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Quarters of the U.S. Military Government Liaison Officer
The South German Industrial Development Organization Compound
Pullach, Bavaria
The American Zone of Occupied Germany
1625 8 January 1946
When the door closed on Lieutenant Colonel George H. Parsons and Major Warren W. Ashley, Cronley looked around the table at General Gehlen, Mannberg, El Jefe, Hessinger, and Tiny and said, “Why does it worry me that they were so charming?”
Gehlen chuckled.
“I would say that it has something to do with a ‘well done’ message General Magruder sent Colonel Parsons,” Hessinger said. “For the time being it is in their interest to be charming.”
“What are you talking about?” Dunwiddie asked.
“What ‘well done’ message?” Cronley asked.
“The Pentagon sent a request for an update on Russian troop strength, especially tanks, in Silesia. You knew that, right?”
“And the general got it for us. Them.”
“The general already had that intelligence on his Order of Battle. So the Pentagon asked for it one day, and the next day it was in Washington. Then General Magruder sent Colonel Parsons a ‘well done’ message. I am suggesting that if being charming to us produces ‘well done’ messages from General Magruder, Colonel Parsons is happy to polish our brass balls.”
“I don’t think you have that metaphor down perfectly, Freddy,” Tiny said, chuckling, “but I take your point.”
“How do you know Magruder sent the ‘well done’ message?” Cronley asked.
It took Hessinger a moment to frame his reply.
“I thought it would be in our interest to know what General Magruder and Colonel Parsons were saying to each other,” he said finally. “So I established a sort of sub-rosa arrangement with Technical Sergeant Colbert of the ASA.”
“This I have to hear,” El Jefe said. “A sub-rosa arrangement to do what?”
“Give us copies of every message back and forth.”
“In exchange for what?” El Jefe asked.
“You told me, when I told you we didn’t have enough people to do what we’re supposed to do, you said that I should keep my eyes open for people we could use, that you—we—now had the authority to recruit people from wherever for the DCI.”
“So?”
“Sergeant Colbert has ambitions to be a professional intelligence officer. She thinks the next step for her would be to get out of the ASA and join the DCI.”
“And you told him you could arrange that?” Cronley asked. “And then, ‘she’? ‘Her’?”
Hessinger nodded.
“I told her—her name is Claudette Colbert, like the movie actress—”
“Like the movie actress? Fascinating!” Cronley said. “Is there another one? Sergeant Betty Grable, maybe?”
“—that I would bring the subject up with you at the first opportunity. And I suggested to her that you would be favorably impressed if she could continue to get us all messages between the Pentagon and Colonel Parsons without getting caught.”
“Jesus!” Cronley exclaimed. “Freddy, I’m sure that you considered that if we had this movie star sergeant transferred to us, she would no longer be in a position to read Parsons’s messages.”
“I did. She tells me that it will not pose a problem.”
