Word: meissner
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...FRANK MEISSNER Berkeley, Calif...
Lesson for Tomorrow. Meissner's story differs from Willoughby's official account in two important respects. The U.S. Army believes that Sorge was betrayed to Tokyo's secret police by a Japanese Communist. Meissner credits Sorge's downfall to the work of a certain Colonel Osaki of the Japanese secret police who, in the best tradition of melodrama, tripped Sorge over the pretty foot of a nightclub dancer...
Much of this story has been told by the U.S. Department of the Army and by Major General Charles Willoughby, Mac-Arthur's chief of intelligence. Author Meissner fills in some of the human reality from the point of view of a loyal German officer (he later commanded a tank against the Russians) who was completely hornswoggled by a master spy. In Tokyo in the late '303, Attache Meissner became friendly with "Correspondent" Sorge, who even was a guest at Meissner's wedding. Later, as a P.W. in an Allied camp, Meissner met others who had crossed...
...Intelligence seems to accept the Japanese statement that he was executed in 1944. Meissner suggests that the death sentence against Sorge was never carried out. He cites these items: a French diplomat claims to have seen him since; his execution, if it took place, occurred without a witness from the condemned man's own country, although such a witness is required by Japanese law; nor were his remains made available to friends or relatives. The German ambassador in Tokyo at war's end, Heinrich Stahmer, believed that Sorge survived to direct the Far Eastern Department...
Whatever the facts, Meissner's story has two morals. The first, which Author Meissner calls "an ominous and sinister lesson for tomorrow," is that, despite the many sensational spy cases since the war, no ring quite as formidable and versatile as Sorge's has been uncovered-though there is no reason to assume that none exists...