Page 69 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 69 of 237

In September, 1957, a group of forty-one young Americans on an unauthorized trip to Red China visited Downey
and Fecteau in prison. Afterward they reported that during the interview, Fecteau was asked whether he worked
"for the Central Intelligence Agency."

"Yes," Fecteau replied, according to a Reuters account of the report issued by the visiting Americans. The same
Reuters dispatch reported that Downey, suntanned and crew-cut, said he had received 680 letters in prison,
including some from "lonely hearts." He said he spent a lot of time reading books.

The following month Charles Edmundson, a former USIA official in Korea, who left the government in a dispute
over foreign policy, wrote an article for the Nation, in which he indicated that Downey and Fecteau were CIA
operatives.

At this writing, both men are still in a Chinese prison. The government has never acknowledged them to be CIA
agents. As far as Washington is concerned, they are still officially listed as "civilian personnel employed by the
Department of the Army."

***

1950-1954: Formosa and Western Enterprises, Inc.

During these years the CIA operated on Formosa as Western Enterprises, Inc. This cover was so thin it became a
source of some merriment on the island. The experience of one State Department employee who arrived on
Formosa in 1953 is typical.

A fellow employee was showing her the sights as they drove in from the airport. Pointing to one building, her
guide said: "And that's Western Enterprises."

"What's that?" she asked innocently.

"Oh, you'll find out," her friend replied.

A few days later, at a party with Chinese government officials, she asked one of them: "By the way, what is
Western Enterprises?"

"Oh, that," said the Chinese, with a inscrutable oriental smile, "is your CIA."

State Department employees on Formosa did not get along very well with their counterparts in Western
Enterprises, Inc. For one thing, the State Department workers felt that the CIA people were being paid far too well
and had special privileges.

One of the CIA operatives who turned up on Formosa in 1953 was Campbell "Zup" James, a Yale graduate who
affected an English accent, mustache and fancy walking stick. To anyone who asked, he told the outrageously
phony story that he was a wealthy Englishman managing a family tea plantation on Formosa. By continuing to
maintain this pose, even though almost everyone knew he worked for the CIA, James became a legend throughout
Southeast Asia. He turned up later in Laos, still masquerading as a pukka Englishman straight out of the pages of
Kipling. He was spotted in Bangkok as recently as the summer of 1963, mustache, cane and Mayfair accent intact.
Despite his unlikely cover, some observers said he was an effective agent.