An old flame
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WHATEVER ELSE they may have been guilty of, former State Department intelligence analyst Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn, who were charged earlier this month with conspiracy, wire fraud, and being agents of Cuba, were also guilty of old-fashioned gullibility.
The couple, known in their social circle as the Kendalls, were caught on tape telling an FBI undercover agent posing as a Cuban intelligence officer how their service to Fidel Castro’s regime had given meaning to their lives. Rewarding their devotion, Castro said recently on a Cuban website that he admires the Kendalls’ “disinterested and courageous conduct on behalf of Cuba.’’
At least three times, the upper-crust couple proved just how obtuse political romantics can be. The first time came during a trip that Walter took in 1978 to Cuba, where his guide was a Cuban intelligence officer who initiated the tourist’s romance with the Castro revolution. The second time was when another Cuban agent visited the Kendalls in South Dakota, recruiting the patrician Kendall to seek an intelligence job in the US government and pass classified information to Havana - for love, not money.
The final display of credulity was this spring, when an FBI agent approached Walter Kendall, handed him a Havana cigar, and said Cuba wanted to renew contact. Husband and wife couldn’t confide enough to their new friend about techniques they used to pass coded information to the island.
Walter Kendall apparently had no access to names of US agents in Cuba, but he could have transmitted sensitive material from allied intelligence agencies. Yet the Kendalls were not charged with espionage. And there is no criminal statute for political naivete.
