Louis F. Budenz

Louis Francis Budenz (July 17, 1891 – April 27, 1972) was an American activist and writer, as well as a Soviet espionage agent and head of the Buben group of spies. He began as a labor activist, and a member of the Communist Party USA. He became a member of the National Committee of the Party and from 1935 held various positions at its newspaper, the Daily Worker, where he was eventually promoted to editor.

Expert witness
In 1945, Budenz renounced communism, returned to the Roman Catholic Church, and became an anti-communist advocate. He became an informant for the FBI and testified as an expert witness at various trials of Communists and before many of the Senate and House committees that were formed to investigate Communists. He voluntarily confessed that he had participated in recruiting agents and other efforts on behalf of the Soviet Union, including discussion of the assassination of Leon Trotsky with CPUSA chairman Earl Browder.

By his own estimate, Budenz spent some 3,000 hours explaining the Communist party's "inner workings" to the FBI, as well as testifying on 33 occasions to various committees. By 1957 he estimated he had earned approximately $70,000 for his expert testimony. Budenz was a witness at the 1949 First Amendment case Dennis v. United States, brought by Eugene Dennis, General Secretary of CPUSA. He was also a key witness in the 1950 hearings before the Tydings Committee, which had been called to investigate charges made by Senator Joseph McCarthy that the State Department had numerous Communists in its employ. Budenz was called to testify regarding Owen Lattimore, a scholar on Central Asian affairs and one of the China Hands. Budenz testified that Lattimore was a member of a Communist cell within the Institute of Pacific Relations, but not a Soviet agent. The reliability of this testimony was questioned, as in all of his 3,000 hours of debriefing before the FBI in the years 1946 through 1949, Budenz had never once mentioned Lattimore prior to the McCarthy hearings. In 1951, Budenz again testified against Lattimore, this time before the hearings of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee headed by Senator Pat McCarran. During his second testimony against Lattimore, Budenz claimed Lattimore was both a Soviet agent and a secret Communist.

In Boyer & Morais’ Labor’s Untold Story; pg. 355-6, 3rd edition, “If Murray needed the lesson underlined it was done for him by Louis Budenz, Communist renegade who was proving in testimony before Congressional committees, in 1948 and 1949 that the charge of Communist was wide enough to include everyone. Budenz solemnly declared in testimony solemnly received and solemnly praised that the fact that a man denied he was a Communist might prove he was a communist since all Communists had instructions to deny it. As a result of this testimony, Professor Owen D. Lattimore was indicted for perjury after he had sworn he was not a Communist. Budenz added that anything a man said might, as a matter of fact prove he was a Communist since Communist spoke in a queer double-talk, in so-called “Aesopian” language. Thus, according to Budenz's testimony, if a man said, “I am not a Communist and I favor peace,” he might really be saying in Aesopian language, “I am a Communist and I favor war.” With this formula generally, acclaimed no one was safe, least of all the leader of a militant labor center costing employers billions a year in wage raises.” In 1952, Senator McCarthy would praise Budenz for having "testified in practically every case in which Communists were either convicted or deported over the past three years; one of the key witnesses who testified against... Communist leaders." Formerly the author of numerous articles and pamphlets in support of Communist causes, after 1945 Budenz wrote several books about the dangers and evils of Communism, as well as becoming a syndicated columnist, Catholic professor and lecturer. In 1947, he wrote an autobiography, This Is My Story.

Death
He died at Newport Hospital in Newport, Rhode Island. He was survived by his wife Margaret and four daughters.

Publications

 * Catholic priests distinguished protestants have known: historical facts vs. uncritical calumny. St. Louis, Mo., Central bureau of the Roman Catholic central verein 1915
 * A list of books for the study of the social question, being an introduction to Catholic social literature St. Louis, Mo., Central bureau of the Roman Catholic central verein 1915
 * Labor Age cartoons [New York : s.n., 1932
 * Red baiting: enemy of labor; with a letter to Homer Martin by Earl Browder New York : Workers Library Publishers, 1937 (with Earl Browder)
 * May Day, 1937: what it means to you New York : Workers Library Publishers, 1937
 * Communism answers questions of a communist New York : Paulist Press, 1937 (with Fulton Sheen)
 * May Day, 1940 New York : Workers Library Publishers, 1940
 * Save your union!: the meaning of the 'Anti-Trust' persecution of labor New York : Workers Library Publishers, 1940
 * This is my story. New York, London, Whittlesey House,McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1947
 * Men without faces; the Communist conspiracy in the U. S. A.New York, Harper 1950
 * The communist conspiracy : a Harding College Freedom Forum presentation [Searcy, Ark.] : National Education Program, 1951
 * The cry is peace. Chicago, Henry Regnery Company, 1952
 * The techniques of communism Chicago, Henry Regnery Company, 1954
 * What every citizen can do for the good of his country: attack communism! New York: American Business Consultants 1963
 * The Bolshevik invasion of the West; account of the great political war for a Soviet America. [Linden, N.J.] Bookmailer 1966