George Putnam
Friday, Dec. 20, 2002

It is this reporter's opinion that we have heroes who do not always wear uniforms or carry death-dealing weapons. These heroes are often never given ample credit for their great deeds.

One such person was my friend Matt Cvetic, who served our country as a counterspy. He volunteered for the Army but was rejected because he was only 5'4" tall – 2 inches too short to fit the requirement.

His service to country began in 1941 with the ringing of the telephone in his Pittsburgh office of the United States Employment Service, where he worked as a lowly placement interviewer. "What can I do for you?" asked Matt.

A low, impressive voice responded, "It isn't exactly what you can do for me. I'd like to discuss that with you." And that's how they met. It was an agent of the FBI who called that day. He suggested an important task Matt could perform for his country.

They met quietly in a dark restaurant. "You tried to get into the Service," he said. Matt responded that he was 2 inches too short. "There's a more important task," said the agent. "What do you know about the Communist Party?"

"Hate them," said Matt. "My parents are from Slovenia; they know what it's all about."

Because of his knowledge of the Slav languages, the agent knew Matt was well qualified to infiltrate the higher echelon of the Soviet apparatus in the U.S., so he outlined the task that lay ahead for Matt. He was to infiltrate the Communist Party – to turn his back completely on his family, his Catholic Church, his normal existence. Matt's father worked in the foundry with hundreds of immigrants.

Matt was perfect for the task. He was to give up his family and friends and there would be no pay or expense money until he actually became a member of the Communist Party.

"Think it over, Matt, on the basis of service to your country rather than personal gain."

It would mean turning his back on his wife and twin sons, Dick and Matt Jr., who were 10 years old at the time. Yet, with all that at stake, Matt made the big decision. It would, unfortunately, all but destroy his happy family relationships when they discovered that their husband and father was a Communist.

In the mid-1950s, Matt Cvetic told his story on my Los Angeles television show. He told of the tortures that followed, of his aversion to Communism, of his love for America. But what followed was absolute HELL. Once accepted by the Party, his very life would be on the line were he to be exposed, yet he had to convince the "Reds" that he was a Communist.

It was Lincoln's birthday, 1943, when he was sworn in to the Communist Party. At the Fifth Avenue High School in Pittsburgh, the purpose of the meeting, as far as the public was concerned, was to do honor to Lincoln. But as far as Matt and recruit members of the Communist Party USA were concerned, it was to do honor to Joseph Stalin.

Matt was now a sworn member of the Communist Party, reporting on a regular basis to his contacts in the FBI, whom he never again met in person.

The new recruits were sworn in, shook hands and went their separate ways. After that, Matt found himself in the thick of more than 3,000 secret "Red" meetings – meetings from which he was to send the FBI millions of words in more than 50,000 pages of reports documenting Communist conspiracies. Before he was through, he would supply the FBI with the names of hundreds of Soviet agents, Soviet secret police and American Communists.

He went home to scorn and ridicule at the hands of his mother and father, his wife and children, his church and everyday associates. They thought he had betrayed his beloved America, that he had made a horrible choice.

His wife screamed, "Get out of this house and don't ever come back!" His wife divorced him; his kids were not to mention his name. He was completely shut off from his family and friends. His associates swore vengeance upon him.

His only contacts were fellow Communists and the FBI. He had to concentrate on convincing the "Reds" of his thorough commitment to Communism. He walked, talked and ate Communism. For all intents and purposes, he was a "Red." He was living doubletalk and deceit and was tested again and again by the Communists, most severely during the Nazi-Soviet honeymoon, through his Communist pals.

He sought help from his Communist superiors as to how he could speak of Communism and, at the same time, praise Hitler. On the one hand, the two groups attacked and spied on each other and at the same time, spoke of their alignment.

As he burrowed deeper and deeper into the Communist conspiracy, Matt's position became more and more untenable. He constantly feared that a simple slip would prove his undoing, but never did he waiver from the course or his task at hand – service to his beloved United States of America. He constantly damned the American system he loved, which was required of him as the persona Comrade Cvetic.

The only person in whom he ever confided was his lifelong parish priest. Theirs was a confidence that endured to the end. The priest understood when Matt repeated Lenin's words, "Religion, comrades, is an opiate for the ignorant masses – it must be destroyed."

The "Red" words filled Matt with a sickening revulsion. All of his life he had been taught to respect the clergy of all faiths, to respect man's right to believe in God according to the dictates of his own conscience. It was all he could do to restrain himself from jumping up and shouting out against the deceitful Communist game that he, himself, was playing.

Matt knows well there is nothing more frightening than Communist duplicity through hypocrisy. Comrade Cvetic found himself, along with his fellow Communists, constantly testing each other as to who was the more loyal, dedicated Communist. He detested every moment of the lie he was living – the lie handed down by Marx and Lenin.

This double life went on year after year, becoming more and more unbearable. Matt's non-Communist fellow workers at the United States Employment Service hurled insults at him, calling him all kinds of vile names; but he knew he was doing an absolutely necessary job, albeit distasteful, dirty and very dangerous.

The deeper he became involved in Communist intrigue, the more caution the dual role required. Knowing always that he was being followed by members of the Red's Security Commission, he developed a kind of sixth sense that kept him constantly on guard. Matt knew that he was constantly being given the Party equivalent of the "third degree" – the Communist Party's method of weeding out laggards, Party deviationists, potential counter-revolutionaries and suspected enemy agents.

He continued, nonetheless, to walk this lonely road he had chosen for himself as a patriotic, dedicated American hero for years on end.

There's a lesson in all this for any American who might stupidly fall under the spell of Communism.

One evening Matt was walking home with his Communist cell leader when Matt asked his comrade, of Russian descent, "Comrade, when the Russian Communists take over in America, how many of us American Communists will be kept in prominent positions?"

The response: "American Communists are of low quality; they have not learned the fiber of our suffering for the cause. But most important, if their own American homeland can't trust them, if their fellow Americans can't trust them, how the hell can we?"

Matt Cvetic, a true American hero, made the big decision that cost him dearly. Those who mattered the very most to him either failed to learn his true story or died before the truth could be told.

Then nine years of loneliness and being misunderstood finally came to an end; hazardous years of working in the midst of traitors and conspirators were over. At last, Matt Cvetic could start to rebuild his life.

He stood up and told his story before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and spent several days before them unraveling diabolical "Red" intrigue – giving the names of hundreds of Soviet agents and American Communists who had been working or were working to overthrow our government.

The Communists responded, calling Matt "Cvetic the Rat," "stool pigeon," "capitalist stooge," "cockroach" ... but he stood tall.

We'll never truly know how great his contributions were in keeping America "the land of the free," but we know by his example this is the "home of the brave."

I invite you to read on:

Cvetic, Matthew. "The Big Decision: Based on the Experiences of Matt Cvetic, Former FBI Counterspy" – all rights reserved by the Matt Cvetic Memorial Foundation (Torrance). 1959, 5th (1966). Order the book: http://www.bolerium.com/cgi-bin/bol48/resultsql2.html or http://www.booooks.com

The legendary George Putnam is 88 years young and a veteran of 68 years as a reporter, broadcaster and commentator ... and is still going strong. George is part of the all-star line-up of Southern California's KPLS Radio – Hot Talk AM 830. Click here for George's complete bio

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