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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.

 

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[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.”