CIA Spymaster_George Kisevalter

by Clarence Ashley III

  The planes were very carefully inspected by the Soviet mechanics while the Americans stood by saying, "What the hell? We are giving them the planes. Why are they wasting our time looking them over, right down to the last screw?" Of course, if one of these planes crashed on the way to the front, the Soviets had the name of the mechanic who had accepted the aircraft. In those days, Stalin would then have that man on his way to some suicide battalion and that probably would have been the end of him.

  The Soviet and American mechanics could talk with each other through the interpreters. While some in the outfit were up in the control tower translating what the Americans in the tower said to the Soviet pilots during takeoffs, etc., some were stationed in Moses Point and some were in Nome. Moses Point was out in the wilderness, about two-thirds of the way from Fairbanks to Nome and near nothing. Usually two American soldiers just sat there in a Quonset hut using a radio to talk with the pilots as they flew by. The post was there simply for emergency landings. Fortunately, none occurred during the entire duration of the ALSIB operation.10

  The Soviets brought only a few interpreters and, at first, were suspicious of the U.S. soldiers. George had to get them all fingerprinted and photographed. They did not want to do this for fear that their security was being violated. So, he told them that they would need to be fingerprinted and photographed in order to obtain an ID card and that with the ID card they could buy things in the PX at bargain prices. Suddenly, they were no longer concerned with security. At the PX they bought out all of the officer's pants as well as all of the condoms. They got orange juice for free in the commissary, and they took food and whatever else they could home with them when they departed. One senior officer even managed to ship a disassembled Buick automobile by air transport to the USSR.

  One of the first things that George did after he arrived was to have a large map of Europe installed in the liaison office showing the military situation on the German-Soviet front, as reported by daily Moscow broadcasts. The Soviet officers often dropped in to glance at the map. Understandably, they were always anxious to see what was happening at the front. Maybe one of their own hometowns had just been liberated. This map made the liaison office a popular place and stimulated interaction between the Soviets and Americans. George also created some special rules. For instance, mail call was held at night since he didn't want his guys reading letters from home in sight of the Soviet mechanics. It would not be good for morale, as the Soviets received no letters. He did not want to make the visitors more despondent than they already were, realizing that the Soviets were up against a tough war. So those little actions helped make things work out very well, and as a result, they all got along fine. But the dominant motivator for the Soviet personnel was the knowledge that their prompt and continuous delivery of the planes was a vital contribution to the process of winning of the war.

  After the Nazi forces began to retreat from Stalingrad in December of 1942, the war turned in favor of the Soviets. By mid1943 their morale was in an upturn, and they were more complimentary than critical of the Second Front demands when they heard reports of the Allied invasion of Sicily. Then, the Salerno landings and finally the capitulation of Italy made them appreciate more their association with the Americans. This friendliness, inspired by continuous success in the war, was best illustrated by their commander's desire to favor the U.S. Ferry pilots with a monetary gift. Colonel Machin, the chief of the Soviet command in Alaska, called George into his quarters and stated that he wanted to reward the American pilots as well as further encourage their cooperation. He told George that he was going to pay a $300 reward to each pilot who overproduced; that is to say, made extra runs. He was adamant about this.

  George said, "Don't do that; just give them a bottle of vodka, write a beautiful little note for their efficiency report so they might get promoted some day, and they'll think you're the greatest guy in the world. If you give them the money, they will just blow it away in the next poker game." Colonel Machin told George, "You're crazy." George said to the colonel, "Try it." The colonel did. He was delighted with the results. So a little psychology and a little knowledge of one's own troops helped to convince the Soviets' chief that the United States could be trusted.

  George had problems with Soviet personnel wanting to defect. In one instance, a Soviet major took an officially sanctioned trip to the lower United States. He liked the country, he was good with languages, he learned English fast, and he said to George, "You know, I'd like to stay here, to emigrate to the United States. I come from Odessa and I have never even seen a letter from home. I think my people were all massacred because they are Jewish. I have nothing to go back to."lI George said to the man, "Look, I'll give you a contact point to make whatever application you wish when the war is over. Or you can go to any U.S. embassy in any country neutral or not controlled by the Soviets and request asylum. Now we are at war; we are allies. We cannot accept your defection. Such a request would only hurt you, and I want to be your friend. So I'm giving you the best advice that I can." The man thanked George. George never told anyone in Alaska about the conversation. He was afraid that if he had, the Ladd Field commander might have heard it and passed it on. If it had come to the attention of the Soviet commander it could have been calamitous. It could have resulted in the death of the man, and it also would have created some very bad relationships in the ALSIB operation.

  Since the USSR and Japan were not at war, the aircraft would not be harmed if they were clearly identified as being Soviet. Otherwise, the Japanese might have attacked them, particularly if they were thought to be American. The Soviets used red star decals, pasted on their planes. Once, a delivery failure caused a shortage of the decals. The Soviets were hesitant to schedule a massive flight through Japanese-controlled territory without the red star displayed. George said to them, "I think I can get you flying right away without delay. I'll see what I can do." He went to Fairbanks, found a Texaco facility there, and bought all of the decals available. He came back and said, "`Fly Texaco'-it's a red star on a white background. It can be seen even better than yours can, and you won't be delayed in flight. You're not going to be disloyal and nobody's going to blame you for the difference." He said to me, "I had a picture taken. The picture is in Otis Hayes' book. There it is. Fly Texaco!"

  Finally, in the spring of 1944, George's orders came through to proceed to Fort Belvoir in Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and a center for engineering forces. He reported to the adjutant at Fort Belvoir, who asked him, "Hey, do you speak Russian? We have an inquiry here; it's from the chief of staff of the army, General Marshall." George observed that the inquiry also mentioned General Bissel, the chief of intelligence for the United States Army, the G-2.

  George then saw Colonel Lovell, General Bissel's assistant, who oversaw a unit in the Pentagon called the Soviet Research Section. This section, which ran Camp Ritchie in Maryland, had supplied George with many of his Russian-speaking people in Alaska. The section had been keeping track of everything the Russians had been doing, even though they were allies. Already the U.S. was leery of them and wanted to know what they were up to.

  Everybody in the office spoke Russian. Colonel Lovell said, "Well, we can use you. I will confirm your promotion. You'll be a major here; we'll get you released from duty with the Corps of Engineers." So, George switched corps. He already had his insignias for the Intelligence Branch, anyway. Now he was an intelligence officer in the Soviet Research Section and the deputy chief to a Colonel Shimkin, also an excellent analyst. They were in charge of all of the attaches going to the Soviet Union, who provided them with as many of the Soviet military manuals as they could get their hands on. The group was writing a book called Our Soviet Allied Armed Forces. Several chapters on Soviet military tactics were assigned to George, who translated the Soviet manuals into English and provided pictures, diagrams of hardware and tactics. Eventually, George was put in charge of the project.

  In January of 1945, the war started to collapse around t
he Germans. U.S. Army general Edwin Sibert, then stationed in Germany, picked up German general Reinhard Gehlen, along with Gehlen's complete staff and a cache of intelligence information documents that were hidden underground in Bavaria, and brought them back to the U.S.12 Gehlen had been in charge of all intelligence operations against the Soviets. Hitler did not like Gehlen, nor did Gehlen like Hitler. Hitler often threatened him. Gehlen kept telling Hitler the truth, and it was almost always bad news. General Sibert had Gehlen taken to a Fort Hunt, called "the Snake Farm" by some, near Washington, on the Mount Vernon Parkway adjacent to George Washington's former home. The facility was hidden from view; there was only one entrance gate and that was guarded. There were a number of generals there from various countries, including the Soviet Union, Japan, and Germany. 13

  In March of 1946, George was sent to speak with Gehlen and his people at Fort Hunt to compare what they knew with what the U.S. knew about the Soviets. George told the general what his job was and asked, "What is your position? I read where you said that since you lost the war you had one of two choices: to orient yourself toward the East or to the West. You are here in the West. What we want from you is all of the information that you have on the Soviets, so that we can match it with the information that we have. There is nothing militarily that you are to do. We are not going to fight them or anything like that. We just want intelligence. You are an intelligence officer. Everything is at your disposal. Will you provide us with the information that we want?"

  George was selected to do this principally because he could speak excellent German. More importantly, however, he knew how to get along with them. First, the U.S. moved all of these German officers' families to the Western Zone in Germany so that they'd be away from the Soviets. Next, all the high-ranking officers, including General Gehlen, were given a wartime prisoner-of-war paycheck. Each received about twelve thousand dollars or more a year, which furnished a very good income. In addition, George provided them with everything they needed, including cigarettes and chocolates. Then, he made a point to get along with the general personally, as well as with most of the other high-ranking officers, realizing that it didn't require much effort to be pleasant.

  Finally, he had a penetration, and the penetration was a clever one. He observed an older German gentleman who was only a captain, which for his age was strange. George asked the gentleman, "Why are you only a captain? You are older than most of these people and certainly as smart as they." The man replied, "I'm a Volga German; I was in the Russian army, under the tsar, during the First World War. I was a colonel." George asked, "Of course, you speak Russian?" The man answered, "Yes." They spoke Russian to one another. During the First World War, the Germans captured the man. Then, after the war, he elected to remain in Germany. He married a German girl, settled down in Heidelberg, and developed a small cheese factory (which the Allies eventually bombed and destroyed). When the Nazis came to power and found out that he spoke Russian, they made him an intelligence officer. They wouldn't promote him except when they needed something of him.

  George said to the man, "Well, maybe you can tip me off to certain things that I'm going to be in the dark about, here and there." The man responded, "I'll be happy to." "Well, how about this protocolwhy do you do those things?" He said, "Those monkeys in monocles [Germans] do things by habit, whether it's smart or not." So, in the middle of all of these Germans, George could speak Russian with him to get inside information, and they didn't know what the two were talking about. George found answers others couldn't get, and he could do it without hurting anybody.

  Gehlen's staff eventually developed their own intelligence service for West Germany. With U.S. help, they established a substantial National German Intelligence Service that was closely allied with and dependent on Uncle Sam; it was called the BND.14 George later lectured to them in Germany many times. Ultimately, General Gehlen and he became close friends. George left the army before then and had nothing more to do with setting up that organization. He wanted out. He wanted to go back to New York to his old job with Madigan-Hyland Consulting Engineers. He received his discharge from active duty in the army in May of 1946 and returned to Madigan-Hyland. They happily took him back, giving him a big raise consistent with the higher wages after the war. At that time MadiganHyland was developing airfields, including Idlewild (JFK) in New York as well as a number in Puerto Rico.

  CHAPTER 4

  The Central Intelligence Agency

  Within months after returning to Madigan-Hyland, George received an interesting letter from Velma's brother, Harold. The brother-in-law wrote, "Come to Nebraska. We can put up some mills for the processing of alfalfa and make a lot of money." Here was an interesting proposition and an opportunity for substantial profits. Alfalfa was needed for all animal feed. Five percent of all cow fodder, chicken feed, and other feed stock in the United States was alfalfa. This was done to ensure that the animal's food contained sufficient vitamin A. Also at that time, children were routinely dosed with codliver oil, for the same reason. Eventually, vitamin A from alfalfa could be added to their bread. So alfalfa was a necessary supplement to all feed stock and it had great potential for the human diet. The alfalfa business was a natural.

  So, the civil engineer resigned from Madigan-Hyland to try his hand at business, becoming a partner in this family enterprise. George was the general manager; Harold was the financial man. Velma's nephew, Harvey Sutton, and Wayne Allen, the husband of Velma's niece, Lois, were the other partners. George became very fond of his in-laws, and they of him. A friendly kinship continued all of his life. They built mills with family money and U.S. smallbusiness loans. The first was at Willow Island, Nebraska, the population of which was six. It was seven miles from Gothenburg, whose population was about twenty-five hundred. Later, they built one in Scandia, Kansas. Velma's family was located in McCook, about eighty miles from Gothenburg, the headquarters for their operation.

  As the enterprise grew to success, the Aliens and the Suttons bought small houses in Gothenburg. George and Velma took a suite in the hotel. She had her grand piano moved in, and her daily vocal exercises echoed up and down Gothenburg's Main Street. The two of them often amazed the townspeople by arguing loudly on the streets in French. Later George and Velma bought a cottage on Lake Jeffries, some ten miles south of Willow Island. Here Velma could vocalize to her heart's content in relatively quiet surroundings.

  The partnership purchased the alfalfa from farmers and then processed it to its final state. The procedure requires harvesting the alfalfa soon after it matures, immediately dehydrating it, and then keeping it cool until it is ready for mixing into the animal feed. This involves a nonstop, day-and-night operation during harvest season. The alfalfa is placed in huge conveyor troughs that slowly feed the leaves into an enormous rotating stainless-steel barrel, say about thirty feet long and ten feet in diameter. A gas generator creates 1,800-degree-Fahrenheit air that immediately dehydrates the alfalfa. At the end of each cycle, steam exits one opening of the machine and a dry mass of alfalfa exits another. Paddles then move this mass onto a conveyer that takes it into a building. There it is directed through a hammer mill that renders it alternately into a green powder or green, granulated pellets. It is now necessary to keep the finished product as cool as is practical in order to preserve its vitamin A within the carotene.1

  During the hay season, from April through October, a mist of green alfalfa dust hung over Gothenburg because of its four dehydrating mills. In response, the wives simply bought green sheets and towels. Everyone had an unhealthy-looking pallor, but no one ever caught cold; they were all full of vitamin A.

  George had imaginative ideas for the uses of alfalfa. He spoke of them: "I learned a lot about grains. I also know that we could feed the world on green bread, if we wanted to. If animals can eat grass and survive, and if grass can be baled and burned and thrown away, certainly there's more than enough for human consumption. We don't ever have to starve on this planet. Such a thing as a lack of
food is nonexistent in this world. It is only a lazy man's ignorance. But to compete with huge outfits, like Archer Daniel Midland, is something else. That's another story. A monopoly is a monopoly."

  In Nebraska, George and Velma were effectively living apart. Often, she was in McCook and he was in Gothenburg. "We couldn't exactly commute every day," George explained, "and during the winter I couldn't commute for weeks at a time. I was able to take a few trips back East during this period to see my mother. She lived in an apartment in New York City. I would stay with her when I took business trips back East. I was getting sick and tired of being out in the country and with haggling every single day about what a hog was worth. That kind of conversation gets to be boring very fast. They had one paper that everyone read: the Omaha Bee. In the wintertime in Nebraska you repair machinery; that's the only productive thing that one can do."

  George found a few ways to relieve the monotony. Once the community concert association in Gothenburg scheduled a Russian male chorus that was touring America. George invited them to the cottage. The performers spoke very little English, and only George among the home folks spoke Russian. They were young men and the vodka flowed freely. On another occasion, George tried to play family counselor. There was a small cafe in Willow Island. One evening, after work, he was enjoying a beer there when a couple got into an argument. The man slapped his wife in the jaw. George rose, picked the fellow up, and tossed him through the wide screen door. At this, the woman began to flay George with her heavy purse, telling him to mind his own business. George also tried his hand at inventing an evaporative cooler for the cottage. He and Harvey installed an automobile radiator in the furnace with a hose dripping water on a cloth screen in front of a fan. When they turned it on, dirt and lint came flying out of every register in the house. After the house and the equipment were all cleaned up, the device worked fine, except that it made the house so humid that the piano keys swelled until they stuck, the doors wouldn't close, and the windows wouldn't open.