CIA Comsymps

Louis Proyect lnp3 at panix.com
Mon Nov 23 16:18:42 PST 1998


Michael Perelman wrote:
>Actually, the CIA [or at least the OSS] had to be full of comsymps,
>because they had to work with the underground during WW II and the commies
>were the most effective fighters.

In Chapter 7 of Harvey Klehr's "Secret World of American Communism," titled "The American Communist Underground Fights World War II" we get clear evidence of an incestuous relationship between the CP and the American state apparatus. In Document 71, General Fitin of the NKVD reports on a meeting between Lincoln Brigade veteran Milton Wolff and William Donovan. Donovan, founder and head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner to the CIA. Wolff has offered the services of Spanish Civil war veterans to "diversionary" work in Axis territories. The document states, "In the recent period WOLFF has provided American intelligence with 10 Americans, 1 Greek, and 3 Yugoslavs, who are [officially] considered on active duty in the army and undergoing training in special ("commando") groups. Apart from the party members indicated, WOLFF has provided 6 nonparty Hungarians and 4 Czechs to American intelligence." (p. 261)

Wolff ended up in the US army, but was dissatisfied with his duties and requested reinstatement into the OSS. Top spy Donovan agreed and Wolff received a commission in 1943. He found himself working in Italy with a number of Lincoln Brigade veterans whom he had originally recruited for the OSS.

According to Klehr, the OSS initiated contact with the CPUSA. "Not only did Donovan approach Wolff, but he remained in contact with [Eugene] Dennis specifically because of Dennis's role as the CPUSA liaison with American intelligence." (p. 270) This is a most peculiar sort of subversive spy network that has an official liaison with this most secretive and strategic of American government institutions. I do not recall SDS'ers or Black Panthers maintaining such a liaison during the 1960's. Klehr tries to explain away Donovan's cooperation with the CP as wartime "expediency."

Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)



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