Raymond E. Murphy

Raymond E. Murphy was an American official in the United States Department of State, known for investigating foreign infiltration including Nazis and Communists, who first brought information about Whittaker Chambers to Richard Nixon (1947).[1][2]

Career

On December 1, 1921, received appointment as clerk in the State of Maine.[3]

In 1940, Murphy was involved in the case of Joseph Hansen (1910–1979), was an American Trotskyist and leading figure in the Socialist Workers Party.[4][5][6]

In June 1945, Murphy was special assistant to the Director of European Affairs at the State Department (later ambassador) H. Freeman Matthews.[2][7] According to historian Ted Morgan:

Ostensibly, there were two camps inside the State Department, one of which, led by Acheson and [former Col. Alfred] McCormack, wanted to build up a centralized intelligence unit. The other camp, led by the officers in charge of the geographical divisions, fought to maintain their existing intelligence capacities. But what was presented as a jurisdictional dispute had a strong security component.
[US Secretary of State] Byrnes had named, as his assistant secretary in charge of administration, his law partner and South Carolina crony, Donald Russell. With his direct line to Byrnes, Russell has precedence over Acheson. J. Anthony Panuch, an antiCommunist hard-liner, was Russell's assistant in charge of security. Panuch worked closely with Raymond E. Murphy, who ran a mysterious State Department Office called EUR/X, devoted to the study of worldwide Communist subversion. This Wizard of Oz-like character, known only to a handful inside State, performed such tasks as debriefing Soviet defectors.
Murphy warned Panuch that, prior to the demise of the wartime agencies, the Communist-controlled United Public Workers of America had only one member inside the State Department. After the transfer, the membership rose to between one hundred and two hundred. The chairman of the UPWA local, Peveril Meigs, advocated striking against the federal government. "This means that the Department now has a first-class headache," Murphy wrote Panuch, since Congress was placing riders on all appropriates bills, stating that no part of the funds could be used to pay the salaries of employees who sanction the right to strike against the federal government.[8]

After hearing from a former TIME magazine colleague on secondment to State (Samuel Gardner Welles), Murphy visited Whittaker Chambers twice at the Pipe Creek Farm, first on March 20, 1945, second on August 28, 1946. A report that Murphy filed thereafter contributed to the decision by Alger Hiss to leave State.[2]

Works
  • National Socialism: Basic Principles (1942)[9]
  • "Possible Resurrection of Communist International, Resumption of Extreme Leftist Activities, Possible Effect on United States," Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference) (1945)[7]

See also

References
  1. Morgan, Ted (1999). A Covert Life: Jay Lovestone, Communist, Anti-Communist and Spymaster. Random House. p. 149. ISBN 9780307805669. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  2. Weinstein, Allen (2013). Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case. Random House. pp. 362, 366, 389, 500, 692 (fn32). ISBN 9780307805669. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  3. Department of State Personnel and Organization, December 31, 1921. United States Department of State. 1922. pp. 15, 25. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  4. London, Eric (9 December 2016). "The Smith Act trial and government infiltration of the Trotskyist movement—Part two". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  5. "Joseph Hansen" (PDF). Trotskyana.net. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  6. North, David (10 November 2015). "Security and the Fourth International: The Gelfand Case and the Deposition of Mark Zborowski". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  7. Murphy, Raymond E.; Stevens, Francis Bowden; Trivres, Howard; Roland, Joseph Morgan (2 June 1945). "Possible Resurrection of Communist International, Resumption of Extreme Leftist Activities, Possible Effect on United States". Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference). US GPO. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  8. Morgan, Ted (2004). Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth Century America. Random House. p. 378. ISBN 9780812973020. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  9. Murphy, Raymond E. (1943). National Socialism: Basic Principles, Their Application by the Nazi Party's Foreign Organization, and the Use of Germans Abroad for Nazi Aims. US GPO. LCCN 43051654.


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