Louis F. Budenz
Encyclopedia
Louis Francis Budenz (Pronounced "byew-DENZ") was an American
activist and writer, as well as a Soviet
espionage
agent and head of the Buben group of spies. He began as a labor activist and became a member of the Communist Party USA
. In 1945 Budenz renounced Communism and became a vocal anti-Communist
, appearing as an expert witness
at various governmental hearings and authoring a series of books on his experiences.
, where he was eventually promoted to editor. By 1938, he had been arrested more than 20 times. That same year, he became editor of a new Communist daily in Chicago, the Midwest Daily Record, part of a "cross-country alliance of Communist dailies, between the San Francisco People's World...and New York City's...Daily Worker", at a time when there were more than 700 labor papers in America.
under the guidance of Fulton Sheen, and became an anti-communist
advocate.
Formerly the author of numerous articles and pamphlets in support of Communist causes, after 1945 Budenz wrote several books about the dangers and evils of Communism. He became a professor at Fordham University
, a syndicated columnist, and lecturer. In 1947, he wrote an autobiography, This Is My Story.
(former husband of Soviet spy Hede Massing
, who would testify in the second trial of the Hiss Case
).
Budenz became a paid informant
for the FBI (like Elizabeth Bentley
and unlike Whittaker Chambers
). He testified as an expert witness at various trials of Communists and before many of the Senate and House committees that were formed to investigate Communists. He voluntarily confessed that he had participated in espionage
and other efforts on behalf of the Soviet Union, including discussion of the assassination of Leon Trotsky
with CPUSA chairman Earl Browder
.
By his own estimate, Budenz spent some 3,000 hours explaining the Party's "inner workings" to the FBI, as well as testifying on 33 occasions to various committees. By 1957 he estimated he had earned approximately $70,000 for his expert testimony. Budenz was a witness at the 1949 First Amendment case Dennis v. United States
, brought by Eugene Dennis
, General Secretary
of CPUSA. He was also a key witness in the 1950 hearings before the Tydings Committee
, which had been called to investigate charges made by Senator
Joseph McCarthy
that the State Department
had numerous Soviet moles in its employ.
, one of the so-called "China Hands
," was a member of a Communist cell within the Institute of Pacific Relations
but not a Soviet agent. The reliability of his testimony came under question because, in all of his 3,000 hours of debriefing before the FBI (1946-1949), Budenz had never mentioned Lattimore's name. In 1951, Budenz again testified against Lattimore, this time before the hearings of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, headed by Senator Pat McCarran
. During this second testimony against Lattimore, Budenz claimed Lattimore was both Soviet agent and secret Communist.
At one point in the late 1940s he testified, according to one account, "that the fact that a man denied he was a Communist might prove he was a communist since all Communists had instructions to deny it."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
activist and writer, as well as a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
agent and head of the Buben group of spies. He began as a labor activist and became a member of the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
. In 1945 Budenz renounced Communism and became a vocal anti-Communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
, appearing as an expert witness
Expert witness
An expert witness, professional witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have expertise and specialised knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and legally...
at various governmental hearings and authoring a series of books on his experiences.
Communist
He became a member of the National Committee of the Party and from 1935 held various positions at its newspaper, the Daily WorkerDaily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
, where he was eventually promoted to editor. By 1938, he had been arrested more than 20 times. That same year, he became editor of a new Communist daily in Chicago, the Midwest Daily Record, part of a "cross-country alliance of Communist dailies, between the San Francisco People's World...and New York City's...Daily Worker", at a time when there were more than 700 labor papers in America.
Anti-Communist
In 1945, Budenz renounced Communism, returned to the Roman Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
under the guidance of Fulton Sheen, and became an anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
advocate.
Formerly the author of numerous articles and pamphlets in support of Communist causes, after 1945 Budenz wrote several books about the dangers and evils of Communism. He became a professor at Fordham University
Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
, a syndicated columnist, and lecturer. In 1947, he wrote an autobiography, This Is My Story.
Paid informant, expert witness
As early as 1946, Budenz started testifying about other commununists like Gerhart EislerGerhart Eisler
Gerhart Eisler was a German politician. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party and then a prominent member of the Communist Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic...
(former husband of Soviet spy Hede Massing
Hede Massing
Hede Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. After the World War II, she defected from the Soviet underground...
, who would testify in the second trial of the Hiss Case
Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official...
).
Budenz became a paid informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
for the FBI (like Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American spy for the Soviet Union from 1938 until 1945. In 1945 she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intelligence and became an informer for the U.S. She exposed two networks of spies, ultimately naming over 80 Americans who had engaged in espionage for...
and unlike Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
). He testified as an expert witness at various trials of Communists and before many of the Senate and House committees that were formed to investigate Communists. He voluntarily confessed that he had participated in espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
and other efforts on behalf of the Soviet Union, including discussion of the assassination of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
with CPUSA chairman Earl Browder
Earl Browder
Earl Russell Browder was an American communist and General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1934 to 1945. He was expelled from the party in 1946.- Early years :...
.
By his own estimate, Budenz spent some 3,000 hours explaining the Party's "inner workings" to the FBI, as well as testifying on 33 occasions to various committees. By 1957 he estimated he had earned approximately $70,000 for his expert testimony. Budenz was a witness at the 1949 First Amendment case Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States, , was a United States Supreme Court case involving Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the Communist Party USA, which found that Dennis did not have a right under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to exercise free speech, publication and assembly,...
, brought by Eugene Dennis
Eugene Dennis
Francis Xavier Waldron , best known by the pseudonym Eugene Dennis was an American communist politician and union organizer, best remembered as the long-time leader of the Communist Party USA and as named party in Dennis v...
, General Secretary
General Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...
of CPUSA. He was also a key witness in the 1950 hearings before the Tydings Committee
Tydings Committee
The Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees, more commonly referred to as the Tydings Committee, was a subcommittee authorized by in February 1950 to look into charges by Joseph R...
, which had been called to investigate charges made by Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
that the State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
had numerous Soviet moles in its employ.
Lattimore testimonies
In the 1950 Tydings Committee hearings, Budenz testified that Owen LattimoreOwen Lattimore
Owen Lattimore was an American author, educator, and influential scholar of Central Asia, especially Mongolia. In the 1930s he was editor of Pacific Affairs, a journal published by the Institute of Pacific Relations, and then taught at Johns Hopkins University from 1938 to 1963...
, one of the so-called "China Hands
China Hands
The term China Hand originally referred to 19th-century merchants in the treaty ports of China, but evolved to reflect anyone with expert knowledge of the language, culture, and people of China...
," was a member of a Communist cell within the Institute of Pacific Relations
Institute of Pacific Relations
The Institute of Pacific Relations was an international NGO established in 1925 to provide a forum for discussion of problems and relations between nations of the Pacific Rim. The International Secretariat, the center of most IPR activity over the years, consisted of professional staff members who...
but not a Soviet agent. The reliability of his testimony came under question because, in all of his 3,000 hours of debriefing before the FBI (1946-1949), Budenz had never mentioned Lattimore's name. In 1951, Budenz again testified against Lattimore, this time before the hearings of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, headed by Senator Pat McCarran
Pat McCarran
Patrick Anthony McCarran was a Democratic United States Senator from Nevada from 1933 until 1954, and was noted for his strong anti-Communist stance.-Early life and career:...
. During this second testimony against Lattimore, Budenz claimed Lattimore was both Soviet agent and secret Communist.
At one point in the late 1940s he testified, according to one account, "that the fact that a man denied he was a Communist might prove he was a communist since all Communists had instructions to deny it."
McCarthy summation
In 1952, Senator McCarthy praised Budenz for having "testified in practically every case in which Communists were either convicted or deported over the past three years; one of the key witnesses who testified against... Communist leaders."Publications
- Catholic priests distinguished Protestants have known: historical facts vs. uncritical calumny. St. Louis, Mo., Central bureau of the Roman Catholic central verein 1915
- A list of books for the study of the social question, being an introduction to Catholic social literature St. Louis, Mo., Central bureau of the Roman Catholic central verein 1915
- Labor Age cartoons (New York: s.n., 1932)
- Red baiting: enemy of labor; with a letter to Homer Martin by Earl Browder New York : Workers Library Publishers, 1937 (with Earl BrowderEarl BrowderEarl Russell Browder was an American communist and General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1934 to 1945. He was expelled from the party in 1946.- Early years :...
) - May Day, 1937: what it means to you New York : Workers Library Publishers, 1937
- Communism answers questions of a communist New York : Paulist Press, 1937 (with Fulton Sheen)
- May Day, 1940 New York : Workers Library Publishers, 1940
- Save your union!: the meaning of the 'Anti-Trust' persecution of labor New York : Workers Library Publishers, 1940
- This is my story. New York, London, Whittlesey House, McGraw-HillMcGraw-HillThe McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
Book Co., 1947 - Men without faces; the Communist conspiracy in the U. S. A.New York, HarperHarper (publisher)Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins.-History:James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishing business J. & J. Harper in 1817. Their two brothers, Joseph Wesley Harper and Fletcher Harper, joined them...
1950 - The Hidden World (1950)
- The communist conspiracy : a Harding College Freedom Forum presentation [Searcy, Ark.] : National Education Program, 1951
- The cry is peace. Chicago, Henry Regnery Company, 1952
- The techniques of communism Chicago, Henry Regnery Company, 1954
- What every citizen can do for the good of his country: attack communism! New York: American Business ConsultantsRed ChannelsRed Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television is an anti-Communist tract published in the United States at the height of the Red Scare...
1963 - The Bolshevik invasion of the West; account of the great political war for a Soviet America. [Linden, N.J.] Bookmailer 1966
External links
- Comments on Vassiliev’s notes on Gorsky’s "Failures in the U.S.A. (1938-48)"
- Dennis v. United States, Louis Budenz, Testimony, March 1949
- Key Participants: Louis Budenz - Linus Pauling and the International Peace Movement: A Documentary History
- Investigation of un-American propaganda activities in the United States: Louis F. Budenz. Hearings (1946)