Frederick Vanderbilt Field
Frederick Vanderbilt Field | |
---|---|
Born | April 13, 1905 |
Died | February 1, 2000 Cyrus Field (ancestor) | (aged 94)
Frederick Vanderbilt Field (April 13, 1905 – February 1, 2000) was an American
Early years
Field was born on April 13, 1905, a scion of the wealthy Vanderbilt family and a descendant of Corneilus Vanderbilt.
Institute of Pacific Relations and radical politics
Upon Field's return from England in 1928,
As he grew older, his politics became more radical. He described the IPR as "a bourgeois research-educational organization" funded by the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations and some of the biggest corporations in the US, which he claimed subsidized his publication of proposals "as anticapitalistic as the articles he wrote for
He wrote a memo cautioning Owen Lattimore, editor of the IPR quarterly Pacific Affairs, with regard to a certain article that "the analysis is a straight Marxist one and... should not be altered."[8] He donated money and time to Communist causes in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s,[1] and during the war, he generously donated money to organizations close to the Soviet Union.[9]
In his autobiography, Field confesses that during this period he "uncritically accepted" Soviet accounts of their political purges and that was "taken in." "Stalin was infallible," he recalled. "[A]ll my Communist surroundings told me so. So was [American Communist Party Secretary Earl] Browder, although on a lower level of sanctity, and so were the other CP [Communist Party] leaders."
At a time when other erstwhile loyal friends of the Soviet Union were becoming disillusioned by Stalin's
Since the IPR aimed to be nonpartisan and, in theory, still attempted to include even the Japanese point of view, he collaborated with his friend Philip Jaffe to set up the journal Amerasia in 1937 as a vehicle for criticism of Japanese attacks in China. Jaffe later pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to embezzle, steal and purloin" government property after Office of Strategic Services and FBI investigators found hundreds of government documents, many labeled "secret," "top secret," or "confidential," in the magazine's offices.[10]
In 1941, he left his position at the IPR but served as a trustee until 1947.[11] Field attended the 1945 United Nations founding conference in San Francisco as an IPR representative, and also as a writer for the Daily Worker.[12]
American Peace Mobilization
In 1940, Field became executive secretary of the
According to the
In 1944, dissident IPR member
In 1945 Field was one of the founding members of the Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy, which tried to influence US policy to stop supporting the Kuomintang government in China, and after 1949 to recognize the People's Republic of China.[24]
On April 22, 1948,
Anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism
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Vanderbilt Field was the main donor to the
Civil rights activities
Field took an active role in the operation of the Civil Rights Congress, a leftist group of civil rights advocates formed from the merger of the International Labor Defense (ILD), the National Negro Congress, and the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties in Detroit in 1946. The organization concentrated on legal action and political protest, notably publicizing the 1955 lynching of 14-year-old boy Emmett Till and publishing the 1951 document We Charge Genocide. It also helped to pioneer many of the tactics that would be employed by later civil rights workers.[1][28] Field simultaneously acted as both secretary and trustee of the Civil Rights Congress bail fund.[1]
Tydings Committee
In 1950, Budenz testified before the Tydings Committee to personal knowledge that Field was a Soviet espionage agent.[29] Questioned, Field refused to answer on grounds of potential self-incrimination.[30] The following year, former Soviet spy Whittaker Chambers testified before the McCarran Committee that NKVD "handler" J. Peters told him, in 1937, that Field was a member of the Communist underground.[31] Herbert Romerstein, former head of the office to Counter Soviet Disinformation at the United States Information Agency, and the late Eric Breindel placed Field in the GRU apparat, alleging that he "was an agent of Soviet military intelligence."[32]
Yet, writers
Mexican exile
Field at one point moved with his third wife to Mexico in a "self-imposed exile", but he kept up many of his associations. A 1962 visit by Marilyn Monroe was monitored by the FBI out of concern over the actress's connections to Communism, and a "mutual infatuation" between her and Field concerned both "some in her inner circle, including her therapist", according to investigators' files. There was "dismay among her entourage and also among the (American Communist Group in Mexico)." Those file notations were kept redacted until a FOIA request in 2012.[34]
Personal life and death
Field married four times. His first wife was a Elizabeth ("Betty") G. Brown[35] of Duluth, Minnesota, who was a socialist. His second wife, Edith Chamberlain Hunter,[36] supported the Council on African Affairs headed by Max Yergan. His third wife was Anita Cohen Boyer, ex-wife of Raymond Boyer, convicted in a Canadian spy case. His fourth wife was Nieves Orozco, a former model of Diego Rivera.[2][1][37]
Field died age 94 on February 1, 2000, at the
Works
In his 1983 memoir, Field did not hesitate to use highly biased language against his accusers. He accused Louis F. Budenz of seeking to injure him. He called Whittaker Chambers "a neurotic psychopath." He devoted a whole chapter to "The Lattimore Case," which involved him. He also acknowledged IPR's Edward Clark Carter, who "gave me every opportunity to develop whatever administrative and research abilities I might have."[2]
- American Participation in the China Consortiums (Pub. for the American Council, Institute of Pacific Relations by the University of Chicago Press, 1931)
- Economic Handbook of the Pacific Area (Doubleday, 1934)
- China's Capacity for Resistance (American Council, Institute of Pacific Relations, 1937)
- China's Greatest Crisis (New Century Publishers, 1945)
- Thoughts on the Meaning and Use of Pre-Hispanic Mexican Sellos (Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, 1967)
- Field, Frederick V. (1983). From Right to Left. Brooklyn: Lawrence Hill. p. 321. ISBN 9780882081625. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
Footnotes
- ^ New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
- ^ a b c d e f
Field, Frederick V. (1983). From Right to Left. Brooklyn: Lawrence Hill. pp. 22 (1st wife Elizabeth), 82–84 (Carter), 85 (1st wife "Betty"), 95 (1st wife Elizabeth), 102 (1st wife "Betty"), 139 (1st wife "Betty" 2nd wife Edith), 169 (membership), 172–173 (Purge), 186 (offer), 191 (Empire, Reich), 210 (2nd wife Edith), 211 (3rd wife Anita), 214 (Budenz injure), 216 (Budenz), 217 (Chambers), 258–259 (3rd wife Anita), 266 (Budenz), 267 (Chambers psychopath), 269 (Chambers), 279 (3rd wife Nieves), 304 (3rd wife Nieves). ISBN 9780882081625. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
- ^ "Life of an Angel". Time. January 9, 1950. Archived from the original on January 3, 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
- ^ Ibid.*
- ISBN 0-231-08254-1, p. 106
- ^ Eugene Lyons, The Red Decade: The Stalinist Penetration of America (Indianapolis: The Bobbs Merrill Company, 1941), p. 376
- ^ Guide to the Jefferson School of Social Science
- ^ "Absent-Minded Professor?" Time, March 10, 1952
- ^ Bird and Chervonnaya, Op. cit. Archived 2007-10-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 0-8078-2245-0, p. 38–39, 131.
- ^ Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Security Laws, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, (Washington: U S Government Printing Office, 1954), pp. 8–10
- ^ FBI Report: Southern California Division, American Council, Institute of Pacific Relations, June 13, 1947, p. 3 Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (FBI file: Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 3, PDF p. 4)
- ^ "Picketers Picketed," Time, June 2, 1941
- ^ "White House Pickets Stop At 1,029 Hours," Washington Post, June 22, 1941
- ^ "Purely for Peace," Time, July 14, 1941
- ^ Robert J. Hanyok, "Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939–1945" (Washington, DC: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2005, 2nd Ed.), p. 119 (PDF page 124)
- ^ M. Stanton Evans, "McCarthyism: Waging the Cold War in America Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine," Human Events, May 30, 1997
- ^ Lee, Halperin and Joseph are identified in Venona decrypt 880 KGB New York to Moscow, June 8, 1943, p. 1 Archived July 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Alexander Vassiliev’s Own Translation of his Notes on Anatoly Gorsky’s December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine," October 2005
- ^ FBI Report: Institute of Pacific Relations, Internal Security–C, July 22, 1949, p. 9 (IPR file, Section 4[permanent dead link], PDF p. 11)
- ^ FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government[permanent dead link], October 21, 1946 (Silvermaster file, Vol. 82), p. 221
- ISBN 0-06-095973-8, p. 77
- ^ Alexander Vassiliev, Op. cit. Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-1-55849-754-2, retrieved 2016-03-14
- ^ FBI Report: Institute of Pacific Relations, Internal Security–C, p.5 (FBI file: Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 4[permanent dead link], PDF p. 7)
- ISBN 0-275-95938-4
- OCLC 959031269.
- ^ Salter, Daren. "Civil Rights Congress (1946–1956)". African American History. Quintard Taylor, Editor. BlackPast.org: Remembered & Reclaimed. http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/civil-rights-congress-1946-1956
- ^ "Of Cells & Onionskins," Time, May 1, 1950
- ^ "In the Dark," Time May 8, 1950
- ^ Romerstein and Breindel, Op. cit., p. 433
- ^ Ibid., p. 57
- ^ Bird, Kai, and Svetlana Chervonnaya. "The Mystery of Ales". The American Scholar (Summer 2007). Internet Archive: Wayback Machine. Retrieved 3 April 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20071002134104/http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/ales-bird.html
- ^ Anthony McCartney (2012-12-28). "FBI removes many redactions in Marilyn Monroe file". Associated Press. Retrieved 2012-12-28.
- ^ "F. Vanderbilt to Wed Miss Brown; Bride-to-Be a Duluth Girl". New York Times. 19 March 1929. p. S42. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
- ^ "Mrs. Edith C. Hunter Becomes Bride Here; California Woman Is Married to Frederick Vanderbilt Field in Municipal Building". New York Times. 19 February 1939. p. 16. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
- ^
Thompson, Craig (9 September 1950). "American Millionaire Communist". Curtis Publishing: 28, 159–162, 161 (2nd wife), 162 (1st, 3rd wives). Retrieved 29 August 2020.
Further reading
- Frederick Vanderbilt Field, From Right to Left: An Autobiography (Westport, Conn.: L. Hill, 1983). vii, 321p.
- FBI Silvermaster File
- Whittaker Chambers, Witness (New York: Random House, 1952), 382
External links
- Vassiliev, Alexander (2003), Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks, retrieved 2012-04-21