Robert Talbott Miller III (April 5, 1910 – January 1999) was an American citizen who worked in the United States

Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs The Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, later known as the Office for Inter-American Affairs, was a United States agency promoting inter-American cooperation (Pan-Americanism) during the 1940s, especially in commercial and econ ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He was alleged to be part of the Soviet

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

group known as the " Golos ring" in the 1940s.

Biography

Miller was born April 5, 1910, in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, and lived in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. In August 1934, he moved to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and worked as a correspondent for the ''

Chattanooga News Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

'' until 1937. In Moscow, Miller met and married his wife, Jenny Levy, an American. In 1937, Miller became press agent for the

Spanish Republican The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII. It was dissolv ...

government. In 1939, the Millers moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and Miller became President of the Hemisphere News Service and editor of its weekly publication, ''Hemisphere''. Jack Fahy, another suspected spy for the Soviet Union, was Vice President and Treasurer. Miller was known to be meeting with

Jacob Golos Jacob Golos (born Yakov Naumovich Reizen, Russian: Яков Наумович Рейзен; April 24, 1889 - November 27, 1943) was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary who became an intelligence operative in the United States on behalf of the U ...

as early as February 1941 in New York. Sometime that same year, the Millers relocated to

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

so that he could take employment as an analyst for the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) in the Department of Commerce at a good salary. He later became Director of the Division of Reports of the OCIAA. About this time, Miller allegedly began supplying information to

Elizabeth Bentley Elizabeth Terrill Bentley (January 1, 1908 – December 3, 1963) was an American NKVD spymaster, who was recruited from within the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She served the Soviet Union as the primary handler of multiple highly placed moles ...

for the Golos network. Miller had access to information from the

Office of Naval Intelligence The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, it is the oldest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serv ...

(ONI), Army G-2 (Intelligence), the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...

(OSS), and the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

concerning

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n affairs. The material Miller allegedly provided Bentley for transmission to

Soviet intelligence This is a list of historical secret police organizations. In most cases they are no longer current because the regime that ran them was overthrown or changed, or they changed their names. Few still exist under the same name as legitimate police fo ...

always concerned

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

or Russian activities in

. In September 1941, the Hemisphere News Service moved to Washington D.C. and became the Export Information Bureau, managed by Joseph Gregg, and received a contract to do exclusive research work for the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. At the same time, Robert Miller became a research analyst with the OCIAA. The Export Information Bureau was subsequently absorbed into the CIAA. In December 1941, Miller was interviewed by

D.M. Ladd D.M. Ladd, also known as D. Milton Ladd and "Mickey" Ladd (1903–1960), was a special agent and assistant (number 3 position) at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to its director J. Edgar Hoover, who was "one of the earliest member ...

of the FBI about a request to investigate several individuals and organizations for OCIAA, including an organization called the "Society for Pan-American Confraternity". In February 1942, at the request of Undersecretary

James Forrestal James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet (government), cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense. Forrestal came from a very strict middle-cla ...

, FBI Special Agent Jerry Doyle had lunch with John Nitze, a former employee of Forrestal. Nitze was accompanied by Miller, who was described as being in charge of intelligence for the OCIAA. Nitze explained that Miller provided intelligence reports for both the

Board of Economic Warfare The Office of Administrator of Export Control (also referred to as the Export Control Administration) was established in the United States by Presidential Proclamation 2413, July 2, 1940, to administer export licensing provisions of the act of July ...

(BEW) and the OCIAA which were prepared from information supplied by the FBI, Office of Naval Intelligence and Army G-2. In July 1944, Miller transferred to the Near Eastern Division of the United States

Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

and handled confidential matters between the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and the

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...

. By August 1944, it was established Miller had a connection with Greg Silvermaster, head of the Silvermaster group. Miller was also a close associate of Maurice Halperin, who worked for the OSS, State Department, and Soviet intelligence.

Charles Flato Charles S. Flato (also Charles Floto) (May 27, 1908 – January 1, 1984) was an American writer, American Communist Party member and a Soviet agent. Flato was employed by the United States government and spied for the Soviet intelligence duri ...

of the Office of Economic warfare and the

Foreign Economic Administration In the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Foreign Economic Administration (FEA) was formed on September 25, 1943 to relieve friction between US agencies operating abroad. Establishment The FEA was organized and run by Leo Crowley w ...

was also one of Miller's contacts. Miller resigned from the State Department in December 1946. According to

Anatoly Gorsky Anatoly Veniaminovich Gorsky (Анатолий Вениаминович Горский) (c. 1907 – 1980), was a Soviet spy who, under cover as First Secretary "Anatoly Borisovich Gromov" of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, was secretly ''rezide ...

's memo, "Failures in the U.S.A. (1938–1948)," December 1948: in

Alexander Vassiliev Alexander Yuryevich Vassiliev (; born 1962) is a Russians, Russian-British people, British journalist, writer and espionage historian living in London who is a Subject-matter expert, subject matter expert in the Soviet KGB and Russian Foreign In ...

's Notes from the KGB Archive. Miller's codename was "Mirage." "Mirage," is one of the codenames in The

Venona The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, u ...

Papers that was not identified by other sources.

Sources

* Elizabeth Bentley, ''Out of Bondage: The Story of Elizabeth Bentley'', Devin-Adair Company, 1951
FBI Silvermaster file, 2c pgs. 258-270

FBI Silvermaster file, 4b pgs. 166-173
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Robert T. American male journalists Journalists from Pittsburgh 1910 births 1999 deaths American spies for the Soviet Union American people in the Venona papers United States Department of State officials 20th-century American writers Espionage in the United States 20th-century American journalists