Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (102 page)

Because so many of the sources in Silvermaster's and Perlo's group
worked in the Treasury Department, career rivalries and slights also
spoiled relationships. Frank Coe blocked Harold Glasser's transfer to the
State Department "ostensibly for business reasons, but actually out of
jealousy." Glasser was angry that he was passed over for Harry White's
job when the latter moved to the World Bank and blamed it on Silvermaster. Silvermaster, in turn, was upset that Glasser was part of Perlo's
network and not his. White was reluctant to recommend Glasser for promotion because he believed Morgenthau wanted to minimize the number of Jews in high positions. Silverman had long resented the appointment of Silvermaster and Ullmann to run the group since both were
relatively late arrivals in the Washington Communist underground.43

When it took over the Perlo group in 1944, the KGB discovered that
the same pattern existed. Members of the group had come to despise
Victor Perlo. Charles Kramer, for example, regarded him as "insufficiently
competent as leader for himself." Perlo, in turn, thought Kramer too
"`passive"' and had frequent dust-ups with him. Assigned by Anatoly
Gorsky to meet with Kramer and resolve the issue, Joseph Katz reported
that he sympathized with Kramer's position and thought Perlo should be
reporting to Kramer rather than the other way around. Nor was Kramer
the only one to resent Perlo. Harry Magdoff told Katz that he didn't get
along with him and neither did Ted Fitzgerald, who quarreled with Perlo
constantly. Gorsky (then chief of the KGB Washington station) reported
to Moscow in early 1945 that "`at the moment they are engaged in their
latest quarrel, the roots and substance of which are unknown to us."'
Akhmerov discounted Bentley's diagnosis that Perlo was "`a psychological case himself"' but only "`because she tells me that most of all our
people are psychological cases."' He did allow that Perlo was "`very apprehensive and neurotic.' "44

Even spousal relationships had to be handled delicately. Both Harold
Glasser and his wife Faye were sources, but she resented her secondclass status. One report noted that she "`feels hostility with regard to male
chauvinism and explained her period of inactivity not by objective circumstances but by chauvinism on the part of the organization. When the
men were presented with gifts, she took the fact that women were excluded from among those who received gifts very badly (this was rectified,
and she was convinced that this was only a belated act of gift-giving and
was very excited by the gift that was given to her). When, about two
months ago, `Roma' [Faye Glasser] expressed a desire to work, she nevertheless felt unhappy because she will have to work as her husband's 'adjunct,' rather than independently.' "45

All of these personal feuds and animosities impinged on the efficiency
of the party-based networks because its members worked together so
closely and constantly interacted. After the KGB took direct control of the
Perlo apparatus, Joseph Katz reported: "`I saw `Raid' [Perlo] several times
and spoke with Magdoff as well, and I believe that I now have an excellent idea of how the group works as a whole. It seems that the group
worked exactly like a fellowcountiyman [CPUSA] cell. They held meetings at each other's homes, while their wives typed up available reports.
Then "Raid" would receive materials from them and pass them on. Taking into account the state of konspiratsia-there is not much that can be
done. I urged `Raid' to stop holding meetings so regularly and to foster
individuality in them insofar as it was possible."' In March 1945, in the
midst of the KGB's takeover of the party networks, Gorsky summarized
the situation:

"Konspiratsia, both among the members of `Raid's' [Perlo's] former group and,
unfortunately, among oth. info. groups here, leaves a lot to be desired. Moreover, all of them know each other as fellowcountrymen-informers [Communist-informers] and also know what kind of work each of them does. The
following serves as an example: When `X' [Katz] gave `Tan' [Magdoff] an assignment on oil, the latter replied that Frank Coe could do a better job carrying out this assignment, meaning that he had materials on this subject. Anoth.
example-when he received an assignment relating to the conference in San
Francisco, `Raid' said that `Richard' [Harry White] could do a better job, as
could the members of `Bill's' group (i.e., `Albert' [Akhmerov]). When he received an assignment on oil, `Raid' said that a certain David Ramsay from NY
was already working on it.

The list of examples could go on. As we already reported earlier, in conversation with me `Ruble' [Glasser] named more than ten people who are known to him as informants [sources]. `Raid' gave us a list that included 14 people
with ties to groups led by some people named Blumberg and Schimmel (from
Congress) and `Bill' (`Albert'). Once, in conversation with me, `X' said that
conversations with `Raid,' `Tan,' et al., left him with the impression that there
are almost a hundred illegal informants of this sort in Washington, who know
of and about each other. In the course of working with `Raid,' for instance, it
became known that until very recently, his group had represented itself for
several years in its work with `Myrna' [Bentley] as so-called fellowcountryman
cells. The members of the cells would get together at each other's apartments
every week and discuss which materials should be given to `Myrna' or her
predecessors. At these meetings, they would pick a courier whose job was to
get these materials where they needed to go, etc. Naturally, we put an end to
all this, but the disclosure connected with it remains a fact."46

How dangerous was this? Joseph Katz stated it bluntly: "The whole organization is now in a situation such that if anyone begins so much as a
cursory investigation, the whole group with their direct contacts will immediately be exposed." Moscow Center agreed, demanded greater secrecy and a swifter transition from the large, party-based networks to
small units under the direction of a KGB professional: "`This will help us
eliminate the deeply rooted system in which fellowcountrymen/infor-
mants [Communists/informants] not only know about each other's work,
but even hold `production conferences' of a kind regarding the collecting
of information. Clearly this situation is abnormal and intolerable, b/c
sooner or later, it could have unfortunate consequences for us."' Moscow
Center sent this message to the KGB Washington station in May 1945.
The "unfortunate consequences" were six months away.47

By early 1945, the KGB had succeeded in taking over the Golos/Bentley
networks and agents. However, Moscow Center wanted to make a thorough job of it. Although she was no longer in liaison with the Silvermaster and Perlo networks or the independent agents she had supervised,
Bentley remained a security risk. She ran a business linked to both the
CPUSA and the Soviet Union. Golos, in fact, had set up the U. S. Service
and Shipping Corporation (USSSC) as a vehicle to continue the activities
of World Tourists after it was forced to register as the agent of a foreign
power, and it was also secretly financed by the CPUSA. Just as World
Tourists had brought Golos into the FBI's sights, USSSC might lead to
FBI interest in Bentley. Moscow urged Anatoly Gorsky in November 1944 to have Bentley stop her work at USSSC; break her ties to the
CPUSA; and go underground with a new identity, fraudulent documents,
and a new job. Gorsky himself pointed out several other areas of vulnerability. Bentley had traveled frequently to Washington with no apparent
reason, and other employees at USSSC knew she went there for "`special'
purposes." She met with sources without taking security precautions,
used her own apartment for meetings, and gave some sources her home
phone number. The KGB reached an agreement with Browder in December that USSSC "would shift totally to our control," while World
Tourists would stay with the CPUSA. Bentley, however, was "to be removed from both companies ."48

Easing Bentley out of her role as a conduit to the KGB's Washington
sources and removing her from both CPUSA and KGB-linked institutions
seemed to be a prudent security decision. It turned out to be a personnel
disaster. Bentley wrote an autobiography for the KGB that paints a picture
of a lonely woman who had found fulfillment only in her relationship with
Jacob Golos and his covert work. She wrote of him: "`I loved him very much
and lived with him for five years until his death. I was as deeply in love with
him when he died as when I first met him, and I still feel the same way, although when I found out certain things after his death about his polit. life,
my feelings diminished somewhat. No man has interested me since John
[Gobs] died."' After his death, the KGB had destroyed what was left of
her one satisfying relationship; it ended the underground work into which
he had initiated her, ejected her from the company he had created for her
to run, and ordered her to cut ties with the CPUSA, where she had met him
and to which both had been devoted.49

Bentley's personal frustrations and heavy drinking began to become obvious by the end of 1944, and the KGB paid for her to spend a week at a
health resort. Gorsky met her in December to deliver a Christmas present,
and she responded by making a pass at him. First, she said he reminded her
of her late lover, Golos. "Then she said that it's hard for a young, single
woman to live without a man and described her physical suffering as a result of this." Gorsky told Moscow that she needed to be married off but that
no suitable candidate had been found. In Moscow, Ovakimyan told Graur
to consider the issue, but nothing happened. By mid-1945 Bentley's frustrations had boiled over. Gorsky reported that Rae Elson, a KGB contact
who worked with Bentley at USSSC, had informed the KGB

"with great outrage that Myrna [Bentley] had proposed that she become her
lover. In this regard "Irma" [Elson] remarked that "M." ["Myrna"] had at tempted to establish an intimate relationship with her `despite the fact that she
has a male lover.' This latter fact intrigued us, since M. had always complained
in her conversations with me and "X" [Katz] that she had no boyfriend to satisfy her natural needs. We gave "X" a special assignment to have a cautious and
tactful chat with M. on this topic. After the usual whining and refusal to admit
her guilt "M." told first "X" and then me that in early May she became acquainted with a man in her hotel who was waiting for a room, and on the same
day she got into an intimate relationship with him and began to meet with him
from time to time. "M." was gushing praise about the man and declared that
he would be a perfect husband for her. Then "M's" infatuation apparently
began to cool, and she told us a number of details about her lover that left no
doubt that he was an agent for the "Hut" [FBI] or for "Arsenal" [Army] counterintelligence, possibly planted especially for "Myrna." We suggested that M.
break off the `affair' and go away for a couple of months on vacation. She did
both, but to what extent she left her lover-P. Heller-is hard to say...

As you know, "M." has not been in contact with our probationers [sources]
for a long time already. "M.'s" behavior in this whole business was exceptionally bad. For example, she told me at the outset that she had gotten involved
with H. [Heller] on "X's" instructions. Yet she told "X" that I was the one who
had permitted her to live with H. When both statements were rejected as
patent rubbish and nonsense, "M" told us that `the Amer. fellowcountrymen
[Communists] were venal riffraff and all of them, beginning with "Helmsman"
[Browder], could be bought and sold for a couple of cents,' whereas she felt
very good with H., like someone very close to her.' Later M. apologized for
those phrases under the pretext that she said them without thinking, under the
influence of wine (she could never be called a teetotaler). In short and on the
whole, "M" as of today is a serious and dangerous burden for us here. She
should be taken home [Moscow], but to tell the truth, I don't know how to
do this, since she won't go illegally"

(Heller, as it turned out, was not with the FBI or Army counterintelligence. He was simply a man taking advantage of an easily available
woman.)50

Gorsky tried several measures to improve Bentley's mood. Along with
several other American agents (Katz, Silvermaster, and Harry Gold) she
had received the "Order of the Red Star" for assistance to the Soviet
Union. As a morale booster, Gorsky brought an official Soviet certificate
and the actual medal to a meeting so she could look at them. She was, of
course, not allowed to keep them. He also paid for another vacation,
sending her "to a seaside resort for treatment and rest" in late August
1945. Gorsky also suggested once more that she move to another city or country and adopt a new identity, but she categorically refused, demanding to return to her job at USSSC. The KGB considered but rejected allowing her to go back to her old position and then getting her to
come to Russia under the pretext of negotiating an agreement with Intourist. A nervous Moscow Center warned Gorsky not to raise the issue
again since it might only further alienate her. Instead, it recommended
reducing the frequency of meetings with her, keeping her away from her
old contacts, finding her another job, and continuing to support her financially. It even considered encouraging her to become publicly active
in the CPUSA (also hoping that the party might be able to find her a husband), ensuring she remained tied to the Communist movement but at
some distance from illegal work.51

None of these palliatives worked. Gorsky met with Bentley in late
September after her vacation and reported to Moscow:

"She was half-drunk. When I suggested rescheduling the meeting for another
time, she declared that if I broke off the meeting, we wouldn't see her anymore. She said that she had had a drink so as to relate something to me while
intoxicated that she couldn't bring herself to relate while sober. This intrigued
me, so I stayed for the meeting. "Myrna" [Bentley] asked whether we really
don't want to finance the "Complex" [USSSC], enter into a `human' contract
with it, and reduce customs import duties on parcels. I confirmed our decision
on this question and declined to discuss the contract with Intourist and other
matters.