“The motion carries,” Mattingly said. “So, with something less than great enthusiasm, we turn to the Top Secret–Presidential area. Lieutenant, please understand that it was not hyperbole when I said before that information thus classified is so important to the security of the United States that extreme measures are authorized to prevent, or punish, its disclosure. Are you sure you understand that the definition of ‘extreme measures’ is the taking of life?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Harry,” Mattingly said, and gestured for Harry to speak.
“During the late unpleasantness, Lieutenant,” Harry began, and then interrupted himself. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll call you Jimmy. All right?”
“Yes, sir.”
This guy speaks German as well as I do.
“During the late unpleasantness, Jimmy, there was a section of the German High Command Intelligence Service known as Abwehr Ost. It dealt with the East—the Soviets. It was commanded by Colonel, later General, Reinhard Gehlen.”
Who is probably the guy sitting across from me.
“When it became apparent that German defeat was inevitable, just a matter of time, General Gehlen made contact with Allen Dulles, who headed the OSS in the European Theater of Operations, and proposed a deal. He would turn over to the United States all of his assets—including his human assets, which included agents in place in the Kremlin—if we promised to keep his people, and their families, out of the hands of the Russians.
“He gave us, as proof of the value of the intelligence he was offering, the names of Soviet spies who had infiltrated our Manhattan Project, the development of the atomic bomb. We had no idea who these people were, but on investigation, learned that they were indeed Russian spies.
“Mr. Dulles took the proposal to General Eisenhower, who authorized the deal. Neither General Donovan nor President Roosevelt were made aware of the arrangement—”
“Why not?” Cronley blurted.
“Because General Donovan would have felt duty bound to inform President Roosevelt, and if that had happened, the Russians would have immediately learned of it. There were people around the President—including his wife—who genuinely believed the Soviets were incapable of spying upon the United States. And there were others, including specifically the secretary of the Treasury, who were so outraged by the abominable behavior of the Nazis that they were more interested in retribution and punishment than anything else.”
“Morgenthau,” Mattingly interjected, “formally proposed that the senior one hundred Nazis, and all SS officers, be shot out of hand—it’s understandable, he’s Jewish—on the spot wherever and whenever located.”
“And there were Nazis, and SS, in Abwehr Ost?” Cronley asked.
“Yes, there were,” Mattingly said, and again motioned for Harry to continue.
Harry nodded. “When President Roosevelt died, Mr. Dulles went to President Truman and told him of the deal he’d made. Truman gave him permission to continue with the deal until he’d had time to think it—as well as the the entire question of the OSS—over.”
“I don’t understand. . . .”
“The OSS was not popular with either the Army establishment or with the FBI—Mr. Hoover believed the FBI should have been in charge of both intelligence and counterintelligence—or the State Department or the Navy or, as I said before, especially the Treasury Department. There had been calls for our disbandment even before the war was over. On becoming President, Truman was subjected to enormous pressure to immediately put us out of business.”
“And I think he would have,” Mattingly spoke up again, “had his feelings not been hurt by his not having been told about the atomic bomb. If it hadn’t been for that, he would have gone along with the Army brass, Hoover, and Morgenthau.”
“Excuse me,” Cronley said. “If it hadn’t been for what?”
“The day after Truman became President,” Harry said, “Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, who headed the Manhattan Project, went into the Oval Office and said, in effect, ‘Mr. President, there’s something you have to know. We have a secret weapon of enormous power, an atomic bomb.’”
“He was Vice President and didn’t know about the atomic bomb?” Cronley asked, incredulously.
“He was Vice President and didn’t know about the atomic bomb,” Mattingly confirmed. “Roosevelt didn’t think he had the need to know. Which I believe was good for us, the OSS. Truman began to question the motives of those calling for our destruction. He did not shut us down immediately, and he gave Mr. Dulles permission to continue our arrangement with General Gehlen.”
“But you said he did order the end of the OSS,” Cronley said.
“He did. We’re officially shut down. But Mr. Dulles was able to convince the President that the arrangement with General Gehlen was too important not to continue. It could not be turned over to the Army or anyone else. If that had happened, it would have been exposed, and public outrage would have killed it once and for all.”
“Public outrage about what?”
“General Gehlen proposed the arrangement for two major reasons,” Mattingly said. “First, he genuinely believed the Soviets were evil and intended to take over all of Europe and then the world. And that the only thing that could stop them was us, the United States Army. And he knew how valuable his assets would be to us.
“Second, Gehlen knew there would be enormous pressure on Eisenhower to turn over to the Soviets anyone connected with Abwehr Ost. He knew that that meant his people and their families would be interrogated—tortured—and then either killed or shipped off to Siberia to be worked to death.
“So the price for his assets was the protection of his people. And we agreed to protect them.”