Johnson was identified with a different number in this 1956 CIA application (52373) than in her 1952 application (71589). The response from Security in 1956 is odd, stating "she was apparently born 23 September 1922 in Stockholm, Sweden, rather than 19 July 1928 at Glen Cove, New York." Did someone try to slip Johnson by CIA management by another number? This puzzle only deepens.
This 1956 application was withdrawn a few months later, but emerged again in 1958. On April 10, Cord Meyer sent a cable to Western Europe expressing interest in Johnson, right after Johnson applied for a Soviet visa in Paris. A couple weeks later, a request went out seeking approval for Johnson to become a "REDSKIN traveler and informant", and that "SR/2 (Soviet Russia Division #2) will have primary responsibility of handling agent."
Other memos, one sent by "SR/RED/O'Connell", illustrate that three Priscillas have now emerged: Besides the original Priscilla Mary Post Johnson, we now also see the names "Priscilla McClure Johnson, Priscilla McCoy." It's still uncertain what this means, other than two months of apparent confusion and very poorly redacted forms between April-June 1958.
Johnson was supposedly rejected in June 1958 because her "past activity in USSR, insistence return and indefinite plans inside likely draw Sov suspicions". Nonetheless, she decided to return to Moscow and study Soviet law under a fellowship grant from either Columbia or Harvard universities.
JFK recommended Priscilla Johnson as a member of a travel group to the Soviet Union
Three months later, the chairman of the "Inter-University Travel Group", David C. Munford, sought and obtained a recommendation from Senator John F. Kennedy for Johnson to be accepted as a member of his group traveling to the Soviet Union. It's unclear to me why such a recommendation was necessary, but it is fascinating that JFK tried to get Johnson into a group that was the focus of REDSKIN.
As fate would have it, Munford had been too successful in his recruitment efforts. Munford had to tell JFK that there wasn't room for Johnson in the group, but assured him that she could still join if someone dropped out. Munford wrote Johnson and remarked, "I gather I will go on hearing echoes of your serious intent in this matter."
Three weeks later, Munford wrote her another letter of congratulations for landing work as a journalist in the Soviet Union: "Some people make their own luck and you are one of them." In both letters between Munford and Johnson, both before and after one of the couples dropped out of the program, any participation by Johnson in the program seemed to be irrelevant and went unmentioned.
Johnson denies having any relationship with the CIA during this time, and denies ever being a CIA employee. Ironically, these letters are in the files because they were intercepted by the CIA pursuant to a mail intercept program set up by Legend Maker #1 Angleton to read the mail of Americans in the Soviet Union. These letters surfaced when Johnson filed a Freedom of Information Act request years later asking for all records "indicating my employment in your agency".
Johnson worked for NANA, an intelligence-linked news agency
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