JOURNAL OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL TUESDAY - 19 JANUARY 1971

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000500010020-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 19, 2003
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: January 19, 1971
• Content Type: NOTES

Approved For Release 2003/04/23 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000500010020-0
INTERNAL USE ONLY
JOURNAL
OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL
Tuesday - 19 January 1971
25X1
25X1
25X1
1. JGO) In res onse to his earlier call
25X1A concerning application for employment of
25X1A I told Mr. Jack Mellon, Administrative Assistant to Representative
Robert McEwen (R. , N. Y. ), that I I earlier turndown in
August 1968 was due to limitations on the Agency's authority to higher
additional personnel at that time. I also told Mr. Mellon that the
to open his application would be to submit
25X1A easiest way for
I
a new application updating is qualifications and experience since
graduation from college and forward it to the Director of Personnel,
CIA, Washington, D. C. 20505.
that the Committee was interested in obtaining the testimony of
2. I I- LLM) Robert M. Horner, Chief
Investigator, House Committee on Internal Security, called and said
0
25X1 C
25X1 C
25X1 C
thanked Horner for the consideration and after checking with the
25X1 C
advised that the proposed hearing
would not cause any problem for us. (Horner said the "Theory and
Practice of Communism" hearings which contain the testimony of
25X1 C
25X1C had been printed and he will send us a number of copies
for our use. )
3. RCR) In response to his request, sent
application torms an rochures to Mr. Rathbun, in the office of
Representative William D. Ford (D., Mich.).
. JNTERNAL USE ONLY
CRC, 2/13/2003
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 .L is Opp oved For Release 2003/04/23: CIA-RDP74BQ,04
CPYRGHT
s, - II
Great Stalin's Ghost
By C. L. SULZBERGER
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-European Com-
munists are seriously worried that a
"re-Stalinization" drive will be touched
off by the Soviet Communist party
when It convenes this month at its
twenty-fourth Congress. This point has
been stressed by Josef Szall, senior
ambassador in the Hungarian diplo-
matic service, who has defected. After
a stay in Italy, he is now in the United
States.
Szall, who is 49 years old, has been
a career diplomat since Communism
first took control of Hungary and has
served in Peking, Paris, Jakarta and
Rome where he was ambassador for
years. He decided to defect after re-
turning to Budapest last summer. At
the time, he held a position as special
adviser to Foreign Minister Janos Peter.
However, he found himself disillu-
sioned by the regime's trend away
from earlier liberalization moves and
finally decided to escape to the West.
Together with his wife and young son
he drove from Budapest to Bratislava
in Czechoslovakia, from there to
Vienna, and eventually back to Rome
where he was first granted political
asylum.
Szall Is certainly the hiahaat_rankinv
diplomatic defector from the Commu-
nist bloc in some years. He is clearly
In a position to explain many details
concerning both East Europe and the
Italian Communist party which, he told
authorities in Rome, is seeking even-
tual participation in a coalition govern-
ment. With this ultimate goal, the
Italian Communist leadership Is en-
deavoring to manipulate sympathetic
elements in both the Socialist party
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
and the left wing of the Christian
Democrats.
One result of this policy has been
an expression of Soviet concern. Mos-
cow apparently considers the present
Italian Communist leadership insuffi-
ciently revolutionary. So much suspi-
cion exists that the Italian party's sec-
retary-general, Luigi Longo, was not
informed of the Russian invasion of
Czechoslovakia until some time after
it had actually occurred.
This is but one of several factors
that persuaded Szali that Stalin's ghost
is again stalking in the person of
Brezhnev. The Hungarian, bitter about
emergence of Stalinist tendencies in
Hungary itself, apparently believes,
new efforts will be made at the twenty-
fourth Moscow Congress to rehabilitate
the dictator's reputation and revive at
least some of his methods. Further-
more, he feels this will be directly
linked to Brezhnev's emergence as
undisputed Soviet boss.
One consequence of such an event,
he appears to conclude, is that a still
harder line will soon manifest itself
in the U.S.S.R. and be reflected in East
Europe as well as in Western Commu-
nist parties. The Italian party is con-
cerned lest Soviet Stalinist tendencies
produce a split among its own leaders.
This could wreck the careful plan to
take over Italy gradually by joining
a left-wing coalition cabinet and even-
tually dominating it.
Because of his long term in Rome,
Szall is considered expert on Italian
Communist methods and goals. More-,
over, he Is of course an authority on
Hungarian developments. He seems to
feel that a Stalin-type "personality
cult" is developing around Janos
Kadar, the hitherto moderate and rela-
tively liberal party boss.
Szail has reportedly indicated that
party secretary Biszku, a Kadar man,
is now in full charge of security and
defense matters but that another sec-
retary, Komocsin, is actually prepar-
ing the groundwork to succeed Kadar.
Komocsin is described as a Soviet
stooge which, today, means pro-
Brezhnev.
How accurate these analyses are is
difficult to estimate. My own belief is
that there will be a fixed limit to re-
Stalinization and that the dictator's
role will be far more generously ac-
knowledged than it was in the Khru-
shchev era but never again magnified
to a lev~1 with that of Lenin. In the
end he is likely to be regarded as a
considerable human rather than the
superhuman being of his heyday or the
subhuman of Khrushchev's period.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that both
Budapest and Moscow considered Szall
sufficiently important so that they first
made strong efforts to bribe him to
reconsider his decision and return
home.
Later, when he refused, they even
attempted to kidnap him with secret
police agents stationed actually inside
St. Peters, Vatican City, where the
defecting diplomat had gone to meet
a special envoy sent by Budapest to
bargain with him. The attempt was
warded off by Italian security agents
who had, been charged with Szall's
protection after he initially sought
refuge.
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THE WASHINGTON POST DATE___________ (,, ,,,,,, - -1 PAGE
CPYRGHT
Defector's
Act Called
Voluntary
By D. E. Ronk
Special to The Washington Post
VIENTIANE, Oct. 5 - An
eyewitness has told U.S. offi-
cials here that a Russian
translator who defected here,
last month did so of his own
free will, according to well-
placed American sources here.
The witness' account cons
filets sharply with British
press reports and. Soviet I
charges concerning the cir-
cumstances under which Eu-
gene Sorokin, an, interpreter
for the Soviet military attache
here, defected in mid-Septem-
her.
The Soviets have said that
Sorokin was forced to defect,
while the British press has
painted the defection as a sort
of James Bond episode.
The eyewitness, a British
subject who lives in Vientiane,
told American authorities that
he saw Sorokin's car hit a
tree, the sources here say.
Then, according to the ac-
count of the witness' report,
Sorokin climbed out of his car,
approached the Briton's bicy-
cle, and asked in French to be
taken to the American em-
bassy.
Sorokin was obviously intox-
icated, the witness reportedly
said, but unhurt except for a
cut on one arm. According to
the sources, the Briton was
frightened and pedaled away.
Laotian authorities say that
Sorokin had had two or three
previous automobile accidents
while drunk, and had been
warned that he would be ex-
pelled from the country if
these continued.
Sorokin's request for politi-
cal asylum in the United
States is now being considered
in Washington, sources here
may.
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