RED DEFECTOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100140016-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 19, 1998
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: April 29, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

FOIAb3b
Sanitized - Approved For Release :
PHOENIX, ARIZONA
REPUBLIC
M. 127,751
S. 189,224
Front Ed;t
Date: APR 2 91934
Red Defector
v?-
A few weeks after he defected to the United
States, Russian philosophy professor Yuri Alexey-;
evitch Aseyev did an about-face and decided to
return to the Soviet Union.
The news accounts were brief, saying only that
Aseyev had decided to return for personal rea-
sons. They did not point 'out, as Newsweek subse-
quently revealed, that Aseyev underwent an or-r
deal at the hands of his American "hosts" which l,
so demoralized and confused him that he jump
headfirst from a third-floor window, rupturin
his spleen and cutting his scalp from ear to ear,
then later attempted to throw himself on the track
in front of an approaching Boston subway train. ' '
Aseyev was upset by what he termed an "i. -
quisition" at the hands of officials of the State D -
partment, the Immigration Service, the FBI, a
CPYR
his initial suicide attempt. His friends, the mag -
zine said, linked the delay to the cultural e -
change talks which were about to resume in Mc -
cow, after having been postponed because of t
arrest on spy charges of Yale Prof. Frederic
Barghoorn.
In its frenzied effort to walk the extra mile wit
Russia, to. convince Americans that the Soviets
are evolving toward freedom, the State Depar -
ment repeatedly has minimized Soviet duplicit
and aggression - as, for example, the arrest
Professor Barghoorn, the halting of U.S. milita
convoys in Germany, and in the shooting dow
and imprisonment of U.S. fliers.-In its delay ov
,and
political asylum to ' Aseyev, State u: -
1doubtedly was worried about - and carefull
`weighing-the effect his defection would have o
U.S.-Soviet relations. It would be difficult to co -
vince Americans of Russia's peaceful intentions
at the same time a defector was saying otherwis
the CIAut he was particularly upset because,
in Newsweek's words, "the State Departure t
dragged its feet about granting him political as -
lum."
THE STATE DEPARTMENT denies delayin
s ev's request. Nevertheless, Newsweek insists
he was officially granted asylum only aft
Sanitized Approved For Release :
CPYRGHT'
This attitude is not confined to th-e ? State. De- 1
irtment. A year or so ago, when Washington;
ficials and many U.S. economists were insist- ,
g that the Soviet Union's Gross National Pro- '.
r own, Prof. G. Warren Nutter, head of the
nia, demonstrated that these figures were in. 1
ted. A few months ago, the Central Intelligence
gency c0ifirmed Nutter's thesis.
NEVERTHELESS, at the time Professor Nutter
allenged the spurious statistics, he was decided-,';
unpopular. He said -many scholars, journal-
ts, and government officials told him "I was
irres
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ough true, because that would create the wrong
ff
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k
l ce
people com
a
e
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es an
nt
Nutter rejected the argument, saying he con-;
dered it a dangerous position. "It's what I call ,
ep when a self-appointed intellectual aris-
ort, "
In other words, Nutter's critics contended that:
is less important for Americans to know the
uth than for it to adopt attitudes a self-appointed.:;
ite wants them to hold ..: even though those
titudes are based on misinformation: It is dif
e thinking of the State Department in the tragic
se involving Professor Aseyev.
IA-RDP75-00149R000100140016-2