Frederick Vanderbilt Field

This article is part of the Venona series.

CPUSA

American Peace Mobilization

Myrna group

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Frederick Vanderbilt Field (April 13, 1905 – (February 1, 2000) was active in the communist movement through most of his adult life. Field served as Executive Secretary of the American Peace Mobilization. He was later arrested for refusing to reveal names. His mother, Lila Vanderbilt Sloane Field, was a direct descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Frederick Vanderbilt Field testified that he had discussed with associates in the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) the project of starting the publication, Amerasia in 1937. Amerasia was established with the full approval of the Institute leaders. This property belonged to Field and Philip Jaffe, with Field holding the controlling interest. Field testified that he owned 50 per cent of the stock, while Jaffe owned 49 per cent. Field named Owen Lattimore, Kate Mitchell, Harriet Moore, T. A. Bisson, Benjamin Kizer, a trustee of the Institute, and Philip Jaffe, who also was a member of the Institute and a contributor to its periodical.

When Field made his effort to get into Army Intelligence, it was in writing on the letterhead of Amerasia, showing Field as chairman of the editorial board with Owen Lattimore and William T. Stone as members of the board. There was no change in ownership of this magazine from 1937 to 1943, when Field resigned and Jaffe took over.

Further reading

• Whittaker Chambers, Witness (New York: Random House, 1952), 382;
• Scheidt to Director, 31 January 1947, FBI Silvermaster file (FBI file 65-56402), serial 1976
• FBI Silvermaster file (PDF format pg. 67) pg. 335 in original
• FBI Silvermaster file (PDF format pgs. 58, 60) pgs. 457, 459 in original
• Alexander Vassiliev, Untitled Notes on Anatoly Gorsky’s December 1948 Memo on the Failed American Networks (2003)

External links

• McCarthyism: Waging the Cold War in America, by M. Stanton Evans, Human Events, 05/30/1997. Updated 05/08/2003.