The Kokomo Tribune from Kokomo, Indiana • Page 48

America's Most Wanted What makes a turncoat? What happens to them? Who are most dangerous to their country? ORE THAN 200 AMERICANS have de- JYL fected to the Communists in recent years--some taking with them top U.S. diplomatic and military secrets, others vilifying their homeland in raging propaganda broadcasts. The most infamous defector, of course, was Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of President Kennedy. When he fled behind the Iron Curtain, our whole pattern of radar coverage in the Pacific had to be changed because, as a Marine, he once had been assigned to electronic control centers in California and Japan. But what of the others? Why did they defect? What happens to them? And, most important, who are most dangerous to the U.S.? Defectors such as Robert E.

Webster of Zelienople, are unimportant to any society. Webster, a plastics technician, claimed in a propaganda speech that he defected "for ideological reasons." The truth is that he ran off with a Russian waitress named Vera, whom he'd met while working as a technician in the American exhibit at a Moscow trade fair. Left behind were his American wife and two children. Other defectors are types neither the East nor West can tolerate. Sidney Sparks of Wrightsville, was an Army enlisted man awaiting trial for assault and robbery of a West German taxi driver when he escaped the guardhouse and crossed into East Germany, asking asylum.

The Reds didn't believe his story, although it was true, and sent him to jail for 15 years as a spy. He was released after three years and turned over to U.S. authorities, who gave him a 10-year sentence of their own. Many Americans defect while ideologically confused. They have no secrets to reveal and, if they decide to return, the U.S.

just shrugs. An ex-Air Force major went to Russia in 1959 with his wife and three children. "I am tired of the kind of life in which the human being has no value," he told Pravda and Izvestia. "I am firmly convinced that there is Weekly, October li, 1364 no future for my children or my family under capitalism. There is a certain kind of freedom in the United States, but it is monopolized by the Rockefellers, Morgans, Van- derbilts, and their kind.

I have found genuine freedom in the socialist world." If he did, he apparently didn't like it. Last year he and his family came back to this country. "We are extremely glad to be home," he said. No charges were placed against him, and his U.S. citizenship was restored.

Such indifference does not await other defectors. Some face charges ranging from treason to murder, from kidnaping to desertion. U.S. intelligence agencies have dossiers on the "most wanted" defectors and, presumably, a bitter reception awaits them should they ever return. Here are some of the "wanted" turncoats-: William Martin and Bernon Mitchell: This pair had a lot in common before they checked out of the National Security Agency's heavily guarded headquarters at Fort Meade, on June 28, 1960, ostensibly to start a three-week motor vacation in the West.

Instead they vanished. Later, as embarrassed U.S. security aorcnts retraced their activities, it was discovered they went to Washington's National Airport, flew to Mexico, stayed there briefly, then flew to Havana, and went on to Russia by Soviet ship. Once in Moscow, they began trying to crack U.S. secret codes--about which they knew a lot They also lent themselves to anti- U.S.

propaganda interviews. On our side, we had to complicated and expensive changes in our codes because the Reds give defectors severe psychological tests to learn everything they know. The brainy pair--both have "genius IQs and are mathematical experts--first met in the early '50s when they were communications technicians in the Navy. From that point on they became inseparable. Out of the service, they went to college, then joined the National Security Agency as code experts.

Neither ever married, and they lived near each other in Laurel, Md. According to knowledgeable experts, their defection was the worst breach of U.S. security since Klaus Fuchs gave away America's A-bomb secrets. They had knowledge of every American listening post around the world. Their flight behind the Iron Curtain compromised the entire -network of U.S.

radio intelligence. Master Sft Willard E. Vaksntini, VS. Army: Born in 1928 in Lorain, Ohio, Valentini enlisted in the Army in 1946 and was serving with a sensitive Signal Corps battalion at Mannheim, West Germany, when he defected to East Germany in mid-1963. family Wttelcly is, By JAMES WINCHESTER Here are dossiers on some of the men who have gone over to the Communist mrld At the time he was awaiting trial by general court martial tor misappropriation of Government had been in other Army trouble, too.

getting a reprimand and a $160 fine for being AWOL in May, 1963, and a reduction in rank and a $100 fine a month later for drunken driving and disorderly conduct. Shortly afterward, he was arrested again, this time for taking Government funds. While all the evidence points to his going behind the Iron Curtain to escape criminal prosecution, he has been active in propaganda since the Reds granted him asylum. Just recently, a long article under his byline appeared in an East German news- Jftnfer Sfft. WUlorJ E.

ValemtiMi paper charging the United States with "preparing for war." Victor Norris Hamilton: Before his defection to Russia, Hamilton was employed for two years as a research analyst for the National Security Agency, whose prime job is monitoring Russian broadcasts and gathering communications intelligence through code breaking. Hamilton turned up in Moscow in July, 1963, where he requested political asylum. Shortly afterward, Izvestia published a letter from him in which he charged that NSA was intercepting and decoding secret instructions from Arab countries to the'UN delegations. The letter said he was disillusioned with life in the United States. A naturalized U.S.

citizen, Hamilton (whose original name was Hindali) was born in Lebanon. He married an American in Libya, and they came to the United States in the late '40s, living in Atlanta and Dallas before moving to Washington, where he began working for NSA in 1967. When he defected, he left his wife and two young daughters behind. The Defense Department insists there is no relationship between Hamilton's defection and that of Mitchell and Martin, although all worked for the same intelligence agency. "Hamilton's work was limited to his knowledge of Arabic and the Middle East," says Robert Sylvester, Pentagon press chief.

"In the opinion of NSA psychiatrists, he was approaching a mental breakdown when he was dismissed from the agency in 1959." Nevertheless, following his defection, the NSA tightened its personnel security system and released several employees in an effort to weed out other undesirables. Robert Williams: A native of Union County, N.C., Williams fled to Cuba in September, 1961, after being charged with aiding in the kidnaping of a couple during a race riot in North Carolina. The kidnaping charge carries a possible death sentence. Although he knows no Spanish, Williams is a Castro prize and much in demand as a public speaker. His theme is always the same: the Negro in America is persecuted.

A self-avowed Communist, his inflammatory English-language broadcasts are beamed to the U.S., urging Negroes to violence. His monthly newsletter, distributed in the U.S. via Canada, is devoted to the doctrine that freedom for the Negro can best be achieved by armed insurrection. "Flame throwers for killing policemen can be manufactured at home," he declared in a recent issue. Sgt Benjamin Cain, VS.

Army: Cain, 36, was stationed with the crack U.S. Sixth Infantry in West Berlin when he sought asylum from East Berlin border guards in May, I 1963. His home is in Frederica, Del. The Army has released no other information on Sergeant Cain, and he has not been heard from since his defection. Why do men behave like this? It is incomprehensible to freedom-loving Americans that anyone would consciously give up his privilege to live in this land of liberty.

But nature has a way of producing emotional misfits who can't adjust to society--even a free society. The chances are that these men haven't adjusted to the Communists' oppressive society, either, and have long since regretted their defection the Iron Curtain. FomiVy Weekly, October li,.