Raymond Murphy

Raymond Murphy (1896-1963) was a US State Department officer.

Murphy was born in 1896, in Lewiston Maine, where his father was a mill worker. He went to the local Bates College, and became a clerk at the State Department. In the evenings he studied at the Georgetown University Law School, succesfully taking the bar exam.

In 1925 he joined the State Departments Eastern European Division, under Robert Kelley. He began to study communism from sources such as the Comintern journal Inprecor, and the records of party congresses.

His allies within the State Department would come to be those diplomats who reported on the Soviet Union from Latvia during the interwar period, the "Riga Group" including George Kennan, Charles E. Bohlen, Loy Henderson and Elbridge Durbrow.

In 1937, Murphy's office became part of the European Affairs Division under Assistant Secretary of State James Clement Dunn.

From 1938, Murphy regularly debriefed Walter Krivitsky, the former head of Soviet military intelligence in Western Europe, until his mysterious death in February 1941.

In 1945, He arranged a US visa for Margaret Buber Neumann, the widow of Comintern agent Heinz Neumann.

In March 1945, Murphy questioned Whittaker Chambers for two hours at his home in Maryland.

After leading French Communist Jacques Duclos wrote an article in Cahiers du Communism criticising the dissolution of the American Commmunist Party, and wrote an analysis with the title: "Possible Resurrection of the Communist International, Resumption of Extreme Leftist Activities, Possible Effect on the United States". According to Roy Godson, the Duclos article was brought to Murphy's attention by Ben Mandel, and Murphy highlighted it in turn to the American Federation of Labor.

Murphy created an ad hoc intelligence services using diplomats such as Elbridge Durbrow in Italy, Norris Chipman in France and and Brewster Morris in Germany. he shared some of the reports from this group with Jay Lovestone, who in return shared information from his Canadian contacts with Nathan Mendelssohn. Pagie Morris also worked for Murphy in the period after the war. She was introduced to Murphy by William Donovan in 1946.

Murphy questioned Chambers again in August 1946. Among those Murphy suspected of spying for the Soviet Union was Alger Hiss, who had recommended Noel Field for a key diplomatic post.

Murphy compiled a report on Hiss which led to a security investigation which concluded in November 1946 that Hiss had taken home top-secret reports he was not cleared for.

In February 1947, Murphy brought the Chambers material to the attention of Richard M. Nixon, then a congressman on the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC)]].

In the spring of 1948, Murphy asked Pagie Morris to infiltrate the Congress of American Women, a suspected communist front..

After a warning from Lovestone about the situation in Italy on 9 March 1948, Murphy wired $50,000 in private donations to Ambassador James Dunn.

In August 1948, Murphy coached Chambers before his appearance at a HUAC hearing.

Murphy was responsible for introducing Lovestone to William Donovan, which led to Donovan recommending Lovestone in turn to Defence Secretary James Forrestal in 1948.

In September 1951, Lovestone secured US visas for a delegation of Tunisian nationalists though Murphy over French objections.

Murphy retired from the State Department in 1959, having failed to get Nixon to use his influence to secure him an ambassadorship.

In the early 1950s, Dean Acheson wanted to fire Murphy for collecting information on Hiss, but the American Federation of Labor lobbies in his favour.

Murphy died of cancer in 1963.

External Resources

• NameBase MURPHY RAYMOND E