' Pc i rt c f tri - t o u s F 19 59 rnd co d i ati o n disco ve r e d at Sp ci so Ho us e U 3 j lL Ly ci Cl S Go l de n fo rm r ' r cci i l · Jent U S ec r et Si r v i ce ' -icL - O ' l 6 28 59 I dep ar t e d fo r Ma 3cow U S S R via Copenhagen De nma rk with Special i gc nt U S S S John Pc1 rk€ r an d Wade Rodham to mah advanc8 arrangements for Vice President Richard Nixon's visit to t he U S S R 7 3 59 Arrived Moscow u s s R 7 9 59 Approx Parker Rodham and I met with top KGB officials at the Foreign Ministry and I discussed the Vice Presidents forthcoming trip Visited other sites in Moscow ith Embassy Security officer • did a number of physical security surveys including Ambassador's residence Spaso House C I f'o f -mVi ce President and party arrived in Moscow John T Sherwood upon arrival at the airport gave me a pocktt type Radiac Detector #1288 and a TVA radiation detector film badge 7 23 59 The Vice President and Mrs Nixon took up residence in the Spaso House Ambassador's residence in Ambassador L Thomosoi 7 bedroom on the second floor front corner of the structuref7 1 '- ·1 i' l l · 1 Looking at the house from in front it would be the left hand side of the bui lding k Military Aid Major Donald Hughes and Secretary to the Vice President Rose Mary Woods set-up an office in the 2nd floor front of the building next to the corner bedroom mentioned above At approximately 7 00 p m I left the small staff bedroom 2nd floor next to the Nixon's bedroom windows faced out on the left side of the building with a bathroom in between the two rooms and I walked up the open hallway towards the Ni xon's bedroom doorway A small light was burning in the hall and on an impulse I took the Radiac de c imeter #1 288 out of my shirt and looked through it towards the light It was s howing a reading of 6 rej s and as I watched it advanced to 18 roentgens I then walked into the staff office where Major Hughes and Miss Woods were working I knew that Miljor ughe s had a second docimeter #3100 which I then exchanged for #1288 I immediately looked throu gh it and determined it was reading -0- I t hen took #3100 t o the dimly lit Nixon 's bedroom where I stayed for sevo2 ral minutes I then returned to the doorway where I took a readin9 Jy us ing the h i ll light It wa s already re 1ding 5 and in the ne xt hour it adv anced to 35 roentgens in the two bedroor i area i ' 2 I l ef t the st af f hr d roor- r w nt t o t ic st if f office an d obt a inL'd h O i' i r q 1 i c t l t h n rro ccllcd t o th e Ui r i i n i Hotel v i10n I r u i Dr ·i2 lte - ' 'k i ch f pu ty White i ouse h ys i ci n and Jc · 1i scc 1ir i i n d 0 t c1i l of wha t I h ud d iscovcr ' d · II · 1 ·d 11 l i ·no t - 1· - 11·1 _' X • l 1 11 1 Li r111 i t u wh i t l lt high r a diation r e adi ngs indic 2 t cd I h d note d that upon l eaving the bedroor1 u rea the d CJC ii '1c ter r-31 0 0 s ho1 ed no addit i onal r o cntg n r eading It did not begin regi s tering incre ase d sca le readings until I r e - entered the staff bedroom early the next oornin g when John T Shl r- ood and I began our monitoring She rwood had 2 additi o nal docin c t e s and a charger wi th him I went to the staff office and reclaimed decimeter #1288 from Major Hughes All of the Radiac's were registering high 5 to 15 roentgen readings per hour Our Radiac #3100 eventually during the morning monitoring became impossible to reset to -0- it went off scale at 50 John T Sherwood and I continued to monitor with 3 of the four docimeters about 10 00 a m taking one of the remaining Radiacs that had just be e n set to -0- Sherwood was busy making notes o f the readings I left the staff bedroom and went throughout the rest of the 2nd floor of the Spaso House including a room on the opposite side of the house containing a radio transmitter that was used in emergency without de te cting any radiation I did the same on the 1st floor and found no radiation Upon returning I went into the Nixon bedroom as the y had left the room and immediately again began to get R readings I returned to the staff bedroom and re joined John T Sherwood About 11 30 Sherwood and I decided to gamble and speculated the the Soviets had the rooms bugged a nd could pick-up our conversations We decided to try a bluff to see if we could get them to turn off the energy We sat down on the beds facing each oth er and began berating the Russians in loud voices cursing tham for pulling a trick like this and wondering in loud voices why they were taking us for fools and asking each other if they thought they wer e going to get away with doing this After about 1 2 hour o f this we stopp ed and continued monitoring the levels which remained high We reasoned that only about seven people in Russia could make a decision of this magnitude and th a t it would take s or ie time for the persons generating the energy to get to them to get a decision as to what they should do Suddenly at about 3 30 p m the energy di s arre ared and we no longer could ge t iny incrc sc in readings and upon resetting t 1-ie docimeters the y remained stable In succeeding days we offici ally visited the Kremlin Krushev's dacha American Exposition anJ then proceeded to Leningrad where we went aboard the sovi e t nuclear icebreaker ' 3 the Le i in and l 1t c r to a nu cl e a r f 11 ility co r e whe r e we i nto t i1 c lv -11 •• 1t r i n Lo tilt caves Thl n t o Sver l os S iber i a whe r e we dro e ou t to the so call ed Atomic io u e Cit where ·c f o und on ly a barracks c1 nd foun d iti un' Tile do cimeters Jid 110 t gi vc siynif cant increa se s cale r e a di ngs after l eaving the Spa so House Amb 1 s 1do rs rnd staff bedrooms l o ik d · 1- n 7 29 59 or At the gues t dach a outside of Sverdlosk I went for a walk 7 30 59 in the woods with Vice Admiral Hyman Ri c kover and told him w 1at we had found at Spaso House 8 5 59 We traveled on to Siberia Novosibirsk returned to Moscow for a few days then to Poland Returned to U S A Sherwood returned decimeters film badges and recharger to Robert Bouck S A in Charge of u s s s Technical Office He Sherwood verbally reported what had happened and kept personal notes John T Sherwood briefed Presidential Commission on Science and Technology about 1960 l Shen oods notes were J at e-r 1959 submitted as a form of report Sherwood late in 1959 advised he had been told that the U S shipped instruments over in diplomatic pouches to monitor the Spaso House radiation 2 19 72 I - Lunched at 116 Club with General Robert Cushman Deputy Director CIA told him radiation story and asked him to check it out and find out if U S had determined type of radiation Called him from Las Vegas a couple weeks later he said he had found out about it Film badges were clean - couldn't duplicate nuclear decimeter reading and leave badges clean with anything in our labs except nuclear radiation 4 28 76 - Told Dr Herb Pollack Dr William Watson and Bob Blair of 10 30 a m the State Department Soviet Desk about S aso louse radiation in 1959 They said they were only aware of micro-wave radiation at Embassy beginning in 1962 They said they would check my story A couple weeks later I called Herb Pollack and he said they had found out about the Spaso House radiation 3 77 9 30 a m I called and made an appointment with Dr Herbert Pollack State Department Medical Division after reading about the $400 000 grant to Johns Hopkins Hospital to interview all those U S Embassy personnel who had been exposed to the micro-wave radiation at the Embassy in Moscow I went to his office and we sat down and I a s ked him if I could t alk to the doctors doing ·the study in view of the fact tha t I had ori s inally detected the r adiat1 on and had been exposed to it r 4 He b ec 1 e a littl e e x c i ted i nd sa id o - o I don ' t wa nt yo u t ·a lk in' c o t h ·10u ' ll rr0 r c l 1 con f us then You we r e ex os cd t o as s ive d os a ge s of a d i f c r e nt ki nd of r adia t i on I t h e n a st ed hi n · 1h a t ki nd o f r ad i at io n I hud bee n expos c J to an d h e s 1i d Yo u wc rr ex ro sc d t o i oni ze d r a d i 1 t i o n I asked hi m w 1at t he soviets we re using the e nergy for and how it was ge nerated He said that the energy radi ate d fr om an atomi c b attery t hat they used to power radio trans mitte r s used for bugg i ng p urposes I asked hi m where the sovi e ts kep t t he b attery In the attic He said • I mentioned that I had been there whe n it be g an radi a t i ng and when it stopped and I asked how the y turned it off He said they must have come and removed it I said I had been there all day and I d idn't hear anyone i n the atti c I also asked him why the soviets didn't tap off the house power for the i r bugging transmitters as they did all over the Soviet Union He said that the soviets couldn' t do that because when you turned off the light switch on the wall you would t u rn off the power to the transmitters As I felt he couldn't be frank with me I left his office ¥ f# RDbert Bouck said that he had gotten t he docimeters and TVA badges from the Military - Colone l George Mc Nally a nd Captain Pat Patterson his assistant McNally is deceased Patte rson now works as head of Treasury Communica tion Of r ice Intelligence agencies had been briefed on detecti on of radi ation after our return from U S S R He t ho ught Joh n T Sherwood h ad filed a report He had heard of Russi an s using radiation f o r behaviour modification State and Inte lligence age ncies had met prior to the U S President's visi t and expressed concern about radiation Dulles who had visite d Moscow several times suddenly got ill and died of cancer - they t hought t here was a connection because other high U S officials in Moscow h ad also been exposed to the radiat i on and died of cance r Their major concern about the U S Pres ide nt's vi s i t to Moscow was t hat he might be exposed to the radiation Bouck said that the KGB brought only radiation d t e ct i on de vices wi t h t hem o n Krushe v' s 1960 visit and checked his food li v ing quarters and veh i cles whe re ever he we nt App arently they were wor ri e d t h at the U S wo ul u irradiate him in retaliation for their zapp ing of Ni xon's - Dulle s and other high U S officials Mi ko yan - Ko shov vi st J une 1 9 59 KGB borrowe d radiat i on de t e ction ge a r fr o m U S S S t 5 Bo u c k ·f e l t his f o r l e r Cq u t · Ch e t ' -li ll r Sl C S i c r 1'1 1 nto Ca l i ior ni -1 1nd J o hn Fo x wo ul d rc r - crr be r abou t doc ir c t e rs Repor t e r t o rna n Bjc b e r t old nc tha t Nnb as sador L Thomp son o r- Cl IJ e_ - - • and Ch ip Bo l -n n o ne 141 e a i ed of can c e r Both · Anbass a dors to Mo s cow in th e SO's and 60 's -• l l The frequency of checking the decimeters on the evening-nightof July 23 1959 as well as their roentgen c l imbs 5 to 15 every hour or two before resetting back as near Zero a s possible prior to about Noon or mid-afternoon of July 24 1959 is as close as I can now recall this affair ti' • You will note from the attached Xeroxed cc o f the trip itinerary of olaces where I made color film this is not a comple te itiner ary and-schedule of events --but c l ose we spent nights as follows July 1959 Hoscow Spaso 23rd 24th - 1 oscow Spaso 25th -State Dacha--sorne 20 to 25 mi l e s out o f the city 26th - l• oscov Sp2so 27th - Leningrad 28th i' Iovosibirsk 29th - Sverdlovsk 30th Sverdlovs c - oscow p 31st ' August 1959 1st - ' oscow th 2nd - ' • arsuw ' i I ' ' - ••