BOOKS OF THE TIMES THE STORY OF A DEDICATED MAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200730011-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 1999
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: January 12, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

JAN 13 1965
Approved For Release 1999/09/17: CIA-RDP75-001
hooks of The Times.
The Story of a Dedicated Man
By ELIOT FREMONT-SMITH
U N MAY 5, 1949, a gangly, gray-haired
American checked into the Palace Ho-
tel In Prague. His name was Noel
IIaviland Field. His reputation, slightly tar-
nished in some quarters, was nonetheless
,impressive. His future was uncertain.
Noel Field came from a distinguished
Quaker family? He was known as able and
honest to a fault,
a devoted public
servant for the
mankind. He had:';
worked in? the
State Department
disarmament,
for
in the League of
peace, iii Spain
against the. fas-
? Gists, During and
after World War
selfless aid to ref u-
? gees as European
director of the
i
e
n Se
t
i
rv
c
ar
a
Uni
- Blacxnto?c studios
Committee. If he Noel Field
o i
Gradually the furor subsided,
name occasionally cropped up in reports of
the great purge trials that were shaking
Eastern Europe, but at home this was
scarcely noticed. Senator - McCarthy had
taken center stage; it was assumed the-
Fields were dead.
Then, in the fall of 1954, the Fields sod=
denly reappeared, released from prison-
first Hermann in Warsaw, then Noel and
Herta in; Budapest.. After recovering his
health, Het?mann Field came home. (as did,
the adopted. daughter, released in Moscow
the following year). But Noel and Herta,
elected to remain in Hungary.'" They live
there now, in a house provided by the gov-
ernment; they do not care to see reporters
from the West.
The story of the Fields has never been
fully told, and even today official informa-
tion is strangely hard to come -by. In re-
searching for this haunting book,' Flora
Lewis-a distinguished ,correspondent. who
now reports from London for The Washing-"
ton Post-received no more cooperation from
the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. than she did from,
the police of Eastern Europe, or from the
Fields themselves. Nevertheless, by dint of
was a little odd, a several years' hard digging through layers
trifle earnest in his idealism-well, that of fact and rumor, she has been able to
came with dedication. piece together a monstrous but convincing
honest to a fault, a devoted public servant tale of stupidity, coincidence and tegror-
for the betterment ? of. mankind. He had and of a dedicated man -who wanted too
worked in the State Department for disarina- much%to be used.
ld
anent, in.the League of Nations ,for wor
"Red Pawn" Is first class reporting, well
pebcd,-in Spain against. the fascists. During worth. the reader's. time. More than that,
and after World War II, be had-given ;self- it is a record of one. . of the great upheavals
less aid to refugees as Et! t'opean director of of recent year.;;, And how one man, by char-
the Unitarian Service Committee. - If he was actor flaw and accident, set the machine in
a little odd, a trifle earnest in his -Idealism motion. Noel. Field's dedication was riot to
--well, that came with dedication. evil; it was corrupting, all the, same, In
The Communists knew him better, and seeing this, In,, not mistaking him for just
when he arrived in Prague, they were :fright -another villain, 'Flora Lewis has shed:'new
erred, On May 10, he posted .a, letter to his light on a kind of moral ' bankruptcy., that
wife, I-Ierta, in Geneva, then disappeared. 'infected many' people in or time.
On. Aug, 22, Noel's' brother,' Hermann
Field, went to the Warsaw airport to board -
the plane for Prague, where he was. to meet l nd Papers . ?
Herta, now searching for her husband, When
One of the most charming animal imps of
the plane landed, Hermann was not on it. the surrounding suburbs and countryside-
Four days later Herta also. vanished, A. year and Indeed of 'all the 49 continental states
later, Noel's foster-daughter hter arrived in West that ring-tailed masked burglar, ; the
Berlin, registrrcd at a hotel, got. on a sub -is
raccoon, Because he, is usually nocturnal,
Way train, and was gone, he is not always too easily seen but garbage
Back honio there were heated conjectures
uetitly
`fre
ni
t
th
t
d i
q
are
urne
n
e
cans over
gh
about what could have happened to the : his handiwork and not always that of dogs.
had Been caught. it was the time of ,the hand-fed, especially on Sweets and canned
'Hiss trials, and Noel Field had been a friend' . dog food, but some nature lovers trap them
of Alger Hiss, Ile had been- an even closer in harmless cage-like traps and turn them
friend of Laurence Duggan, who before-.he loose in distant woods so the,rascals, w4in't
could fully, testify had jumped or been climb to the local nests of songbirds, .i
pushed to his death front a Fifth Avenue This boolt is by the author of The World
office building. of the Beaver and The World of the White-
Inquiries, then protests, went out from Tailed Deer, He is a professional writer, phay,
Washington to Czechoslovakia, Poland 'and , tographer and outdoors. man, It.will'cha?ritl
East Germany-all to no avail, Some thought people who are'charmcd by nature. Its photo
Apprcril dFp*sF l t1' PMf4LV1~1L1Xi-RDPl9LE ~l ' ~ 0$ ~,tl tot of th
agent, Others insisted he was innocent, this Living or t oo