An Inpost of Empire: My Father's Miscellaneous Income

An Inpost of Empire: 
My Father's Miscellaneous Income

Cold Warriors

     For a while during the early 1970's I worked for my father, part-time, while I researched and worked up a dissertation for a graduate degree. He occupied a suite of two offices, with shared anteroom and file closet, in the Washington Building downtown, at the corner of 15th Street and New York Avenue, NW, across from the Treasury Department. Since leaving the only law firm he had ever joined in 1953, and except for his brief shining one and only term in the U.S. Congress (1959-1960), he had been a sole practitioner, though doing business as Foley & Foley Law Offices, nominal D.C. branch of his father and brother's law office in Wabasha, Minnesota. Occasionally, however, he sublet the second office to a succession of other lawyers. While I helped him out I occupied the second office.

     I answered the phone while he was out in the Court of Claims law library or auditing the pension and health and welfare contributions of truck companies. The second time, over a few weeks, I got a call for something called the International Academic Research Organization (or Council, or whatever), I mentioned to him that we had gotten the same wrong number call twice. I was surprised when he said "that outfit used to be here" but it had gone out of business long ago. He said he should have the phone company remove the listing but hadn't got around to it. I knew he represented several small businesses that had come and gone over the years, so thought no more about it until, some months later, the third call came. Again from a student inquiring diffidently about summer job openings.

     That's when, after repeating that the outfit had gone out of business long ago, my father fell oddly silent, swiveling in his chair in his shirtsleeves, green visor shading his blue eyes, and, reaching for his pipe, told me to close the door and sit down.

     I closed the inner office door and sat down on the green leatherette davenport with its overstuffed cushions and cracks much criss-crossed with Day-Glo green electric tape. His office is worth describing, although irrelevant to his disclosure. On one wall hung a samurai sword, taken from a dead Japanese officer, which he'd bought from another soldier in the Philippines in 1945; also a shellacked painting of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; also an emplaqued copy of his Antietam Battlefield Preservation Bill that was signed into law; and many other things among the many shelved volumes of Fed. 2nd and Am. Jur. In one corner of the office stood a highly-polished hand-carved oak newel post from a late 19th century hotel in Gunnison, Colorado, complete with scantily-clad pewter maiden posily twisting her arms and hands into little light fixtures.

     Finger curled on pipestem, he puffed and swivelled.

     "They used to be here, but they went out of business back in '66, '67."

     "O.K."

     "You remember when there was a scandal about the National Students' Association, or whatever it's called?"

     "Rings a bell vaguely."

     "It came out it was a CIA front."

     "That sounds familiar."

     "Turned out there were a lot of little think tank-type organizations that were CIA fronts."

     "Yes?"

     "International Academic Research Organization was one of them. Shut down right away."

     "A CIA front!"

     "A letter drop. Place to send mail. I could even say 'safe house.'" With a laugh. "Remember N— M—?" One of the succession of lawyers who rented the second office — rented it much longer than the others, but now retired.

     "He had only one client — the CIA."

     "Yeah?"

     "He handled legal work for them. Every now and then someone would come into the office to see him. Undercover agents, with false identities. Had to pick up papers for new false identities, that sort of thing. I remember one guy — I came in one afternoon — one guy was actually changing his clothes in here. He'd actually been wearing a trench coat."

     "So you're saying N— M— worked for the CIA."

     He nodded, with a puff. The green visor strap bunched up his curly hair like an untrimmed hedge.

     It was actually as much a shock as a surprise to hear that N— M— had worked for the CIA, even apart from what he was doing in my father's second office. He had such a nice, receding personality; that's the only way I can put it. Thin once-blond hair on top, a shy but everpresent smile, and a voice that barely spoke. I knew he had problems with his two teenage boys, whom I could not imagine him dealing with, given his personality.  CIA!

     So finally I asked.

     "Why here?"

     He puffed and swiveled.

     "Back when I was Judge of Orphans Court, we once had a very interesting case. A man died overseas, in a place where he was not officially supposed to be. CIA people came in because his estate had to be probated under an assumed name. Very top secret. They came to me, maybe because I had served in the Army. I was happy to cooperate — patriotic duty — cloak and dagger — fighting the Cold War from my bench in Rockville."

     His lips bared the teeth clenching his pipe. I didn't take the bait, but listened.

     "So they came back with another case or two over my four years on the bench. Also to my law office with other business. They paid me — not a lot, but it always came in handy."

     "Paid you for your work on the probate cases?"

     "No. Other business."

     "What kind of business?"

     Shook his head.

     "Little things."

     "Like what kind of little things?"

     Shook his head.

     "Even while you were in Congress?"

     "They didn't pay me while I was in Congress. But somebody would drop by now and then, brief me on things that didn't get into the papers, keep me informed.

     "What things?"

     Shook his head.

     "And then when the good voters of the Sixth District returned me to the private practice of law, they came by again. And there were new ways to perform a patriotic duty."

     "Like give an office to N— M—."

     "Not give. They paid their share of the rent. But, yes, that was one."

     "And other ways?"

     Another head-shake.

     "This is just between you and me. Don't mention this to anybody else."

     "Does Mom know?"

     "Of course. But your sisters don't. And nobody else has to, either."

     "Can I ask approximately how much the CIA paid you over the years?"

     "You can ask, but I won't tell. Not a lot of money, but it came in handy. I'd report it on my 1040 as miscellaneous income."

     I had that to ponder, among the other thoughts racing through my brain. I knew from Mom, but not from him, that it had been very hard to pay bills after the re-election defeat. Not till I handled his estate decades later was I able to see in black-and-white how much his income dropped from 1960 to 1961. Then in 1962 he started to pay my college tuition. One thought was how much had the CIA paid for my college education? Even if none of it went to the bursar's office, it obviously reimbursed dollars that did. In a very tiny way, for the first time I could appreciate how Pip feels in Great Expectations when he discovers that his mysterious benefactor is the criminal, Abel Magwitch. How can he repudiate Magwitch? Does he quit all his advances and go back to being the poor orphan? Do I cease thinking what I think of what the CIA has done to the rest of the world?

     Not that my thoughts would make any difference to the CIA, but that, of course, is not the point.

     As the Personal Rep of his estate, after he died (on Veterans Day!) in 2001, I went through the old 1040s my father had kept since World War II. Only in the worksheets were Misc. Fees noted. None, of course, is labeled CIA, in fact until 1962 none are labeled at all. For 1955 through 1958, before Congress, the Misc. Feescolumns show a lot of $25, $35, every now and then a $125 or $250, once even a $3425. Only two recurring notations arrest my attention, both $600, for 1957 and 1958. The one for 1958 is listed in two different columns: the Misc. Fees and again in an adding-up of all the separate income totals. That makes the $600 particularly intriguing. There are no $600s for either 1959 or 1960, the years of the 86th Congress, when he said he was not paid; then in 1962 there's an $875. (There is no income breakdown for 1961.) Was he paid in installments or in a lump sum? Did the payments increase with inflation? In both 1962 and 1963 there are several $150 and $125 fees listed with a G beside them.  G for Government, i.e. CIA? Impossible to tell. No consistency, no pattern. The only conclusion that can be made, I think, is that whatever "not-a-lot" he was paid (besides rent-sharing on the second office) was indeed not more than a stipend. Probably, by one accounting, every penny went right back to the Federal Government as income tax payments; but, of course, they freed an equal amount of income for other expenses. His real pay, I suspect, given the way he talked, and refused to talk, about the whole business, was the secret pleasure of patriotic adventure in the international shadow-world of spies. Extending his non-combatant (Quartermaster Corps) adventure in the U.S. Army in the Pacific War into further non-combatant adventures in the Cold War.

     What in fact did he do for the CIA to earn his stipend?

     "Why not tell the phone company to drop International Academic Research Organization?"

     "I don't want to."

     "It's misleading. The calls I get are all from kids looking for summer jobs."

     "It's my defiance. Of the times."

     We sat on opposite sides of the Vietnam War. He said a little more, but that sums it up.

     And I can keep a secret. I told my wife that night, but never told my sisters or anyone else as long as my father lived. After his death (my mother predeceased him by two years), my sisters and I were going through the boxes and boxes of letters they had left behind, most of them his to her, and some hers to him, before and after their wedding, and while he was in the Pacific. But I also came upon a small collection of very different kinds of letters, including reports of a kind obviously not written by him, but about him, in a style I had read enough books about the Kennedy assassination to recognize. I thought this was now a fine time to open my sisters' eyes about a part of our father's life they knew nothing — and for that matter I really knew nothing — about.

     But they were not surprised. They were delighted to read along with me. Mom had told them years ago.

     I take certain liberties, however, to avoid embarrassment or worse for the peculiar subject of the reports and any relations. I change not only names but pseudonyms, and efface any reference that would clearly identify any foreign country. I take the names I use from popular fiction of one sort or another. Suffice it to say that the primary country involved, which I will call by the exotic 19th century name "Graustark" (from a once-popular, now forgotten eponymous novel by George Barr McCutcheon), was a small country of concern to the Oval Office, for which the CIA by charter works directly — and it bordered a larger country of even larger concern to the Oval Office.

     (The first communication is a browned photostat whose letterhead and date have been scissored out. The internal evidence, however, makes clear it is the first document in the, let's call it, Dossier; and that the missing letterhead is identical to the letterhead of the sixth document in the Dossier.)

***

     Your recent inquiry concerning the Greater Freensville Research Foundation has been forwarded to my attention for an appropriate reply because our Executive Director, Mr. P. Hamilton Frammis, is temporarily out of the country.

     The Greater Freensville Research Foundation was established in mid-1934 for the purpose of sponsoring worthy individuals in their studies of history and foreign affairs. Our financial support originated with persons of wealth who have an interest in these academic fields, and possessed a desire to further the education of promising students. The Society does not solicit contributions, engage in business of any kind nor perform commercial research or related undertakings.

     On behalf of Mr. Frammis, I wish to thank you for the interest you have shown and I trust that the foregoing information answers your inquiry.

Respectfully yours,

Donald Martin
Lesser Freensville Representative

***

March 19, 1958

Caspar Guggenslocker
Deputy of the National Assembly
Edelweiss, Graustark

     Dear Mr. Foley:

          I have already returned to Edelweiss, Graustark and am writing you these few lines to give my most sincere thanks for all that you have done about the admission of my daughter to the young ladies college which we visited together. At the present, I think that Fraulein Guggenslocker has already habituated herself to college life and the route which she must take to go and undertake her studies, and I think that she will have no difficulty in these regards.

          I would like to ask you if you have the time to pay a visit to this little Graustarkian from time to time, for it will be a source of great encouragement to her.

          Rest assured dear Mr. Foley, my best regards.

Very cordially,

C.G.

***

Edelweiss, 6 June, 1958

     Dear Mr. Foley:

          I have just received a short letter from my daughter, Fraulein Yvonne Guggenslocker, giving me news of you and in which she sent me a publicity tract for your electoral campaign.

          I am very happy to get your news and wish you good luck in the coming congressional elections.

          Fraulein Y. Guggenslocker informs me that she has received frequent visits from you and that she is very happy, very encouraged, and has already become quite accustomed to American life.

          I will see you again, dear Mr. Foley, towards the 15th or 16th of —, for I expect to visit K— with 6 Graustark parliamentarians to take part in the International Parliamentary Conference which will be held in K— on the 20th of —.

          I will bring my wife with me and she will be most happy to make Mrs. Foley's acquaintance.

          Fraulein Y Guggenslocker also informs me that she will be with an American family during her long vacation and that she will take summer courses at George Washington University. She expects to profit greatly thereby and I hope that, come next October, she can be admitted to the Law School at George Washington University.

          I will stop now, dear Mr. Foley, and will see you again toward the 15th or 16th of --.

Most cordially,

C.G.

***

THE GRENFALL
4301 M———— AVE., N.W.

June 16, 1958

Fraulein Yvonne Guggenslocker

Rent from June 16, 1958 ending July 14, 1958

Pd.-ch. 5: $96.00
6/17/58

***

Edelweiss, 1 August, 1958

     Dear Mr. Foley,

          I regret very much not having been able to come to the United States as I indicated previously to participate in the International Parliamentary Conference at K—, since the political situation in Graustark did not permit me to leave.

          I am counting, dear Mr Foley, on being able to see you again very probably during the months of September and October at the next session of the U.N.O.

          Yvonne will have to work very seriously during her long vacation to permit her to be admitted to Law School. We hear from her very regularly. She speaks often of you and tells me that she has already become well accustomed to American life.

          In conclusion, please accept, dear Mr Foley, my very best regards and my most sincere wishes for your success in the coming Congressional elections.

Very cordially,

C.G.

Caspar Guggenslocker
Deputy to the National Assembly
Edelweiss, Graustark

***

GREATER FREENSVILLE RESEARCH FOUNDATION

A Privately Endowed Association Sponsoring
Studies Concerning History & Foreign Affairs

P. Hamilton Frammis
Executive Director
477 Slotch Bldg.
1511 Plipple Street,
Neuman, Ae
Telephone — GAines 3-4783

September 12, 1958
     Mr. John R. Foley, Attorney
     — Washington Building
     15th and New York Avenue, N.W.
     Washington, D.C.

     Dear Mr. Foley:

          Enclosed is a check made to your order for $800.00 which will provide you with funds to continue the support of Yvonne Guggenslocker in the educational program which we have established for her.

          Thank you for your kind attention to Fraulein Guggenslocker and the support you have given her.

Very truly yours,

P. Hamilton Frammis
Executive Director

***

September 17, 1958

     Dear Mr. Foley:

          The following guidance is provided you for your further discussions with Fraulein Guggenslocker.

               a. You should contact her at once and notify her that you have been in touch with the trustees of the scholarship with regard to her request that she be allowed to change her course of studies to a local business college.

               b. You should advise her that while in sympathy with her desires the grant was made for a specific school at some inconvenience to the school.

               c. It is further felt that a change of schools at this late date is not possible as it would reflect unfavorably on both Miss Guggenslocker and the Foundation trustees in further dealings with the school in question. You might note the difficulty often encountered in placing foreign students in American schools from the point of view of language, transfer of credits, adaptation to American environment, and that you have to act for the Foundation on a continuing basis. Hence it becomes incumbent to some extent on Miss Guggenslocker to help maintain the standards of foreign scholars in this country.

               d. This line may be modified to the extent that the trustees will agree to a change in studies within the courses offered by Sacred Heart College if the school agrees.

          In the event Miss Guggenslocker proves unyielding, you should advise her that such a change would have to be at her father's expense and risk the possibility of having the scholarship withdrawn.

***

     1. CHAPZOD is authorized (without expenditure of additional funds) to represent (without further referral) the Foundation in making a decision in HUMPHREY/2's case.

     2. For CHAPZOD's guidance the Foundation's objectives include the payment of tuition for educations of deserving foreign students in the U.S. on a year to year basis providing mutual agreement can be reached between the student and the Foundation's representative on (a) the school, (b) the course of studies to be followed. Continuation of grants beyond the initial depends upon adaptation to school situation and satisfactory grades in terms of the individual. It is the intention of the Foundation to return students to their home country with a better understanding of the culture of the U.S. as well as acquire educational benefits.

     3. With the above in mind, it is requested that CHAPZOD contact the school authorities and discuss HUMPHREY/2's letter with them in order to determine if she is worried unnecessarily about her English proficiency and if her currently demonstrated ability allows her to keep her head above water in her school work.

          (a) If it does not, can something be done at the school to satisfy her present desires, e.g, Secretarial training, English language study, monitor courses as done last year (through this semester)?

          (b) If she cannot obtain desired courses at the school, can we pull her out of the school (with refund of money for this semester) and enter her into another school for secretarial training and further English training.

     4. Of primary importance is for CHAPZOD to find out if she has the ability (language proficiency) to continue her current studies at the school. How is her performance as compared with other members of her class?

***

CASPAR GUGGENSLOCKER
Edelweiss, October 1st, 1958
Deputy to the National Assembly

     Dear Mr Foley:

          I am most happy at the news which my daughter gives me about you and about her studies. She tells me that she has successfully passed the language examination at George Washington University and that she is at the moment going back to the Sacred Heart College. I am truly delighted.

          Dear Mr Foley, I have changed my plans for Yvonne. I would like her to concentrate uniquely on the English language for several months more in order that she may come back to Graustark and go to work either with the US Embassy or at the USIS at Edelweiss. She should return to Graustark at the same time as the Frauleinen Axphainian and Mizrox, two Graustarkian teachers.

          I will ask you therefore, dear Mr Foley, to see to it that Yvonne studies only the English language.

          In conclusion, dear Mr Foley, please accept my kindest regards and my warmest good wishes for success in the coming November elections.

Very cordially,

C.G.

***

October 2, 1958

     Mr. Foley
     — Washington Building
     Washington 5, D.C.

     Dear Sir:

          I have been back to Sacred Heart. I am a regular student now. It is wonderful to be registered to this school and to be a college girl. I stay here with high hope in my heart. I want to have a good education — I am one among the freshman girls who want to make good.

          I am taking general course. For this year, I must take Psychology, English, Theology, Speech and Physical Development. I have chosen 2 more. I like to study. I like the school, the building, the religious sisters, my room and everything. I love my uniform too. But I am afraid of my work, Sir. This doesn't mean I have so many things to study. My trouble is only with ENGLISH. I am very poor in English. I don't understand everything yet. I understand almost nothing in my lessons. I began to study 2 weeks ago. I felt that I understood nothing. It is terrible for me. I couldn't take any notes while the professors were explaining lessons. It is too bad for me, Sir. How can I study without understanding — I think I must have much more training in English to follow my classmates. I am unable to take the full course here. There is a very good secretary course (typing, shorthand and accounting), but I don't take it yet— I have to wait for next year. If I fail my exams, my studies this semester or this year, Sir, how I can have luck to take secretary course. I am worried about this. I want really to go back home, Sir. I want to study only Secretary. If I study (not at Sacred Heart) 3 months shorthand and typing, and about 6 months for secretary, I think that will be enough for me. Please understand me, Sir. I have no parents here to discuss with. I am counting on you, Sir.

          It won't take much time if I don't study here, at Sacred Heart. Most of time I am homesick, Sir. It touched me very much when I saw my schoolmates' parents came over the school to see or take their daughter.

          I am sure that I have no luck to have the academic credits from this religious college, because it is too hard for me to understand my lessons. I have tried already two weeks. So, please let me know, Sir, if I can study only shorthand, typing and secretary at the other school which includes only a few months.

          I hope I won't be disappointed, Sir.

Very respectfully yours,

Yvie Guggenslocker

***

October 19, 1958

Dear Mr. Foley

          I have been invited to Long Island New York to spend the Thanksgiving vacation. It begins on Tuesday November 25 and ends December 1. I am staying with Sandra L. at — H——— Avenue in Valley Stream for 3 days and with Ann Q. at — ——— Avenue Montauk Point Long Island for 3 days.

          Sister Mary Raphael decided it would be all right if I have your permission. Could you please write a letter to her about your decision.

Thank you–
Very respectfully,
Yvie

P.S. These girls are in my class at Sacred Heart.

***

Sacred Heart College
October 27, 1958

     Mr. John R. Foley 
     — Washington Building 
     Washington 5, D.C.

     Dear Sir:

          I learnt you got a letter from my father. He wanted me to go home soon didn't he? Are you going to send me home the same time as Axphainian and Mizrox? Please don't do anything about this, Sir. I don't like to go home in these three months. Please understand me, Sir. I don't want to leave this country without knowing anything. At least I should know how to be a good secretary. So I won't go home even I am very homesick. Please help me, Sir. Don't send me back. Let me study here longer. Don't care of my father's letter. If I go home soon, I know neither shorthand-typing, nor English that I always wish I would do.

          Did my father tell you why he wanted me to go home, Sir? I am very surprised when he told me about this, because he wants me to study very much. He wants me to get a good education. And I don't like him to be disappointed of my studies either.

          But why did he want me to be back home that he has never thought before. I am wondering about this, Sir. May be he is getting sick. Don't you think so, Sir? Since I have been back to Sacred Heart I have never got his letter showing by his own handwriting that he usually does when he gives me his news. But anyway, I won't go back home in 3 or 4 months. Please help me and let me study in this country longer. I wrote to my parents already that I would not go home soon.

Very respectfully yours,
Yvie Guggenslocker

***

SACRED HEART COLLEGE
Washington, D.C.

November 7, 1958
 

    Mr. Foley 
     — Washington Building 
     Washington 5, D.C.

     Sir,

          I am very happy to hear of your great victory for the election. Best wishes and sincere congratulations.

Yvie Guggenslocker

***

November 17, 1958

     Sister Mary Raphael 
     Sacred Heart College 
     —— W——— Ave., N.W. 
     Washington, D.C.

     Reverend and Dear Sister:

          Fraulein Yvonne Guggenslocker has my permission to visit with classmates at Long Island, New York over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Very truly yours,

John R. Foley

***

Edelweiss, 17 December, 1958
     CASPAR GUGGENSLOCKER
     Deputy to the National Assembly

     Dear Mr Foley:

          I have just received news from my daughter, Fraulein Yvonne Guggenslocker, news of her studies and she also told me of your success in the recent legislative elections. Permit me to extend to you on this happy occasion my warm and sincere congratulations. She did not, however, inform me as to your political affiliations. As a representative of the People you will have a very heavy responsibility and you should certainly have occasion to make an information trip to Graustark, and particularly to Edelweiss, in order to study different countries.

          I could be very useful to you, when you come here, dear Mr Foley, and I will be quite capable of giving you any information you desire. Let me know when you expect to come here, or if one of your colleagues in your Party arrives in Graustark do not fail to let me know.

          Fraulein Yvonne has spoken to us of her studies. She has had only passing grades but has promised to do better in the coming months. She has told me that she wants to stay on in the United States of America to continue her studies up to termination and wants above all to study Law. I do not oppose her wishes.

          I would therefore be very grateful, dear Mr Foley, if you would authorize her to undertake her studies up to termination. On her return to Graustark after her studies she will be very useful to us to render services to the free world. In conclusion, may I wish you and your family my best wishes for Xmas and for a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Caspar Guggenslocker

***

     That's all there is. I too am left in suspense. Did Fraulein Guggenslocker enjoy her Thanksgiving holiday on Long Island? Did she get back safely? Did she graduate? Did she learn to speak and understand English as well as, obviously, she was able to write it?

     It is tempting to answer the question, What did he do? with a tabloidal:

My father
BABYSAT a BRAT
for the CIA!

     Maybe. Frankly I feel Fraulein Guggenslocker's complaint is honest: her father wants her to do one thing, she wants to do another. Exactly my own teenage complaint — and everyone else's. Plus going home might prove dangerous, however "heartsick" she looks back.

     Not exactly cloak-and-dagger — but for this reason all the more revealing (if not surprising) about how imperial intelligence services operate with small client countries.

     And I could call it pittance patriotism for the nickels and dimes my father was paid. But I also know he would have done it for nothing. The nickels and dimes "came in handy" — certainly the 50-50 split on office rent, which helped more than a little. He had never been in combat in World War II, not excepting two air raids in the Philippines, and a kamikaze attack while on convoy, where he watched the ship in front of him, or behind him, in any case the nearest ship, get blown in two and sunk. But, as he would say, like many another veteran, he "never fired a shot in anger." He ran a truck company in the Quartermaster Corps. He served for a time in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He was ordered to witness, in New Guinea, the mass hanging of six Negro troops court-martialed for raping a white nurse. He'd seen a great deal of death in the War — "the bodies in the bushes" — from a passing Jeep. He was not a warrior, but he'd done his bit, and loved to remember every minute of it. In the Cold War against Communism he'd do his bit, too, as Congressman but also, in secret, for a longer tour as a more or less passive asset of the CIA — the way the Cold Warriors calculated he could serve them most effectively. He would have done it for nothing.

     And he kept his secrets — more more than less — took them to the grave. Yet inadvertently left behind this incomplete Dossier ... for his heirs' entertainment.

     Would he be pleased to have his little secret service revealed after death? Of course not. How long would his displeasure last, how deep would it go? No telling. Would he enjoy the flame-in-the-cheek notoriety his uncovering would bring? Of course. Would he loosen up and share some of the untold secrets? No. Those he would continue to keep under the rose. Why should his son and Personal Rep disclose this much? This is a story of growing up in a suburb of the Cold War. There is so much in that history that will never be made known to civilians -- probably not even to the seventh generation. But as much as is known should be told to illuminate that much more of the history of the era, however incidental. Not the whole truth, but a bit more of it.

      Incidental; hardly insignificant. Around the same time I discovered the provenance of the "International Academic Research Organization," another acquaintance of mine hinted broadly that he had, at one time, been a contract player with "the Farm." But would say no more. My father's revelation gave me reason to wonder just how many gentlemen of the Washington suburbs, not officially employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, or any other U.S. intelligence agency, have performed services, from time to time, which earned them a number in a little black book, or database, of Cold War assets.

     Surprising — yet why, in Cold War America, should anyone be surprised?