- Victor Perlo
Victor Perlo (
May 15 ,1912 –December 1 ,1999 ) was a Marxisteconomist and a longtime member of the national committee of theCommunist Party USA .Early years
Born in
East Elmhurst ,New York , Perlo was the son of Russian-Americans who had both emigrated in their youth fromOmsk inSiberia . He receivedB.A. and M.A. degrees inmathematics andstatistics fromColumbia University in 1933. He married Katherine Perlo in 1933, divorcing her in 1943. Subsequently, he married Ellen Perlo, who he remained with for the rest of his life. He had three children with Ellen Perlo, Kathy, Stanley, and Arthur. He had varied interests included tennis, mountain climbing, and chess. He was also a talented pianist.New Deal
Perlo served in various
New Deal government agencies including theNational Recovery Administration (NRA) and theFederal Home Loan Bank Board .cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |quote=With William Ullmann as his business partner and housemate, Silvermaster now lives atHarvey Cedars, New Jersey , where he is a building contractor. |title=A Cast of Characters |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,860102,00.html |publisher=Time (magazine) |quote=Victor Perlo, 41, was named by Miss Bentley as head of a Red cell in Washington in which she had worked. Perlo entered Government service under the NRA in 1933, later became an economic analyst for Treasury's division of Monetary Research. Perlo, who has invoked the Fifth Amendment, is now an economic consultant in New York City. |date=Monday,November 23 ,1953 |accessdate=2008-05-31 ]Perlo also was an original member of the Ware group. In 1937, Perlo left government to work in the
Brookings Institution , and rejoined the government in 1939. He reentered government through the United States Department of Commerce in 1939 to gather data on basic economic decisions he presented toHarry Hopkins , Secretary of Commerce. In 1940, Perlo moved to an agency that became theOffice of Price Administration (OPA). By 1943, he was chief of the Aviation Section of theWar Production Board . The Perlo group of spies, which he headed, included a Senate staff director, and Perlo's ring supplied the Soviet Union with United States aircraft production figures and shipments to various theaters of war.Espionage
A dedicated Communist, Victor Perlo headed the
Perlo group of Soviet espionage agents in the United States. Before World War II, Perlo had been a member of the Ware spy ring. The "Perlo" ring included several important U.S. officials, including a Senate staff director, and the ring supplied the Soviet Union with economic, political, and military intelligence, including United States aircraft production figures.Perlo infiltrated the United States Department of Commerce in 1938 to gather economic intelligence, and passed on intelligence concerning basic economic decisions he presented to Harry Hopkins, Secretary of Commerce. He transferred to the Division of Monetary Research, and served under
Harry Dexter White , followed byFrank Coe andHarold Glasser , all of whom were later found to be Soviet agents.Victor Perlo's code name in Soviet intelligence was "Raider". Due to some cryptographic errors committed by Soviet intelligence during WW II, Perlo was identified through a massive intelligence coup called the
Venona project . Venona results were not released for decades after they were discovered and US conter-intelligence was constantly looking for evidence that they could actually use to remove known Soviet agents of influence and spies. Perlo's public accuser was former Soviet spyElizabeth Bentley .Post WW II Career
Perlo left the government in 1947. After being named as a Soviet agent by
Elizabeth Bentley , Perlo was called before several Congressional Committees investigating Soviet and Communist infiltration, subversion, and espionage within the United States government in the 1930s and duringWorld War II . Perlo invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked to name other espionage agents and Communist party members, telling theHouse Committee on Unamerican Activities (HUAC) he was "helping in my humble way to carry out the great New Deal program under the leadership ofFranklin D. Roosevelt . The results of these hearings left him denied academic employment in the U.S. and ended his government career. They also made him a far-left hero for the rest of his life.In 1948, Perlo obtained a position working on the campaign of Henry Wallace, the Progressive Party's presidential candidate. He also obtained a job as an economic researcher for the Brookings Institution and wrote the book "American Imperialism"
From the 1960s until his death, he was chief economist for the Communist Party USA. His major works include "American Imperialism" (1951), "Empire of High Finance" (1957), "Economics of Racism I and II" (1973 and 1996), and "Superprofits and Crises" (1988).
Death
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