THE TWO STORIES OF GEN. KLEIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200300128-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 20, 1999
• Sequence Number: 128
• Publication Date: February 8, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

AND TIMES 'HERALD
Sanitized - Approved R RA : CIA-RDP75
The Washington Merry-Go-Round
The
ivo Stories of den
By Drew Pearson
Little more than a year ago,
Chairman .1. 11, 1111 a m Ful-
bright (D-Ark.), hauled Gen.
Julius Klein before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee
and crossexamined him about
his activities as a $150,000-a-
year West German agent.
The unhappy Klein con-
fessed that he prepared
speeches for Congressmen,
planted stories in newspapers,
and otherwise promoted West
Germany. There is nothing il-
legal about this. However, the
public is entitled to know
when the speeches of a Repre-
sentative or Senator are writ-
ten by a foreign agent. That
is why Congress passed the
Foreign Agents Registration
Act.
II Gen: Klein, however, in-
sisted to Senator Fulbright that
he was not paid by the Govern-
ment but by a private group.
It is a group," he said,
"that you find in every city
that people get together,
whether the members are
bankers or chaplains or doc-
tors, of all business life."
Conn.), Klein acknowledged
that his client was indeed
under the West German gov-
ernment's control.
Dodd did not turn this start-
ling information over to the
Committee, however, so it
could bring perjury charges
against Klien. He used the
secret memos Instead for guid-
ance In approaching German
leaders last year, at Klein's
behest.
Government Supported
group-the Society to Pro-
mote German-Americals Co-
operation, 'Wiesbaden - that
engaged me to handle politi-
cal public relations. He is the
key to this problem as with-
out the support from his of-
fice the Weisbaden group
could not function.
"For your information, Car-
sten's office subsidized or con-
tributed heavily to the Wies-
baden group which engaged
me at the recommendation of
Chancellor Adennuer original-
Fulbright, peering profes-
sor-like through glasses half
way down his nose, asked
whether the group was "under
the control of the Bonn govern-
ment."
,,This is not correct, Mr.
Chairman," said Klein.
Klein was more candid, how-
ever, in his confessions to an-
other committee member. In
preparing secret "briefing
memos" for Sen. Tom Dodd (D-
The Senator tried to con-
vince them that the Foreign
Relations Committee's criticism
of Klein had been misunder.
stood and that they shouldn't
cancel Klein's contract.
Klein furnished Dodd with a
list of people to see in Ger-
many, plus a background
memo on each one.
In the memo on Dr. Gerhard
Hempel, Klein Informed the
Senator: "Dr. Hempel is the
former lord mayor of Weimar
and the secretary general of
the Society for the Promotion
of German-American Coopera-
tion, whose public relations in-
terest I represent in the United
States.
"The society is supported,
naturally, through the influ-
ence of the German chancel-
lery and whether they con-
tinue to use me depends on the
goodwill in the chancellery, in
Bonn."
In another memo on West
G'ermany's Secretary of State
Karl Carstens, Klein wrote:
"Carstens was the man who
gave , support. to. the, Germain
alein
that West German Industral-
fists had hired "a prominent
Illinois Republican, Gen. Ju-
lius Klein, to work with Hit-,
ler's former financier, Her-
mann Abs, in order to tap the
United States Treasury for the
return of German property."
`Poor' Banker Abs
What this column reported'
regarding banker Abs was that
he had paid Gen. Klein $40,000
plus expenses to lobby for the,
return of German property'
and that, though Klein.
claimed Abs was a poor vic-
tim of Hitler, "the fact is
that Abs was one of the top
bankers under Hitler, a direc-
tor of I. G. Farben, a director
of the Deutsche Bank; and '
Sen. Smathers of Florida has
put in the Congressional)
Record proof that Abs was a
member of the German bank--,
ers who participated in wrest-,
ing away Jewish-owned prop-
erty under Hitler."
This column also reported:
"A confidential cable sent.
to Washington by U.S. politi-
cal adviser Robert Murphy In
1948 reported: 'Abs cooperated
hand-in-glove during the Third
Reich with leading political
personalities of the govern-'.
ment, industry and (Nazi),
party circles.
Such was one of the West
German clients who paid the
former commander of the j
Jewish War Veterans to write 1
speeches for a United States
.Senator, and propagandize:
All the Way With X
The background memo on
Dr. Heinrich von Brentano,
the former Foreign Minister,
identified him as one of
Klein's staunchest supporters.
"I visited him two weeks
ago," wrote Klein, "and he will
go all the way. He is the best
friend and supporter I have-
100 per cent for me."
Klein also prepared a memo
on Hermann J. Abs, whose
name should have been fa-
miliar to Dodd as a former
prosecutor of the Nuremberg
war crimes. Abs was not found
guilty of any war crimes, but
he was perhaps the leading
financier in the Nazi regime:
Wrote Klein: "Mr. Abs is a
leading German banker and a
member of the board of direc-
tors of many of,my commer-
cial clients. The, brunt of the
attacks against me began when
I started to fight.for 'Abs." ?
He' referred to a report in
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Sanitized - Approved For Release CIA-RDP75-00149-R000200300128-9