Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley (1905-1963) A graduate of Vassar, Bentley was studying in Italy at the University of Florence when she first became interested in fascism. In 1934 she returned to America and abandoned fascism, joining the American League Against War and Fascism and the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).
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Golos network
In 1938, while working at the Italian Library of Information in New York, Bentley met Jacob Golos, the chief of Soviet espionage operations in the United States. Bentley became Golos' lover and provided him with information acquired during her work with the Italian government. After Whittaker Chambers broke with the secret apparatus in 1938, Bentley assumed his job as courier . It was in this capacity that Bentley spoke of her telephone conversations with Julius Rosenberg from the fall of 1942 to November 1943.
Every two weeks from 1941 to 1944, Bentley traveled from New York City to the house near Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. shared by Helen Silvermaster and Lud Ullman. At first, Bentley picked up secrets Silvermaster had transcribed longhand, but when the volume of material grew unwieldy, Ullman set up a darkroom to photograph the documents. Bentley carried the undeveloped rolls of film in her knitting bag back to Manhattan and gave them to Golos. Later the film would be shipped to Moscow via diplomatic pouches, which are not subject to border inspections.
Bentley, as Golos' successor after his death in 1943, ran the Silvermaster group, which had members in several U.S. government departments, including the Office of the President. The network was led by Nathan Gregory Silvermaster.
The Silvermaster group was taken over in September 1944 by Iskhak Akhmerov, chief of the KGB's illegal station in the U.S. after a bitter struggle. Bentley had opposed the KGB takeover because she felt they drove their agents too hard. Bentley’s objection was overruled by Earl Browder.
Defection
In November 1945, fearful of Soviet surveillance in Washington D.C. and New York, Bentley walked into the New Haven Connecticut office of the FBI and defected from Soviet espionage work. The FBI provided her with cover now that her life clearly was in jeopardy. FBI Code name "Gregory" was used during initial debriefings fearing a leak of the sensitive information and reprisal. This soon created a problem at the White House. Eventually Soviet controllers learned of her defection and other operatives came under investigation. Two counterintelligence debriefing memoranda with outlines of Soviet espionage in the United States were passed up to the White House, the initial debriefing with code name "Gregory" disclosing the network, and an extensive memo with her real name attached. The substance included naming names of high level administration officials. The White House, suspicious of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, was sceptical of the source. Unbeknownst to the President was the existence of the Army Signals Intelligence Service (SIS) highly secret Venona project, which also was giving information attesting to the existence in wartime of a large foreign espionage ring which had penetrated vital departments, bureaus, and agencies, within the United States government.
Eventually Bentley's story was leaked, and when President Truman was asked at a press conference about statements she made regarding the involvement of high level administration personal, Truman responded that he believed the charges to be a "red herring".
The causes and consequences of Truman's remark for 50 years thereafter had a huge impact on American domestic politics.
Bentley was asked in debriefings to name persons that were most adept at placing communist personnel throughout the government. She answered: "I would say our two best ones were Harry Dexter White and Lauchlin Currie. They had an immense amount of influence and knew people, and their word would be accepted when they recommended someone."
The public first became aware of Bentley when she testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1948. Bentley testified at the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Newspapers referred to her as the "Red Spy Queen." She became a celebrity ex-communist and published an autobiography entitled Inside the Russian Spy Organization. Her code name, provided by Soviet intelligence, was "umnitsa", meaning "clever girl" or "good girl."
Sources
- John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999)
- Douglas Linder, A Trial Account (2001)
External link
- Truman Presidential Library Oral History Interview with Stephen J. Spingarn