Last modified on June 28, 2020, at 23:41

Willard Park

This article is part of the
Venona
series.

CPUSA
Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
UNRRA

Willard Z. Park (October 14, 1906 – April 15, 1965) was a U.S. anthropologist. Park was a former teaching colleague of Maurice Halperin at the University of Oklahoma. Both Park and Halperin actively sought out recruitment with Soviet intelligence, or the "Communist East" through the New Masses and Jacob Golos. Contacts were made with Elizabeth Bentley through Mary Price.

Beginning in 1942 Park was the Assistant Chief of the Economic Analysis Section of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), and later the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

In 1943 Park was interviewed in connection with a Hatch Act investigation. Much of Parks FBI file is redacted, including his background material, which usually includes routine items like a date of birth, parentage, education, and personal information. Park was considered a minor source of intelligence.

Sources

  • Alexander Vassiliev, Untitled Notes on Anatoly Gorsky’s December 1948 Memo on the Failed American Networks (2003)
  • FBI Silvermaster file