ARE SMALL ARMS SMALL POTATOES?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300080014-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 24, 1998
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: January 20, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

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ORLANDO, FI$anitized - Approved For Releas
SENTINEL
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;UIIDPlY 114,131
" Not my job to be a moral judge
Of humanity," says Interarmco chief.
Are Small Arms
Small Potatoes?
By ALAN EMORY
CPYRGHT
BIGGEST MAN in the small arms business
today is a 35-year-old Philadelphia main
line-born expatriate who can spy on the
activities of Prince Rainier and Princess
Grace from his apartment high on the Mone-
gasque coast.
But S ? glgvn s only visits Monte
Carlo to give visitors a charge, likes simple
food, does not drink or smoke. Today, as head
of the multimillion-dollar International Arma-
ment Corp, and assorted subsidiaries, l7e heads
the world's largest gun-running operation.
He is often referred t. o svs the modern Sir
Basil Zaharoff, turn-of-the-century Greek mu-
nitions magnate, who reportedly stirred up
wars to be able to sell his wares. Zaharoff
also resided in Monaco, where the tax situation
is easier.
Cummings, however, is still an American
citizen. He lost his father, manager of an elec-
trical supply house, when he was eight. His
mother went into real estate and financed his
schooling.
San itiz dEPA fbgd1 r dIWa W c R
wore a blazer with the embroidered latin motto
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Be Rather Than to Seem and freely as More
Than Meets the Eye.
It is now the motto of Interarmco.
CPYRGHT
CUMMINGS served in the army infantry
in the U. S., then entered George Washington
University receiving a bachelor of arts degree.
He started traveling abroad and, in 1948,
stumbled on a bonanza.
At Falaise, France, he saw rifles and ma-
chine guns clutched by skeleton hands, but
he lacked the money to buy and. transport
them. When he returned he got in touch with
the Western_AAVZCor af,~I igeles,
but then went to work _ for the Centr ttel-
ligecy identifying North Koreaji
weapons f`rojhotographs.
Western . a ~h?T4nn. CIA for
$5,600 a year, plus commissions, and,, in two
years, Cummings had banked $25,000. With
that he founded Interarmco.
One of his first deals was the purchase o
7,f 0() small arms from Panama. Soon alto
w.- bought jet fighters for :Trujillo from Swede
end then he traded Guatemala $250,000 i
ini]itar ~ field equipment for small arms an
ammunition.
CPYRGHT
and exports, is a direct descendant of Civil
War union ben. George Gordon Meade.
Employes at the Alexandria, Va., ware-
houses, on the Potomac riverfront wear what-
ever surplus fatigue uniforms are in stock.
Recently they shifted from the Afrika Korps
to the British Royal Navy.
Because of the willingness to permit pub-
licity about its operation, Interarmco has re-
ceived a skeptical glance from the State Depi's.
office of munitions control, which licenses a
lot of its international operations.
ONE DEPARTMENT official said it would
be gross exaggeration to say Interarmco has
any real impact on the aircraft and missile
field. Small arms, he declared, are "small
potatoes" in today's warfare.
Cummings has no qualms about his deal-
ngs with dictators, past and present. He
Id an interviewer, "they have a sense of
rder and they pay their bills promptly-"
He said Trujillo was "pleasant to deal with,"
an "an excellent Govt" and "wasn't quite as
lack as the press painted him."
"I feel no more responsibility for what
pie do with the weapons I sell them than
n automobile manufacturer feeIs for traffic
eaths. I won't turn down any profitable trade
can get a license for. It's not my job to be a
oral judge of humanity.
"If you believe dealing in arms is evil,
en to be logical you should refuse to pay your
i come tax because the Govt spends two-thirds
it on weapons."
NOW HE HAS offices and warehouse
around the world and owns his own bank i
Geneva. He likes to give gold-plated Walthe
pistols as presents to chiefs of state, such
Chiang Kai-shek and Pres. William Tubma
of Liberia.
Cummings has a ten-room apartment i
Monaco, adorned with a 1790 mortar, a suit o
16th Century German armor, battle scenes, of
sabers and pistols.
He types a lot of his business correspond-
ence himself, dresses informally much of the
time and drives a white Ferrari sports car
He has been married twice, once to a Ger
man, now to a Swiss.
CUMMINGS' whole staff is young and his
Indonesian agent is the cousin of Pres. Su-
karno. 'His general manager is Peter Beer, 42,
a native of Austrian who got his American cit-
izenship "the easy way," as a combat intelli-
gence officer with the paratroops in World Wa
II. Beer calls himself "the old man of the moun-
tain."
Sales manager and head of Hunter's Lodge
is Richard Winter, also in his thirties, a former
bombardier; Frank Slye is treasurer and Rich-
ard Breed, vice president: in charge of imports
JAN 12 0 196',
r1 ttdu rit tiit rI-FLORIDA MAGAZII ,
Sanitized - Approved For Rele s : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000300080014-2