Talk:William Dodd (ambassador)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page. | ||
| Stub | This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ] | ||
 |
This article is supported by the Science and academia work group. | ||
 |
This article has been automatically assessed as Stub-Class by WikiProject Biography because it uses a stub template.
|
[edit] Nazi Primer Commentary
I added some information drawn from Dodd's commentary to the 1938 translation of the Nazi Primer. I own an original version of the text which has no ISBN. I attempted to check online for the ISBN, but noted only modern translations and am unsure whether they contain his commentary. If anyone knows if they do, please add the ISBN Franklin Moore 03:00, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Children's espionage
The extensive coverage of his adult children's possible involvement in espionage would be better in a separate article rather than intheir father's bio, since it seems to have little to do with events in the father's life. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Robcat2075 (talk • contribs) 07:31, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
- Agreed. Here is the text in case any of it needs to be ported to an article for the son (daughter has her own article already):
- Upon the Ambo's arrival to Berlin, his daughter Martha began a romantic relationship with a Soviet diplomat/intel officer named Boris Vinogradov stationed in Berlin. In March 1934 NKVD Center wrote to their Berlin Station the following:
-
-
- "Let Boris Vinogradov know that we want to use him for the realization of an affair we are interested in.....According to our data, the mood of his aquaintance (Martha Dodd) is quite ripe for finally drawing her into our work."
-
-
- NKVD Center soon became dissatisfied with Vinogradov's developmental handling of Martha. He was subsequently recalled to Moscow and eventually murdered during the Soviet military/intel purges of the 1930's; of course news of his demise was kept from Martha. NKVD center then put in place a new officer (operating under jounalist cover, Izvestia) tasked with handling Martha. This new officer, Bukhartsev, successfully ran Martha until 1937, with her responding directly to NKVD tasking. She reported on secret US Embassy and State Dept business, reporting in detail on her fathers's reports to President Roosevelt. Upon conclusion of her father's tour in 1938, she was picked up by the Soviet Station in New York city, then being handled by NKVD Illegals Officer Itzhak Akhmerov.
-
- In the summer of 1938 Martha married New York millionaire Alfred Stern. Stern was at that time keen on becoming an American Ambassador and curried favor with the Democratic party (Martha made comments to her then handler that Stern was prepared to offer the Democratic party $50,000 to secure an Ambassador's posting, though he never received an appointment). In a 5 February 1942 letter to her Soviet contacts, Martha explained that she thought it would be a significant mistake to not bring on board her husband. By 1941, under Martha's tutelage her husband had become an active member of the Communist Party and several Communist-front organizations. At that time Stern reportedly had no idea of his wife's collusion with Soviet intelligence (then the NKGB). By March of that year Martha received Soviet permission to approach her husband on this matter. She soon reported that her husband responded with enthusiasm, stating, "he wanted to do something immediately. He felt he had many contacts that could be valuable in this sort of work." Most notably, Stern's primary contribution to the Soviet effort was his role in organizing a music publishing house which served as a cover employer for Soviet illegals (similar to NOCs) operating in the U.S. Stern's partners in this effort were the New York NKGB Station chief Vassily Zarubin and low-level Hollywood producer and NKGB asset Boris Morros (who was eventually recuited by the FBI and later actually testified in an FBI investigation of Martha and her husband after they had fled to Czechoslovakia).
-
- William E. Dodd, Jr. had served as an NKVD asset in Berlin during his father's diplomatic tour, passing along bits of intelligence and scuttlebutt. Upon return to the U.S. in 1938, Dodd Jr. decided to run for U.S. Congress as a Democrat. Upon learning of his plan, the NKVD had Martha formally recruit her brother prior to the elections. The NKVD provided unsolicited funds for Dodd Jr's campaign, though ultimately he was unsuccesful in his bid for Congress. Soon thereafter Dodd Jr. decided to puchase a relatively small Virginia newspaper, The Blue Ridge Herald. Lacking sufficient funds, the NKVD eventually contributed USD 3,500 for this effort. Ultimately, according to NKVD records, Dodd Jr remained a disappointment to his handlers. In 1943 Dodd Jr. was investigated by the FBI for suspicion of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union. His Russian handlers withdrew completely from running him, though by 1945 Dodd Jr. had taken a post within the Soviet Union's TASS newsagency's New York offices (overseen by New York NKGB Station chief). Most interesting is that according to her NKGB file, Martha later complained to her NKGB handlers that due to her brother's elevated pofile (FBI attention), her and Alfred Stern (husband) were having difficulty pusuing their covert activity. Thus, Dodd Jr. was fired from the TASS offices, never to have further contact with Soviet intelligence.
-
- Martha and Stern eventually attempted to flee to the Soviet Union during the Khrusshchev era, though the Soviets preferred the Sterns live in Czechoslovakia. A KGB document dated October 1975 noted that the Sterns spent 1963-1970 in Cuba. Life behind the iron curtain eventually proved to not measure up to the Stern's communist idealism, and in the 1970's an American attorney (under close KGB scrutiny) began attempts to negotiate a return to the US for the Sterns. These efforts proved unsuccessful.
- —Bellhalla 17:19, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
