Louis F. Budenz

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Louis Francis Budenz (July 17, 1891–April 27, 1972) was an American activist and writer, as well as a Soviet espionage agent and head of the Buben group of spies. He began as a labor activist, and a member of the Communist Party USA. He became a member of the National Committee of the Party and held various editorial positions at its newspaper, the Daily Worker, from 1935 to 1945.

[edit] Expert witness

In 1945, Budenz renounced communism, returned to the Roman Catholic Church, and became an anti-communist advocate. He became an informant for the FBI and testified as an expert witness at various trials of Communists and before many of the Senate and House committees that were formed to investigate Communists.

By his own estimate, Budenz spent some 3,000 hours explaining the Communist party's "inner workings" to the FBI, as well as testifying on 33 occasions to various committees. By 1957 he estimated he had earned approximately $70,000 for his expert testimony. Budenz was a witness at the 1949 First Amendment case Dennis v. United States, brought by Eugene Dennis, General Secretary of CPUSA. He was also a key witness in the 1950 hearings before the Tydings Committee, which had been called to investigate charges made by Senator Joseph McCarthy that the State Department had numerous Communists in its employ. Budenz was called to testify regarding Owen Lattimore, a scholar on Central Asian affairs and one of the China Hands. Budenz testified that Lattimore was a member of a Communist cell within the Institute of Pacific Relations, but not an Soviet agent. The reliability of this testimony was questioned, as on two previous occasions Budenz had specifically stated that he had no knowledge that Lattimore was a Communist. In 1951, Budenz again testified against Lattimore, this time before the hearings of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee headed by Senator Pat McCarran. During his second testimony against Lattimore, Budenz claimed Lattimore was both an Soviet agent and a secret Communist.

In 1952, Senator McCarthy would praise Budenz for having "testified in practically every case in which Communists were either convicted or deported over the past 3 years; one of the key witnesses who testified against... Communist leaders."

Formerly the author of numerous articles and pamphlets in support of Communist causes, after 1945 Budenz wrote several books about the dangers and evils of Communism, as well as becoming a syndicated columnist, Catholic professor and lecturer. In 1947, he wrote an autobiography, This Is My Story. He died in Newport, Rhode Island, survived by his wife Margaret and four daughters.

[edit] References and further reading

Lichtman, Robert M. (June 2004). "Louis Budenz, the FBI, and the "list of 400 concealed Communists": an extended tale of McCarthy-era informing". American Communist History Volume 3 (Number 1). DOI:10.1080/1474389042000215947.
Lichtman, Robert M. and Cohen, Ronald (2004). Deadly Farce: Harvey Matusow and the Informer System in the McCarthy Era. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02886-4.
Olmsted, Kathryn S. (2002). Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2739-8.
Budenz, Louis F. (1947). This Is My Story. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-4191-6050-8.