(tog010s-02727] of ae “€ o- , . me * ° : ++ Yhad access to the pages of Mexico's most respected newspapers, . "penetrations of the Communist Party uf Mexico and the Trotskyite offshoot and two organizations that could accomplish medium-size 73 . public demonstrations on call. From time to time our Mexican agents disrupted Communist meetings held indoors with CIA-manufactured stink bombs and itching powder. One such disturbance took place during the well- attended recantation speech of Communist artist Diego Rivera. ; At my request Joe Bryan lent me an artist who spent a month at» the station and turned out enough poster designs so that for several. months a diferent anti-Communist poster appeared on the walls of Mexico City each week. These poster campaigns did much to awaken Mexican public consciousness to the menace of interna- | tional Communism and appeared under the aegis of an organization headed by a Mexican of unimpeachable reputation. A long letter from Bob and Maxine North in Bangkok informed me that Bob’s cover work was to establish a Thai film industry, erect a modern studio and produce a lengthy film reenactment of an epic. Thai legend. For her part, Maxine was learning Thai and improving her already first-rate golf game. En route Washington for consulta- tion, Bob spent a few days with me in Mexico City, where we planned a complicated operation designed to discredit a prominent Mexican Communist. The operation required critical timing and a good deal of work by the printing services section of CIA’s Technical Services Division. The Mexican Communist leader was then visiting Peking. On the day.of his departure Bob North airmailed me a copy of the English lmguage_—____ Finnouneing his departure, sendiyig adupli- - cate copy to CIA headquarters. To replace the departure an- -nouncement I fabricated a story in which the Mexican/;Communist Was quoted as deprecating fellow Mexicans and saying,/‘among other things, that Mexican peasants could never hope to achieve the cultural level of the superior Chinese. I cabled the fabrication to headquarters, where a special type font had been/made by repro- ducing samples from th My fabricated story was set in this duplicate type and the entire front page ofth e-created Ix technical means. A dozen copies were pouched to me and were received befor tar ist returné Mexi re the target Communist returned to Mexico. [See / The fabricated newspapers were made/ available to cagent- ~- Inunalists who published facsimiles of the offensive interview to- f f An f LLB MOG A gc fo &
14-00000 “* é according to their pattern, th Bureau target. agreed in principle, but reminded the ambassador that CLA had no arrest powers whatever, foreign or domestic. I was 80 embarrassed, of course, that CIA had not known of Greenglass’ presence, much less the instructions given him by Soviet Intelli- gence. , ‘ Twenty years later Iwas to learn that what the Bureau had done to Greenglass, they did routinely to fugitives they were able to locate abroad. ; I had not taken part in a surreptitious-entry operation since Sparrow H burglarized the office of the Italian consul in Shanghai and photagraphed his lists of Nazi and Soviet agents in China. That entry had been hardly surreptitious, with uniformed men piling out ~ Xy ofjeeps and bursting into the consulate, where we set upa Recordak camera and photographed records for many hours, hardly caring whether the consul appeared or not. l mbhassy in Mexico City was located two blocks from the American Embassy in an apartment building. From our CIA offices we had a direct line of sight to the front windows of the embassy, which were on the third floor of the apartment building. According to prescribed form, we cased the target office and mounted round-the-clock surveillance on the principal embassy officers. With the concurrence of the National Security Agency.a date was fixed for surreptitious entry, and a week or so before that date a team of CIA safecrackers arrived in town. These highly skilled ‘Men were. part of a small cadre of specialists that traveled, and.” perhaps still travel, for entry operations in different parts of the . world, 7 We recruited the charwoman who cleaned th hassy offices and placed a microphone in the ambassadors office from which could be heard conversations relayed to an apartment—the Listening Post—we had rented one floor above. The microphone installation supplemented telephone taps which had been active for some time. Several station cars were equipped with mobile transceivers that operated on frequencies not normally utilized in Mexico. We had a floor plan of the offices, a description of. the safe, and a putty imprint of its keyhole. The charwoman pro- vided us witha key to the embassy service door, and we duplicated it. Now we were ready to move. A Friday night had been selected for the first entry attempt, for, eft their offices early CN ter sey : 2. ¢. Friday afternoon and With the aid of bino- -- could be seen from m > ws ofany movement + the offices that Frida or apartments and ¢ eleven that night su asleep and the rema phone call was plac pickup mike we coul The word was Go. Using the duplic target premises and the microphone we did not really need “could héar their co . The operating p operations I partici black muslin, to el seen outside the er Meanwhile. in | drinking tequila a: begun his cultivat: Above, the ent kevhale and, whe - sturdy duplicate k ing device was ap; example, the tick As soon as the taken of the conte to the photograp! original position. team sel up ac photography. Fic ‘cal system, and { safe were photoe Inside an inn: American curren completed, the | in reverse order, Aste » ESS . hate! pe
14-00000 | 7 ssador Friday afternoon and did not r urn until Monday at midmorning. nglass” With the aid of binoculars, the interior of the ambassador's office ntelli- could be seen from my office, the planted microphone would inform 81 us ofany movement within thejtarget, and as each staff member left one to the offices that Friday afternoon, they were followed to their homes locate or apartments and continuing surveillance established. By about ew eleven that night surveillance reported most of the staf members since _ asleep and the remaining few accoupted for. A precautionary tele- anghai phone call was placed to th mbassy; through the That pickup mike we could hear it ring repeate ly, but no one answered. gout The word was Go. _ ordak _ Using the duplicate key, the entry team gained access to the aring target premises and reported the location dark and quiet. Through . the microphone we could hear them moving quietly around. They locks did not really need to transmit to us on their walkie-talkies, for we dour could hear their conversations perfectly well. : 7 aaa fthe ‘The operating procedure followed in this and all other entry’ ling . operations I participated in was to caver all windows with opaque and black muslin, to eliminate the possibility of team flashlights being sassy seen outside the embassy, then the team went to work on the safe. ey a Meanwhile, in the basement below, the night watchman was that drinking tequila and playing cards with one of our agents whe had ‘led begun his cultivation a month earlier. and Above, the entry team forced a soft metal compound into the safe “the keyhole and, when the compound hardened, used it to make a — — _sturdy duplicate kev. Before opening the safe, an amplifying listen- Emo ing device was applied to the keyhole to detect such sounds as, for fice example, the ticking of a time lock or a booby-trap bomb. an As saan as the safe door was. open, a Polaroid photograph was we. taken of the contents and developed on the spot. Later, by referring lich to the. photograph, everything in the safe could be replaced in its ped - original pesition. In a small room off the ambassador's affice the ally texm set up a camera specially designed by CIA for document nof photography. Floodlights were plugged into the embassy’s electri- tro. cal system, and for the next three hours the entire contents of the ted sale were photographed. Inside an inner drawer the team found more than $30,000 in or American currency but were ordered to leave it there. Photography rly completed, the team packed up and withdrew from the target area . in reverse order, removing the blackout drapes just before they left.
er pig X34: Su where fhey changed 82 separafely was the photogr “The ghde-book film w filmes! documents were examined he Mexico City st promine were ambassadorial n inunitions in Mexico Soviet Embassy contact and ambassador appraised senior If we were able to bur Mexican burglars. nt Mexicans still on their ta é Before/dawn the entry team had flown PUNT resins wee a SRA ae a co EER TT hentia Lathes rat TR tte i ” from Mexico to Dallas, identities and flew to Washington. Pouched aphic record of their night-long work. as sent at once to NSA, and the rest of the at leisure by interested sections of ation received lists of Mexicans whom mbassy had subverted, as well as the names of rget lists. Of equal importance otes covering his efforts to purchase arms and , a physical description of the ambassador's a number of profiles in which the officials of the American Embassy. glarize at will, we were also vulnerable to An FBI agent and his wife, asleep in their bed, were chloroformed and their dog killed while burgl ars removed everything from their home witha moving van. My own home had been entered twice and looted. We lost my wife's jewelry, my silver, a radio and other valuables. Al but Dorothy and ] preferred to wait, would produce, at least, her jewelry. A distinctive sapphire earring of my wife's h the second set of burglars, and with in the Thieves Market legal attaché and myself, Mexican home, assuring me they were following Moreover, the insuran Presently Iwas sum strongboa opened for missing jewelry. T identified it strongbox closed, locked evidence, the detectiv unprosecuted. Twas much less int recovery of my wife's looms. T consulted with the insurers, who indicated that the jewels it to go on, typewriter, assorted sterling l these effects were insured, hoping the Mexican police ad been dropped by its mate was located downtown. Spurred on by the urgings of the detectives called daily at my all leads intensively, ce company had offered a large reward for the return of our stolen valuables. moned to Mexican police headquarters and a my inspection. In it was most of my wife's as such, but to my surprise saw the and removed. The jewels were needed for e told me; otherwise the thieves would go erested in a thief's prosecution than in the valuables, many of which were family heir- would be released to me as soon as the reward was paid. After this was done, Twas again summoned to police headquarters and again permitted to see my wife's possessions. This time I expected to take BE on ae eget eet nanan week ery them with me, but n number of men and n suggested an addition ; sumatlready paid him it was quite enough. | what figure he had in of scotch would do ni shooting him, but ba word, the detective c the strongbox to me knew, he would be a the black market. Thad been slow to American policemen There now arrive » Smith addressed joi: ‘two stations were to succeed the OSO in: change with what g: reassigned. Not Jon. within three month. Before departing, faith and our daught. kept this intelligen: inevitably produce i and making Jast-mit ‘trucked away and « From there we fle given us by Doroths Washington to find; Twas to spend a ye covert operations fc prior experience w
them with me, but no, not just yet. The detective dilated upon the number of men and man-hours the investigation had consumed and | suggested an additional reward should be forthcoming. I named the sum already paid him by the insurance company and suggested that it was quite enough. He closed the lid of the strongbox. Iasked him what figure he had in mind. He raised the strongbox lid. Five cases of scotch would do nicely, he told me with a vulpine grin. I felt like shooting him, but bargained him down to three. True at last to his word, the detective came to my home the following day, turned over the strongbox to me and carted off three cases of scotch, which, I knew, he would be able to sell for three or four hundred dollars on the black market. I had been slow to learn the traditional way of dealing with Latin American-policemen, but it was an object lesson I never forgot. There now arrived from Washington a long dispatch from Beetle Sinith addressed jointly to the OSO station chief and to myself. The two stations-were to be merged and the overall station chief would succeed the OSO incumbent. I was named deputy. I accepted the change with what good grace | could muster, but asked that I be reassigned. Not long thereafter the new station chief arrived and within three months my replacement reported to the embassy. Before departing, Dorothy and I were remarried in her Catholic faith and our daughters baptized as Catholics. For as long as could I kept this intelligence from my parents, for I knew that it would ‘inevitably produce ill feeling. Then, after a month of farewell parties and making last-minute purchases and packing, we saw our lift van trucked away and were driven by friends to the airport. From there we flew to Florida, where we vacationed in a cottage given us by Dorothy's mother. Toward the end of my leave I went to Washington to find; whouse and receive word of my next assignment. I was to spend a year or so at headquarters, I was told; as chief of covert operations for an area of the world with which I had had no prior experience whatever: the Balkans. 83
to. : During his first few months, however, Woodward frequently ta- expressed astonishment at the breadth and depth of my contacts ; tro across the country, and as a straight Foreign Service type he re- 415 ad, - sented my progress, feeling that CIA officers should, somehow, be - relegated to the back room, with only legitimate FSOs allowed any.” ery 4 personal contact in the host country. Although I could not have | wO- ni disagreed more, I'did my best to maintain working relations with lin os him, though I was not always successful. . a sico Just before national elections the embassy predicted another nist a Colorado win and officially discounted the challenge of Nardone and tive his Ruralista-Blanco supporters. But for the first time in nearly a ited century the Colorados were defeated, and at that night's victory ka party tendered Nardone by his enthusiasts, I was the lone American rbe _ invited from the embassy: And it galled Woodward that.though he ers. was obliged to meet the incoming President before inauguration, he assi- \sas forced to arrange the introduction through me, for no other eral *S~*””~Sseetbvassy officer was on speaking, much less social, terms with the 7 fine so ' President-elect. After inauguration Nardone replaced the chief of. ame. ~ police, but I persuaded him to maintain the chief of military intelli- OW - gence as the best available man for the job. ° nels . The new police chief was an Army colonel who knew nothing end- |. about police work and less about intelligence. But he was loyal to edof “ Nardone, and because’1 was obviously a favorite of the new: — F the of President's, he gave me full cooperation, JVhen I took him on an and i “4 inspection of our clandestine] ___ Dthe new police chief dand ot vas astounded to find ‘ife. A Later he told ma his predecessor had either carried off or bert ey destroy ed the card ites oh} known subversives in Uruguay. (Actu- “al ex- «| ally, when I heard the files ere to be destroyed, Lasked permission - Rica. 2 tu photocopy them before {Ne cards were destroyed by the outgoing - | ¥ood- police chief. These photdeopies had since been integrated into the oy pro- files of my station.) Without violting his predecessor's confidence, I ole. told the new police chigf that from my own files | would be happy at Vishion wnt time to supply hinywith information on any individual of interest ur gime. tw his department. . \ ~ 7 » . disap- While ata country club dance earned from the embassy watch . “Long no | tlicer that my father had died, and I departed early next morning to is cat my 4 Pancamy mother in Albany and make funeral arrangements in Ham- 1, and : srt He was buried in the Hunt cgmetery plot beside my infant : t | tiother, and Twas granted a week's we to help my mother settle : . i ; “we Stee =. eer ee 4 ART eats 0 Gul CAGAG LTT 1.0 Cy ' Do Net Rearoduce