and Vassiliev’s The Haunted Wood.[13]
Osnatch, Olga F.:
McCarthy list # 37; Lee list # 42; Not identified in Venona
Parsons, Ruby A.:
McCarthy list # 81; Lee list # 78; Not identified in Venona
Perkins, Isham W.:
McCarthy list # 62; Lee list # 73; Not identified in Venona
Peter, Hollis W.:
McCarthy list # 64; Lee list # 76; Not identified in Venona
Polyzoides, T. Achilles: McCarthy list # 79; Lee list # 105; Not identified in Venona
Posner, Marjorie S.:
McCarthy list # 10; Lee list # 7; Not identified in Venona
Posniak, Edward G.:
McCarthy list # 77; Not on Lee List; Not identified in Venona
Post, Richard:
McCarthy list # 53; Lee list # 63; Not identified in Venona
Raine, Philip:
McCarthy list # 52; Lee list # 62; Not identified in Venona
Randolph, David (aka Rosenberg): McCarthy list # 66; Lee list # 80; Not
identified in Venona
Rapoport, Alexander:
McCarthy list # 22; Not on Lee List; Not identified in Venona
Remington, William:
McCarthy list # 19; Not on Lee List; Not identified in Venona. First
Identified as a Soviet Source by Elizabeth Bentley in her 1945 FBI statement.[14]
Robinson, Jay:
McCarthy list # 5; Lee list # 5; Not identified in Venona
Rommel, Rowena:
McCarthy list # 51; Lee list # 61; Not identified in Venona
Ross, Lewis:
McCarthy list # 31; Lee list # 29; Not identified in Venona
Ross, Robert:
McCarthy list # 32; Lee list # 30; Not identified in Venona
Schimmel, Sylvia:
McCarthy list # 50; Lee list # 60; Not identified in Venona
Shell, Melville:
McCarthy list # 35; Lee list # 34; Not identified in Venona
Siegel, Herman:
McCarthy list # 33; Lee list # 31; Not identified in Venona
Smith, S. Stevenson:
McCarthy list # 20; Lee list # 20; Not identified in Venona
Smith (Schmidt), Frederick W.: McCarthy list # 36; Lee list # 40; Not
identified in Venona
Stoinaoff, Stoian:
McCarthy list # 71; Lee list # 87; Not identified in Venona
Stone, William T.:
McCarthy list # 46; Lee list # 54; Not identified in Venona
Taylor, Jeanne E.:
McCarthy list # 17; Lee list # 14; Not identified in Venona
Tuchscher, Frances M.: McCarthy list # 6; Lee list # 6; Not identified in Venona
Vincent, John Carter:
McCarthy list # 2; Lee list # 52; Not identified in Venona
Volin, Maz A.:
McCarthy list # 39; Lee list # 44; Not identified in Venona
Washburn [clerical error for Fishburn], John T.[15]: McCarthy list # 80; Lee list # 106; Not
identified in Venona
Washburne, Carleton:
McCarthy list # 13; Lee list # 9; Not identified in Venona
Wilcox, Stanley:
McCarthy list # 63; Lee list # 75; Not identified in Venona
Yuhas, Helen:
McCarthy list # 12; Lee list # 107; Not identified in Venona
*****************************************************************************
McCarthy’s List
(2)
Remaining Lee List Names
In
as much as Senator McCarthy cited the Lee list as one the DOS was negligent in
not pursuing, the Lee list names not already listed above are listed below.
Real Name: Lee list #; Venona status; Non-Venona
Evidence of Espionage
*****************************************************************************
Alexander, Dorothy Helen: Lee list # 38; Not identified in Venona
Blaisdell, Donald C.:
Lee list # 103; Not identified in Venona
Borton, Hugh:
Lee list # 57; Not identified in Venona
Burlingame, Robert Sparks: Lee list # 108; Not identified in Venona
DeMoretz, Shirley T.:
Lee list # 27; Not identified in Venona
Elinson, Marcelle D.:
Lee list # 104; Not identified in Venona
Eminowicz, Halina D.:
Lee list # 48; Not identified in Venona
Fine, Sherwood Monroe: Lee list # 23; Not identified in Venona
Fishburn, John Tipton: Lee list # 106; Not identified in Venona
Forno, Joseph T.:
Lee list # 96; Not identified in Venona
Fournier, Norman L.:
Lee list # 98; Not identified in Venona
Hankin, Robert:
Lee list # 94; Not identified in Venona
Hughes, Henry Stuart:
Lee list # 77; Not identified in Venona
Jackson, Malcolm Aage: Lee list # 15; Not identified in Venona
Kamarck, Andrew W.:
Lee list # 100; Not identified in Venona
Lazarus, Theodore:
Lee list # 26; Not identified in Venona
Lovell, Leander Bell:
Lee list # 22; Not identified in Venona
Lunning, Just:
Lee list # 11; Not identified in Venona
Magruder, John H., III: Lee list # 17; Not identified in Venona
Mallon, Dwight S.:
Lee list # 89; Not identified in Venona
Martin, Shirley Mae:
Lee list # 33; Not identified in Venona
Martingale, Rose Marie: Lee list # 37; Not identified in Venona
McDavid, Raven I., Jr.: Lee list # 19; Not identified in Venona
Moore, Leith Celestia: Lee list # 18; Not identified in Venona
Parker, Glen T.:
Lee list # 95; Not identified in Venona
Pesto, Paula Pavedo:
Lee list # 82; Not identified in Venona
Rennie, Leonard C.:
Lee list # 13; Not identified in Venona
Rose, Ernest William:
Lee list # 41; Not identified in Venona
Rosenthal, Albert H.:
Lee list # 97; Not identified in Venona
Rothwell, George J.:
Lee list # 7; Not identified in Venona
Royce, Edith M.:
Lee list # 35; Not identified in Venona
Rudlin, Walter Arthur: Lee list # 56;
Ambiguously identified in Venona[16]
Salmon, Thomas R.:
Lee list # 39; Not identified in Venona
Shevlin, Lorraine Arnold: Lee list # 86; Not identified in Venona
Smothers, Frank Albert: Lee list # 102; Not identified in Venona
Thomson, Charles A.:
Lee list # 58; Not identified in Venona
Thursz, Jonathan:
Lee list # 74; Not identified in Venona
Toory, Dr. Frank P.:
Lee list # 88; Not identified in Venona
Tuckerman, Gustavus:
Lee list # 101; Not identified in Venona
Wilfert, Howard F.:
Lee list # 36; Not identified in Venona
Wood, James E.:
Lee list # 24; Not identified in Venona
***************************************************************************
McCarthy’s List
(3)
Other Names
Given to the Tydings Subcommittee
In
addition to the above McCarthy numbered cases and Lee list, McCarthy also
identified by name the following persons to the Tydings subcommittee of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee.[17]
Real Name: Venona status; Non-Venona Evidence of
Espionage
*****************************************************************
Askwith, Edna Jerry:
Not identified in Venona
Erdos, Arpad:
Not identified in Venona
Grajdanzeve, Andrew aka Grade, Andrew: Not identified in Venona
Harris, Reed:
Not identified in Venona Not
identified in Venona
Henkin, Louis:
Not identified in Venona
Hulten, Charles M.:
Not identified in Venona
Ingram, George Mason:
Not identified in Venona
Ludden, Raymond Paul:
Not identified in Venona
Meeker, Leonard C.:
Not identified in Venona
Nelson, Clarence J.:
Not identified in Venona
Newbegin, Robert:
Not identified in Venona
Ramon, Josephine: Not identified in Venona
Rowe, James W.:
Not identified in Venona
Sanders, William:
Not identified in Venona
Tate, Jack B.:
Not identified in Venona
Zablodgwskei [Zablodowsky?], David: Not identified in Venona. Admitted to being a covert mail drop for
Whittaker Chambers in the 1930s.[18]
**********************************************************************************
McCarthy’s List (4)
Buckley & Bozell List of Other McCarthy Names
Senator McCarthy in 1950, 1951 and 1952 identified
other persons in speeches in the Senate and else where. For the date and place of Senator McCarthy’s
naming of these persons, see appendix D of William F. Buckley and L. Brent
Bozell, McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Meaning (Chicago:
H. Regnery Co., 1954).
Real Name: Venona status; Non-Venona Evidence of
Espionage
*****************************************************************
Brunauer, Stephen:
Not identified in Venona
Clubb, Oliver Edmund:
Not identified in Venona
Currie, Lauchlin: Identified in Venona as a Soviet
Espionage Source;[19] First Identified as a Soviet Source by
Elizabeth Bentley in her 1945 FBI statement.[20]
Davies, John Paton: Not identified in Venona
Duran, Gustavo:
Not identified in Venona
Geiger, Theodore:
Not identified in Venona
Glasser, Harold: Identified in Venon as a Soviet
Espionage Source;[21] First Identified as a Soviet Source by
Elizabeth Bentley in her 1945 FBI statement.[22]
Hanson, Haldore:
Not identified in Venona
Keeney, Mary Jane:
Identified in Venona as a Soviet Espionage Source[23]
Kenyon, Dorothy:
Not identified in Venona
Kerserling, Mary:
Not identified in Venona
Keyserling, Leon:
Not identified in Venona
Lattimore, Owen:
Not identified in Venona
Nash, Philleo:
Not identified in Venona
Schuman, Frederick:
Not identified in Venona
Service, John Stewart: Not identified in Venona.
Identified by FBI bugging in 1945 as having deliberately leaked DOS
information to the pro-Communist journal Amerasia.[24]
Shapley, Harlow:
Not identified in Venona
*******************************************************************************
McCarthy’s List (5)
June 14, 1951 “conspiracy of infamy so black” Speech
Senator McCarthy in a speech before the Senate on June
14, 1951, described, “a conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any
previous such venture in the history of man.
A conspiracy of infamy so black that, when it is finally exposed, its principals
shall be forever deserving of the maledictions of all honest men.”[25] The chief targets of the speech were Dean
Acheson, President Truman’s secretary of state, and George Marshall, Army chief
of staff under President Roosevelt and secretary of state and secretary of
defense under Truman. General Marshall
was also the focus of Senator McCarthy’s book America’s Retreat from
Victory: The Story of George Catlett Marshall:[26]
Real Name: Venona status; Non-Venona Evidence of
Espionage
*****************************************************************
Acheson, Dean:
Benign identification in Venona[27]
Marshall, George C.: Benign identification in Venona[28]
******************************************************************************
McCarthy’s List (6)
Other McCarthy Speeches
Below are two additional names McCarthy identified in
statement to the Senate on December 19, 1950.[29]
Real Name: Venona status; Non-Venona Evidence of
Espionage
*****************************************************************
Karr, David: Identified in Venona as assisting Soviet
Espionage[30]
Pearson, Drew:
Benign Identification in Venona.[31]
*******************************************************************
McCarthy’s List (7)
Lists 1-6 Combined
For
convenience of reference, a combined list of all names above.
Real Name: Venona status; Non-Venona Evidence of
Espionage
*****************************************************************************
Acheson, Dean:
Benign identification in Venona[32]
Alexander, Dorothy Helen: Not identified in Venona
Arndt, Ernest Theodore: Not identified in Venona
Askwith, Edna Jerry:
Not identified in Venona
Barnett, Mrs. Robert Warren: Not identified in Venona
Barnett, Robert Warren: Not identified in Venona
Berman, Harold:
Not identified in Venona
Blaisdell, Donald C.:
Not identified in Venona
Borton, Hugh:
Not identified in Venona
Brunauer, Esther Caukin: Not identified in Venona
Brunauer, Stephen:
Not identified in Venona
Burlingame, Robert Sparks: Not identified in Venona
Cameron, Gertrude:
Not identified in Venona
Carlisle, Lois:
Not identified in Venona
Carter, William D.:
Not identified in Venona
Chipchin, Nelson:
Benign identification in Venona[33]
Clubb, Oliver Edmund:
Not identified in Venona
Clucas, Lowell M., Jr.: Not identified in Venona
Currie, Lauchlin: Identified in Venona as a Soviet
Espionage Source;[34] First Identified as a Soviet Source by
Elizabeth Bentley in her 1945 FBI statement.[35]
Davies, John Paton: Not identified in Venona
Delgado, Mucio:
Not identified in Venona
Demerjian, Alice:
Not identified in Venona
DeMoretz, Shirley T.:
Not identified in Venona
Dubois, Cora:
Not identified in Venona
Duran, Gustavo:
Not identified in Venona
Elinson, Marcelle D.:
Not identified in Venona
Eminowicz, Halina D.:
Not identified in Venona
Erdos, Arpad:
Not identified in Venona
Ferry, Frances:
Not identified in Venona
Fierst, Herbert:
Not identified in Venona
Fine, Sherwood Monroe: Not identified in Venona
Fishback, Sam:
Not identified in Venona
Fishburn, John Tipton: Not identified in Venona
Ford, James T.:
Not identified in Venona
Forno, Joseph T.:
Not identified in Venona
Fournier, Norman L.:
Not identified in Venona
Geiger, Theodore:
Not identified in Venona
Glasser, Harold: Identified in Venon as a Soviet
Espionage Source;[36] First Identified as a Soviet Source by
Elizabeth Bentley in her 1945 FBI statement.[37]
Gordon, Stella:
Not identified in Venona
Grajdanzeve, Andrew aka Grade, Andrew: Not identified in Venona
Graze, Gerald:
Not identified in Venona;[38]
Identified as a Soviet Espionage Source in the Gorsky Memo[39]
Graze, Stanley:
Not identified in Venona; Identified as a Soviet Espionage Source in the
Gorsky Memoo[40]
Grondahl, Tegnel Conrad: Not identified in Venona
Gross, Aaron Jack:
Not identified in Venona
Hankin, Robert:
Not identified in Venona
Hanson, Haldore:
Not identified in Venona
Harris, Reed:
Not identified in Venona Not
identified in Venona
Harrison, Marcia Ruth: Not identified in Venona
Henkin, Louis:
Not identified in Venona
Horwin, Leonard:
Not identified in Venona
Hughes, Henry Stuart:
Not identified in Venona
Hulten, Charles M.:
Not identified in Venona
Hunt, Victor:
Not identified in Venona
Ilyefalvi-Vites, Gizella: Not identified in Venona
Ingram, George Mason:
Not identified in Venona
Jackson, Malcolm Aage: Not identified in Venona
Jankowski, Joseph T.: Not identified in Venona
Jessup, Philip:
Not identified in Venona
Josephson, Joseph:
Not identified in Venona
Kamarck, Andrew W.:
Not identified in Venona
Kamarck, Andrew W.:
Not identified in Venona
Karr, David: Identified in Venona as a Soviet
Espionage Source[41]
Katusich, Ivan:
Not identified in Venona
Kaufman, Arthur Milton: Not identified in Venona
Keeney, Mary Jane:
Identified in Venona as a Soviet Espionage Source[42]
Kenyon, Dorothy:
Not identified in Venona
Kerserling, Mary:
Not identified in Venona
Keyserling, Leon:
Not identified in Venona
Kopelewish, Esther Less aka Mrs. Less: Not identified in Venona
Lansberg, Hans:
Not identified in Venona
Lattimore, Owen:
Not identified in Venona
Lazarus, Theodore:
Not identified in Venona
Lemon, Edythe J.:
Not identified in Venona
Lewis, Mrs. Preston Keesling: Not identified in Venona
Lifantieff-Lee, Paul A.: Not identified in Venona
Lindsey, John Richard: Not identified in Venona
Lloyd, David Demarest: Not identified in Venona
Lorwin, Val R.:
Not identified in Venona
Lovell, Leander Bell:
Not identified in Venona
Ludden, Raymond Paul:
Not identified in Venona
Lunning, Just:
Not identified in Venona
Magruder, John H., III: Not identified in Venona
Maguite, Sylvia:
Not identified in Venona
Mallon, Dwight S.:
Not identified in Venona
Mann, Gottfried Thomas: Not identified in Venona
Margolies, Daniel F.: Not identified in Venona
Margolin, Arnold D.:
[43] Not identified in Venona
Marshall, George C.: Benign identification in Venona[44]
Martin, Shirley Mae:
Not identified in Venona
Martingale, Rose Marie: Not identified in Venona
McDavid, Raven I., Jr.: Not identified in Venona
Meeker, Leonard C.:
Not identified in Venona
Meigs, Peveril:
Not identified in Venona
Miller, Robert T.:
Not identified in Venona;[45] First Identified as a Soviet Espionage
Source by Elizabeth Bentley in her 1945 FBI statement.[46]
Montague, Ella M.:
Not identified in Venona
Moore, Leith Celestia: Not identified in Venona
Nash, Philleo:
Not identified in Venona
Neal, Fred Warner:
Not identified in Venona
Nelson, Clarence J.:
Not identified in Venona
Ness, Norman T.:
Not identified in Venona
Neumann, Franz Leopold: Not identified in Venona[47] Identified as a Soviet Espionage Source in
Weinstein and Vassiliev’s The Haunted Wood.[48]
Newbegin, Robert:
Not identified in Venona
Osnatch, Olga F.:
Not identified in Venona
Parker, Glen T.:
Not identified in Venona
Parsons, Ruby A.:
Not identified in Venona
Perkins, Isham W.:
Not identified in Venona
Pearson, Drew:
Benign Identification in Venona.[49]
Pesto, Paula Pavedo:
Not identified in Venona
Peter, Hollis W.:
Not identified in Venona
Polyzoides, T. Achilles: Not identified in Venona
Posner, Marjorie:
Not identified in Venona
Posniak, Edward G.:
Not identified in Venona
Post, Richard:
Not identified in Venona
Raine, Philip:
Not identified in Venona
Ramon, Josephine:
Not identified in Venona
Randolph, David (aka Rosenberg): Not identified in Venona
Rapoport, Alexander:
Not identified in Venona
Remington, William:
Not identified in Venona. First Identified as a Soviet Espionage Source
by Elizabeth Bentley in her 1945 FBI statement.[50]
Rennie, Leonard C.:
Not identified in Venona
Robinson, Jay:
Not identified in Venona
Rommel, Rowena:
Not identified in Venona
Rose, Ernest William:
Not identified in Venona
Rosenthal, Albert H.:
Not identified in Venona
Ross, Lewis:
Not identified in Venona
Ross, Robert:
Not identified in Venona
Rothwell, George J.:
Not identified in Venona
Rowe, James W.:
Not identified in Venona
Royce, Edith M.:
Not identified in Venona
Rudlin, Walter Arthur: Ambiguously identified in Venona[51]
Salmon, Thomas R.:
Not identified in Venona
Sanders, William:
Not identified in Venona
Schimmel, Sylvia:
Not identified in Venona
Schuman, Frederick:
Not identified in Venona
Service, John Stewart: Not identified in Venona.
Identified by FBI bugging in 1945 as having deliberately leaked DOS
information to the pro-Communist journal Amerasia.[52]
Shapley, Harlow:
Not identified in Venona
Shell, Melville:
Not identified in Venona
Shevlin, Lorraine Arnold: Not identified in Venona
Siegel, Herman:
Not identified in Venona
Smith, S. Stevenson:
Not identified in Venona
Smith (Schmidt), Frederick W.: Not identified in Venona
Smothers, Frank Albert: Not identified in Venona
Stoinaoff, Stoian:
Not identified in Venona
Stone, William T.:
Not identified in Venona
Tate, Jack B.:
Not identified in Venona
Taylor, Jeanne E.:
Not identified in Venona
Thomson, Charles A.:
Not identified in Venona
Thursz, Jonathan:
Not identified in Venona
Toory, Dr. Frank P.:
Not identified in Venona
Tuchscher, Frances M.: Not identified in Venona
Tuckerman, Gustavus:
Not identified in Venona
Vincent, John Carter: Not identified in Venona
Volin, Maz A.:
Not identified in Venona
Washburn, John T.:
Not identified in Venona
Washburne, Carleton:
Not identified in Venona
Wilcox, Stanley:
Not identified in Venona
Wilfert, Howard F.:
Not identified in Venona
Wood, James E.:
Not identified in Venona
Yuhas, Helen:
Not identified in Venona
Zablodgwskei [Zablodowsky?], David: Not identified in Venona. Admitted to being a one-time mail drop for
Whittaker Chambers in the 1930s but claimed he thought it anti-fascist work,
not espionage.[53]
***************************************************************************
Security Risks
Of the 159 persons listed above, there is substantial
evidence that nine assisted Soviet espionage against the United States:
Lauchlin Currie, Harold Glasser, Gerald Graze, Standley Graze, Many Jane
Keeney, David Karr, Robert T. Miller, Franz Neumann, and William Remington.
David Zablodowsky is a tenth ambiguous case.
Some of the others were security risks. To say that someone was a security risk is
not to say that that person is a proven or even most likely a Soviet espionage
source. It is only to say that in
matters of national security “better safe than sorry” is a principle. Risks should be minimized by excluding those
persons from employment in positions where they would have access to sensitive
information.
Risk factors vary from the purely personal to the
ideological. Entirely patriotic and
loyal persons may have risk factors that make them a security risk. Someone with a history of financial
irresponsibility (chronic gambling, bankruptcy) may be tempted by financial
gain to betray secret without regard to their patriotism. Someone with close relatives living in a
hostile foreign nation may be vulnerable to blackmail due to coercive threats
against those family members.
And, of course, someone with ideological sympathy for
a hostile foreign power may be tempted to betray by appeals to that
ideology. Obviously, in the Cold War
between the Communist bloc and the West, persons with Communist or
pro-Communist ideological sympathies were security risks due to the possibility
of ideological recruitment by Communist intelligence officers. Indeed, the great majority of American,
several hundred, now known to have assisted Soviet espionage in the United
States in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were motivated by ideology and many were
secret members of the CPUSA.[54]
Many, but certainly not all, of those in the above lists
had in their background some ideological security risk factors. A few were established as having been
members of the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) or the Young Communist League. Many had belonged to a number of special
purpose organizations, some closely, some not so closely, aligned with the
CPUSA, were know to former co-workers as pro-Soviet, or had other signs of
Communist sympathies. In some cases
those affiliations were recent or ongoing.
Frederick Schuman, for example, had a long and enduring history of
intense Communist sympathies. With
others, however, their affiliation with the Communist left were youthful and a
decade or more in the past, and the person may have abandoned those views. Stephen Brunauer, for example, had been in
the Young Communist League in the late 1920s but appears to have abandoned the
movement by the early 1940s and in 1946 the U.S. government sent him to Hungary
(he was Hungarian born) to assist in the escape of Hungarian scientists from
Communist Hungary. There were also
cases were some association legitimately raised security risk concerns but on
inspection, the association appears to have been coincidental. For example McCarthy number case # 1 (Lee
list # 51) Herbert Fierst, socialized with and was associated at work with
several persons known to be linked to Soviet intelligence. But on examination, Fierst’s association
appeared to have been no more than that: social and related to his official
duties. Among other points, he was a
firm supporter of Zionism, an ideological attribute not merely distrusted but
hated by Soviet intelligence.[55]
It would take an extensive review of each person
separately to come to a firm view on each case, and in a number of cases the
passage of time might make reaching a firm conclusion impossible. My own view is that a number of those on the
lists above, perhaps a majority, likely were security risks, but others, a
minority but a significant one, likely were not, and some, Drew Pearson, Dean
Acheson, and George Marshall for example, certainly were not.
Return to Responses, Reflections and Occasional Papers // Return to Historical Writings
[1]. U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, State
Department Employee Loyalty Investigations (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt.
Print. Off., 1950).
[2]. McCarthy to Tydings, 18 March 1950 with attached
list.
[3]. Remarks of Senator Joseph McCarthy, Congressional
Record, 20 February 1950.
[4]. A Soviet spy in the U.S. Army, Ilya Elliott
Wolston, was a student in the Russian section of the U.S. Army intelligence
school and provided the KGB with a list of his fellow students and
instructors. Nelson Chipchin was one of
those. There is nothing adverse about Chipchin in the reference to him in the
two messages in which his name appears.
Venona 777-781 KGB New York to Moscow, 26 May 1943; Venona 893 KGB New
York to Moscow, 10 June 1943. On
Wolston work for the KGB, see John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona:
Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (New Haven: Yale University Press
[Nota Bene], 2000), 275–76.
[5]. Gerald Graze was not identified in Venona under
his own name. Venona does contain a
cryptonym, Arena, that FBI/NSA identified as that of Mary Price. Based on the 1948 Gorsky memo, likely this
was in error and Arena was Gerald Graze. Anatoly Gorsky, “Failures in the
U.S.A. (1938–1948),” memo, December 1948:
<http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page48.html> in Alexander Vassiliev’s
Notes from the KGB Archive. Gerald
Graze is the brother of Stanley Graze.
[6]. Gorsky, “Failures in the U.S.A. (1938–1948).”
[7]. Gorsky, “Failures in the U.S.A. (1938–1948).”
[8]. Although Hans Lansberg was case #28 on the
McCarthy list given to the Tydings committee, the description that McCarthy
gave of case #28 fits Leander Lovell (Lee list #22) and appears the listing of
Lansberg was a clerical error.
[9]. Arnold Margolin is cited by both Lee and
McCarthy as an anti-Communist denied DOS employment.
[10]. Robert T. Miller is not identified in Venona
under that name. However, Venona has a
crytonym, Mirage, that is unidentified.
The Gorsky memo identifies Mirage as Robert Miller. Gorsky, “Failures in
the U.S.A. (1938–1948)”. Miller is
discussed in Haynes and Klehr, Venona [2000], 207, 228–29.
[11]. Elizabeth Bentley, “Elizabeth Bentley FBI
Deposition of 30 November 1945,” FBI file 65–14503.
[12]. Franz Neumann was not identified by FBI/NSA in
Venona. However, Venona has an
unidentified cryptonym, Ruff. Ruff is
identified as Neumann in Gorsky, “Failures in the U.S.A. (1938–1948)”; and
Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage
in America--the Stalin Era (New York: Random House, 1999). Neumann is discussed in Haynes and Klehr, Venona
[2000], 194–95, 220.
[13]. Weinstein and Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood.
[14]. Bentley, “Bentley Deposition”. Remington in 1951 was convicted of perjury
related to Bentley’s charges and was murdered in prison. Also identified as a Soviet source in
Gorsky, “Failures in the U.S.A. (1938–1948)”.
[15]. Clerical error for John T. Fishburn.
[16]. Venona 1668 KGB New York to Moscow, 29 November
1944 is part three of a longer message, but the earlier parts were not
deciphered at all and only part of this message was decoded. Walter Rudlin is referred to as the source of
information about the relationship of the office he headed, the Economic
Intelligence Section of the Foreign Economic Administration, with the DOS. However, from the contents of the cited
remarks and the partial nature of the message it is not possible to determine
if Rudlin is a direct KGB source or if an unidentified Soviet spy was simply
passing along information the unidentified KGB source heard from Rudlin in a
benign legitimate context. Rudlin’s
name is given in the clear without a cryptonym. While the KGB sometimes used real names for sources in Venona,
more often cryptonyms were used.
[17]. “List of 25 Additional Names Given to Senate
Foreign Relations Committee,” document provided by M. Stanton Evans.
[18]. David Zablodowsky was a college associate of
Chambers and admitted that in 1936 Chambers arranged for him to act as a mail
drop between Joseph Peters, head of the CPUSA underground, and an unknown
party. Zablodowsky claimed this was a
single incident and that he was anti-fascist rather than Communist. However, during the Nazi-Soviet Pact period
he worked actively with Communist fronts that had abandoned anti-fascism. U.S.
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, Activities of United States Citizens
Employed by the United Nations (Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.,
1952), Part 1, 154.
[19]. On Currie’s assistance to the KGB, see Haynes
and Klehr, Venona [2000], 145–49.
[20]. Elizabeth Bentley, “Elizabeth Bentley FBI
Deposition, 30 November 19045, FBI File 65–14603” (1945).
[21]. Glasser’s assistance to the KGB is discussed in
Haynes and Klehr, Venona [2000], 125–28.
[22]. Bentley, “Bentley 1945 Deposition.”
[23]. Many Jane Keeney and her husband Philip O.
Keeney are identified as agents first of the GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence)
and latter for the KGB. See Haynes and
Klehr, Venona [2000], 178–80.
[24]. On Service’s role see: Harvey Klehr and Ronald
Radosh, The Amerasia Spy Case: Prelude to McCarthyism (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1996).
Service was engaged in certainly unethical and probably illegal leaking
of sensitive American diplomatic information to Amerasia in order to
promote his preferred policy positions and undercut the policies of superiors
in the Department of State and the White House who were pursuing policies he
opposed. There is no indication that he
believed he was in contact with Soviet intelligence or that Amerasia was
a conduit for Soviet intelligence.
[25]. Joseph McCarthy speech, U.S. Senate, 14 June
14, 1951, Congressional Record, vol. 97, part 5, 6602.
[26]. Joseph Raymond McCarthy, America’s Retreat
from Victory: The Story of George Catlett Marshall (New York: Devin-Adair,
1951).
[27]. As a senior State Department official,
Assistant Secretary of Sate in 1945, Acheson was mentioned in several Venona
messages, but all were reports about him, not by him, and none indicated any
relationship with Soviet intelligence.
[28]. As Army Chief of Staff, General Marshall was
mentioned a number of times in Venona messages, but all were reports about him,
not by him, and none indicated any relationship with Soviet intelligence.
[29]. Remarks of Senator Joseph McCarthy, 19 December
1950, Congressional Record.
[30]. Karr is discussed in Haynes and Klehr, Venona
[2000], 244–47.
[31]. Pearson is identified in Venona as David Karr’s
employer and simply as a prominent American journalist. There is no indication of any Pearson
cooperation with Soviet intelligence.
See Haynes and Klehr, Venona [2000], 244–45.
[32]. As a senior State Department official,
Assistant Secretary of Sate in 1945, Acheson was mentioned in several Venona
messages, but all were reports about him, not by him, and none indicated any
relationship with Soviet intelligence.
[33]. A Soviet spy in the U.S. Army, Ilya Elliott
Wolston, was a student in the Russian section of the U.S. Army intelligence
school and provided the KGB with a list of his fellow students and
instructors. Nelson Chipchin was one of
those. There is nothing adverse about Chipchin in the reference to him in the
two messages in which his name appears.
Venona 777-781 KGB New York to Moscow, 26 May 1943; Venona 893 KGB New
York to Moscow, 10 June 1943. On
Wolston work for the KGB, see Haynes and Klehr, Venona [2000], 275–76.
[34]. On Currie’s assistance to the KGB, see Haynes
and Klehr, Venona [2000], 145–49.
[35]. Bentley, “Bentley 1945 Deposition.”
[36]. Glasser’s assistance to the KGB is discussed in
Haynes and Klehr, Venona [2000], 125–28.
[37]. Bentley, “Bentley 1945 Deposition.”
[38]. Gerald Graze was not identified in Venona under
his own name. Venona does contain a
cryptonym, Arena, that FBI/NSA identified as that of Mary Price. Based on the 1948 Gorsky memo, likely this
was in error and Arena was Gerald Graze. Gorsky, “Failures in the U.S.A.
(1938–1948)”. Gerald Graze is the
brother of Stanley Graze.
[39]. Gorsky, “Failures in the U.S.A. (1938–1948).”
[40]. Gorsky, “Failures in the U.S.A. (1938–1948).”
[41]. Karr is discussed in Haynes and Klehr, Venona
[2000], 244–47.
[42]. Many Jane Keeney and her husband Philip O.
Keeney are identified as agents first of the GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence)
and latter for the KGB. See Haynes and
Klehr, Venona [2000], 178–80.
[43]. Arnold Margolin is cited by both Lee and
McCarthy as an anti-Communist who was denied DOS employment.
[44]. As Army Chief of Staff, General Marshall was
mentioned a number of times in Venona messages, but all were reports about him,
not by him, and none indicated any relationship with Soviet intelligence.
[45]. Robert T. Miller is not identified in Venona
under that name. However, Venona has a
crytonym, Mirage, that is unidentified.
The Gorsky memo identifies Mirage as Robert Miller. Gorsky, “Failures in
the U.S.A. (1938–1948)”. Miller is
discussed in Haynes and Klehr, Venona [2000], 207, 228–29.
[46]. Bentley, “Bentley Deposition.”
[47]. Franz Neumann was not identified by FBI/NSA in
Venona. However, Venona has an
unidentified cryptonym, Ruff. Ruff is
identified as Neumann in Gorsky, “Failures in the U.S.A. (1938–1948)”; and
Weinstein and Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood. Neumann is discussed in Haynes and Klehr, Venona [2000], 194–95,
220.
[48]. Weinstein and Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood.
[49]. Pearson is identified in Venona as David Karr’s
employer and simply as a prominent American journalist. There is no indication of any Pearson
cooperation with Soviet intelligence.
See Haynes and Klehr, Venona [2000], 244–45.
[50]. Bentley, “Bentley 1945 Deposition”. Remington in 1951 was convicted of perjury
related to Bentley’s charges and was murdered in prison. Also identified as a Soviet source in
Gorsky, “Failures in the U.S.A. (1938–1948)”.
[51]. Venona 1668 KGB New York to Moscow, 29 November
1944 is part three of a longer message, but the earlier messages were not
deciphered at all and only part of this message was decoded. Walter Rudlin is referred to as the source
of information about relationship of the office he headed, the Economic
Intelligence Section of the Foreign Economic Administration, with the DOS. However, from the contents of the cited
remarks and the partial nature of the message it is not possible to determine
if Rudlin is a direct KGB source or if an unidentified Soviet spy is simply
passing along information the unidentified KGB source heard from Rudlin in a
benign legitimate context. Rudlin’s
name is given in the clear without a cryptonym. While the KGB sometimes used real names for sources in Venona,
more often cryptonyms were used.
[52]. On Service’s role see: Klehr and Radosh, Amerasia
Spy Case. Service was engaged in
unethical and possibly illegal leaking of information to Amerasia in
order to promote his preferred policy positions and undercut the position of
superiors in the Department of State and the White House who were pursuing
policies he opposed. There is no
indication that he believed he was in contact with Soviet intelligence or that Amerasia
was a conduit for Soviet intelligence.
[53]. David Zablodowsky was a college associate of
Chambers and in 1936 Chambers arranged for him to act as a mail drop between
Joseph Peters, head of the CPUSA underground, and an unknown party. U.S. Senate
Internal Security Subcommittee, Activities of United States Citizens
Employed by the United Nations (Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.,
1952), Part 1, 154.
[54]. The Communist affiliations of most of those
identified as assisting Soviet espionage in Venona are discussed in Haynes and
Klehr, Venona [2000].
[55]. The expressive KGB cryptonym for Zionists was
“Rats.”