1. Winston Burdett was an American broadcast journalist and correspondent for the CBS Radio Network during World War II and later for CBS television news.
25 Facts About Winston Burdett
1. 2.
From 1937 to 1942 Burdett was involved with the Communist Party.
3.
Winston Burdett testified before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in 1955, detailing his espionage work for the Soviet Union in Europe and naming dozens of other party members.
4.
Winston Burdett was born December 12,1913, in Buffalo, New York, where his father was a civil engineer.
5.
Winston Burdett continued his education with graduate work in Romance languages at Columbia University.
6.
Winston Burdett stayed at his first job, at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, for five years.
7.
Winston Burdett first joined the Communist Party in 1937 while working at the Eagle, through a group there that was affiliated with the American Newspaper Guild.
8.
Einhorn, a reporter and executive secretary of the New York ANG local, wanted Winston Burdett to meet with Joseph North, the editor of New Masses, the Communist Party USAs journal.
9.
At another meeting in New York's Union Square Winston Burdett learned that his mission was in Finland.
10.
Winston Burdett left the United States in February 1940, funded by CPUSA and using his press credentials to travel as a roving correspondent.
11.
Winston Burdett first traveled to Stockholm and met another contact, "Mr Miller".
12.
Winston Burdett was disillusioned by the party when he met the liaison for his work as a spy in Finland - a tough, crude and offensive KGB man.
13.
Winston Burdett was to report back on the morale of the Finnish population and troops.
14.
Three weeks later, Winston Burdett was visiting Finnish troops in the field when Finland signed the Moscow peace treaty.
15.
Winston Burdett returned to Stockholm where he told Miller that the Finnish were mostly ready to continue fighting.
16.
Winston Burdett visited the Soviet consulate in Bucharest twice and made a contact in Belgrade, neither resulted in a mission.
17.
Winston Burdett left the party and his spying behind in March 1942.
18.
For CBS Winston Burdett covered the invasion of Norway, the Axis retreat in North Africa, the invasion of Sicily, the fight for Italy, and the Allied capture of Rome.
19.
Winston Burdett retired from CBS in 1978 after 22 years in the Rome bureau.
20.
Winston Burdett recalled his spy work for the Soviet Union in detail.
21.
Winston Burdett's testimony prompted at least 35 subpoenas by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, headed by Senator James O Eastland, in November 1955.
22.
Winston Burdett became an expert in Vatican affairs and lectured students visiting Rome from the rooftop of the CBS building.
23.
Winston Burdett worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an informant.
24.
Winston Burdett was murdered in 1942 and Burdett attributed her murder to his decision to leave the Communist Party and stop spying for them.
25.
Winston Burdett died in Rome on May 19,1993, after a long illness.