Cedric Henning Belfrage (8 November 1904 – 21 June 1990) was an English film critic, journalist, writer and political activist.
He is best remembered as a co-founder of the radical US weekly ''
National Guardian''.
Later Belfrage was referenced as a Soviet agent in the US intelligence
Venona project
The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service (later absorbed by the National Security Agency), which ran from February 1, 1943, until Octob ...
, although it appears he had been working for
British Security Co-ordination
British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Its purpose was to investigate ...
as a double agent.
Early years
Cedric Henning Belfrage was born in
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...
, London, on 8 November 1904, the son of
Sydney Henning Belfrage
Sydney Henning Belfrage (21 July 1871 - 31 May 1950) M.D., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., was a British physician and writer.Obituary in ''The Times'', ''DR S. H. BELFRAGE'', June 1, 1950, p.9 He established a sizable general practice, served as the Div ...
and Frances Grace (née Powley). He was educated at
Gresham's School
Gresham's School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent Day school, day and boarding school) in Holt, Norfolk, Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Bac ...
, before entering
Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. There he had the same room as
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
had in the 16th century.
While still a Cambridge student, Belfrage began a writing career as a film critic, with a first article in ''Kinematograph Weekly'' in 1924. In 1927 he went to Hollywood, where he was hired by the ''
New York Sun'' and ''Film Weekly'' as a correspondent.
Belfrage returned to London in 1930 as
Sam Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor an ...
's press agent. Returning to Hollywood, he became politically active, joining the
Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and co-editing a left-wing literary magazine called ''The Clipper''. He decided to make the United States his home and took out first papers for citizenship in 1937, although he failed to complete the process within the statutory seven-year time limit.
Belfrage joined the
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
in 1937, but withdrew his membership a few months later.
Thereafter, he maintained a friendly but critical relationship as a so-called "fellow traveler" outside party membership and discipline, recalling in his 1978 memoir that for "temperamentally argumentative" adherents of socialism such as himself, such status as a "non-Communist, non-anti-Communist... suited us better."
[Belfrage and Aronson, p. 8.] Despite his non-membership in the American Communist Party, Belfrage remained a believer that it functioned as "the core of the radical movement."
[
]
Second World War
During the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Belfrage worked in the British Security Coordination
British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Its purpose was to investigate ...
for the Western hemisphere. After the fall of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, he was appointed as a "press control officer" in the Anglo-American Psychological Warfare Division
The Psychological Warfare Division of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (PWD/SHAEF or SHAEF/PWD) was a joint Anglo-American organization set-up in World War II tasked with conducting (predominantly) white tactical psychological war ...
and was dispatched to Germany to help reorganize that nation's newspapers. He and his associates requisitioned buildings, equipment, and supplies for a new "democratic" German press and oversaw a purge of Nazi collaborators from the new German newspaper industry.
It was while Belfrage was in Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
working to establish the ''Frankfurter Rundschau
The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (FR) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-pa ...
'' – a new daily – that he met James Aronson
James Aronson (1915–1988) was an American journalist. He founded the ''National Guardian''. He was a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Career
Aronson, known as "Jim" to his friends, worked ...
, a veteran newspaper reporter and editor from Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
who shared Belfrage's radical politics.[Belfrage and Aronson, ''Something to Guard,'' pg. 4.] Aronson was attached to Belfrage and together the pair helped to establish new newspapers in Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
, Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, and Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
, developing a friendship and forging vague plans to launch a new radical newspaper in the United States following the end of the war.[
Belfrage was soon discharged from the Army and returned to the United States, however, and nothing immediately came of the pair's plans. Aronson returned to a job with the then-liberal '']New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' in April 1946, moving later that year to a new job with ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
.''
''National Guardian''
In 1948, Belfrage co-founded, together with James Aronson and John T. McManus
John Thomas McManus (1904 – November 1961) was an American journalist active in progressive politics in the 1950s and 1960s best known as co-founder of the ''National Guardian'', a left-leaning newspaper.
Background
McManus was born in New Yor ...
, a radical weekly newspaper called the '' National Guardian''. He would remain affiliated with the publication – renamed ''The Guardian'' in 1967 – until late in the 1960s.
Later years
At the height of McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origin ...
, Belfrage was summoned in 1953 to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
(HUAC). In 1955, he was deported back to England. His wife, Molly Castle, had already been deported by that time. He travelled to Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
in 1961. In 1962, he travelled throughout South America, finally settling in Cuernavaca, Mexico
Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D.
The na ...
.
Belfrage returned to the US for the first time in 1973, touring around the country with to promote his new book, ''The American Inquisition''. He later debuted as a Spanish-English translator, notably for the Latin American author Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Hughes Galeano (; 3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "global soccer's pre-eminent man of letters" and "a literary giant of the Latin American left".
Galean ...
. He was commissioned by ''Monthly Review Press'' to translate Galeano's ''Open Veins of Latin America''. Belfrage continued to write extensively until his last years.
Intelligence allegations
According to FBI files, Belfrage was questioned by the FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
in 1947 about his involvement with the Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
. The interview covered his relations with CPUSA General Secretary Earl Browder
Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s.
Duri ...
, Jacob Golos, V. J. Jerome
Victor Jeremy Jerome (1896–1965) was an American communist writer and editor based in New York City. He is best remembered as a Marxist cultural essayist and as the long-time editor of ''The Communist'', later known as ''Political Affairs'', th ...
, and surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...
s and documents about Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
and the Vichy Government of France.[John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009; pp. 109–111, 312. See also John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev, ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009; pp. 191 and 581, footnote 89.] In her 1951 memoir ''Out of Bondage'', Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley (January 1, 1908 – December 3, 1963) was an American spy and member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She served the Soviet Union from 1938 to 1945 until she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intelligenc ...
(who had reported to Golos) recounted Belfrage's interactions with Golos.
In 1995, intercepts decrypted by Venona
The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service (later absorbed by the National Security Agency), which ran from February 1, 1943, until Octob ...
– a project between the US and British intelligence services to decipher Soviet messages – were made public. United States intelligence has alleged that Unnamed Codename Number 9 (UNC/9) was Belfrage. Venona also had a cover name "Charlie" that was not identified by the FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
.
The 1948 ''Gorsky Memo'', found in Soviet Archives, identifies Belfrage as having a covert relationship with Soviet intelligence as a member of the "Sound" and "Myrna" groups. Seven Venona decrpyts reference UNC/9 in passing conversations between Belfrage's bureau chief and Winston Churchill on to the Soviets
Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union.
Nationality policy in th ...
.[ Belfrage is referenced in the following Venona decrypts, 592 KGB New York to Moscow, 29 April 1943; 725 KGB New York to Moscow, 19 May 1943, p. 1 725, KGB New York to Moscow, 19 May 1943, p. 2, 810 KGB New York to Moscow, 29 May 1943, p. 1, 810 KGB New York to Moscow, 29 May 1943, p. 2, 952 KGB New York to Moscow, 21 June 1943, p. 1, 952 KGB New York to Moscow, 21 June 1943, p. 2, 974 KGB New York to Moscow, 22 June 1943, p. 1, 974 KGB New York to Moscow, 22 June 1943, p. 2, 1430 KGB New York to Moscow, 2 September 1943, 1452 KGB New York to Moscow, 8 September 1943, p. 1, 1452 KGB New York to Moscow, 8 September 1943, p. 2. During the period in question, the United States and the ]Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
were wartime allies while at the same time the Soviet Union maintained a spy network of American citizens who passed US secrets to the Soviets.
Personal life
He and his wife, Molly Castle, had two children; Sally and Nicolas
Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to:
People Given name
* Nicolas (given name)
Mononym
* Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer
* Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer
Surname Nicolas
* Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...
. He also had a child, Anne Hertz (Zribi), with partner Anne-Marie Hertz. Cedric was the younger brother of actor and BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
newsreader Bruce Belfrage
Bruce Belfrage (30 October 1900 – August 1974) was an English actor and BBC radio newsreader.Obituary in ''The Times'', ''Mr Bruce Belfrage'', 17 August 1974, p.14 He was casting director at the BBC between 1936 and 1939, and founded th ...
(1900–1974). Cedric's uncle was Bryan Powley, the actor who began his career in the era of Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
.
Death
Cedric Belfrage died on 21 June 1990 in Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, aged 85.
Present-day allegations
In August 2015, Christopher Andrew, professor of modern history at Cambridge and official historian of MI5 accessed documents released from the UK National Archive which confirmed that Belfrage worked for the Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
(MI6) during the war and also spied for the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. The ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' described Belfrage as "a 'sixth man' to stand alongside the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring." Other UK print, TV and radio media carried the story.
On 17 September 2015 a BBC Radio Four documentary "The Hollywood Spy" examined Christopher Andrew's allegations, but also put forward information by historian John Simkin that Belfrage was working for British Security Co-ordination
British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Its purpose was to investigate ...
as a double-agent, which would explain why he handed information to the Soviets.
Works
*''Away From It All: An Escapologist's Notebook''. Gollancz, London, 1937; Simon and Schuster, 1937; Literary Guild, 1937 Penguin (Britain)
*''Promised Land: Notes For a History''. Gollancz, London, 1937; Left Book Club, London, 1937; Republished by Garland, New York, Classics of Film Literature series, 1983
*''Let My People Go''. Gollancz, London, 1937
*''South of God''. Left Book Club, 1938
*''A Faith to Free the People.'' Modern Age, New York, 1942; Dryden Press, New York, 1944; Book Find Club, 1944
*''They All Hold Swords''. Modern Age, New York, 1941
*''Abide With Me''. Sloane Associates, New York, 1948; Secker and Warburg, London, 1948
''Seeds of destruction; the truth about the U.S. occupation of Germany ''
Cameron and Kahn, New York, 1954.
*''The Frightened Giant''. Secker and Warburg, London, 1956
*''My Master Columbus''. Secker and Warburg, 1961; Doubleday, New York, 1962; Editiones Contemporaneous, Mexico, (in Spanish)
*''The Man at the Door With the Gun''. Monthly Review, New York, 1963
*''The American Inquisition''. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973
*''Something to Guard: The Stormy Life of the National Guardian, 1948-1967.'' With James Aronson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978
References
Further reading
*Cedric Belfrage interview, 8 June 1947
FBI Silvermaster file, serial 2522, pgs. 47–49
(pgs. 446, 447, 448 in original).
*Cedric Belfrage statement, 3 June 1947
FBI Silvermaster file, serial 2583, pgs. 50–56
(pgs. 318–324 in original).
*
*
*
External links
Guide to the Cedric Belfrage Papers
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University.
Guide to the Sally Belfrage Papers
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Belfrage, Cedric
1904 births
1990 deaths
People educated at Gresham's School
Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
English male journalists
English socialists
Anti-communism in the United States
People deported from the United States
American people in the Venona papers
British emigrants to Mexico
Secret Intelligence Service personnel
Soviet spies