Career intelligence officer Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer was targeted by a Communist campaign that was carried into “every part of the United States,” Louis F. Budenz told the Senate Internal Security Committee in 1951. The initiative was conducted by Russian assets as well as the organizations they infiltrated, Budenz testified, according to FBI records obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
The Senate Internal Security Committee was headed by Sen. Pat McCarran and also known as the McCarran Committee. It was formed to investigate the enforcement of the Internal Security Act of 1950, along with the investigation of espionage and related subversive activities taking place in the United States.
Louis Budenz, an author, converted Communist, and controversial FBI paid informant, told Committee Counsel Robert Morris the Soviet campaign extended to officials in the State Department. Asked to identify the officials, Budenz replied, “Joseph B. Crew, Under Secretary of State; Lt. Gen. Albert Wedemeyer, not technically with the State Department but connected at least diplomatically with the State Department relations; Eugene C. Dooman, who was head of the Far Eastern Division, if I remember correctly, at least he was in control of the details of the far eastern policy; and Gen. Patrick Hurley, Ambassador to China, who was particularly under attack from the Communists."
As previously explored, the late Gen. Wedemeyer (1896-1989) was an influential World War II Army officer. He served extensively in the Far East, was a member of the War Planning Board that designed D-Day, and acted as an advisor for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). Records initially received from the FBI indicate Wedemeyer was treated cordially by the Bureau and conducted correspondence with Dir. Hoover, informing him of potential Communist threats.
Wedemeyer resigned from NICAP after his name was published as an associate of the group. He never intended for his name to be made public, and NICAP regretted the general's name was released, NICAP reported in 1957 (see p20).
Additional records obtained by Expanding Frontiers Research include Wedemeyer's 1958 consultation with the Committee on Un-American Activities of the U.S. House of Representatives. The general advised the Committee:
The term “strategy” disturbs many people, just as the word “propaganda” does. I define “strategy” as the art and science of using all of a nation's available resources to accomplish national objectives. There are four major categories of resources: political, economic, psychological, and military. If the first three of these resources – that is, political, economic, and psychological – are employed intelligently and boldly in consonance with a well-thought-out plan, it may never be necessary to use actively our military force. Obviously that is exactly what we should do at all times...
Other records received to date include files containing:
A 1945 FBI memo that includes Chinese News Service bulletins from the week of Nov. 5, 1945. A Nov. 8 bulletin describes Wedemeyer's activities in China, which reportedly included disarming and deporting some four million Japanese out of China.
A 1959 FBI memo, Subject: Ted Powers, Security Matter. The memo documents how Wedemeyer advised the Bureau of his suspicion Powers was a member of the Communist Party while the man was hiring and supervising employees sent to Cape Canaveral Missile Base.
A 1960 FBI memo on Allen A. Zoll and the Federation of Conservatives, which includes the name of an informant redacted from the memo. The material contains literature apparently printed by the Federation of Conservatives, which lists Wedemeyer as a board member. The literature qualifies a purpose of the group is opposing the "leftist campaign against the United States," and states that leftists want to destroy the Constitution, install a world government completely controlled by aliens, or foreigners (reminiscent of fascist propaganda opposing immigrants), confiscate "our gold," and similar rhetoric.
Wedemeyer 1962 correspondence with FBI Dir. J. Edgar Hoover about Alexandra Tolstoy, President of the Tolstoy Foundation, and her concerns about Soviet activity.
Wedemeyer 1955 correspondence with Dir. Hoover about the alleged Communist sympathies held by Harold R. Isaacs of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The latest records were obtained from NARA as part of an ongoing response to a 2021 FOIA request submitted to the FBI for material on Wedemeyer. The Bureau responded in July 2024, releasing 61 of 101 responsive pages, while also advising of several more files in the custody of NARA. EFR reported on the initial records received from FBI and submitted a FOIA request to NARA for the additional files.
In subsequent correspondence, NARA advised EFR of the subject and number of pages of each requested file. Reproductions, which include pdfs, are typically available at a cost of 80 cents per page.
The records totaled hundreds of pages and the request was assigned to a track for processing with an estimated time of completion of 39 months or more. EFR systematically reduced the scope of the request to smaller increments in order to keep requests in a shorter-term processing track. With each completed request, EFR requested another batch of records.
There is now just one file of interest remaining from the initial request, a 250-page file of which Wedemeyer is the subject. According to an email received from NARA, it was compiled as part of a Special Inquiries for the White House, Congressional Committees, and Other Government Agencies investigation, created between 1970 and 1979. EFR has requested the first 50 pages and anticipates requesting the remaining 200 after they are received.
View the master folder, containing all FBI records received to date on Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer.
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