Reading bureaucratic correspondence is no one's idea of fun.
asserted
Reading → read → fun
But on an otherwise unremarkable day at the British National Archives, I came upon a curious item: a 1972 diplomatic cable from the British embassy in Muscat, Oman, recounting a conversation with the American charge d'affaires.
asserted
I → come → d'affaires
The subject was a certain Robert B. Anderson, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's onetime treasury secretary, who had recently set up shop in Oman.
asserted
who → set → Oman
What caught my attention was not what the American diplomat said about Anderson, but what he refused to say.
asserted
he → catch → what
He would not dare utter Anderson's name, referring to him only as "the man we don't mention in the cables."
asserted
we → dare → cables
For the moment, I had to leave it aside, though I was careful to scrawl "look into Anderson" in my notes for a potential paper down the line.
asserted
I → have → line
I am a student of history at the University of Oxford, and my research focuses on intelligence networks in the Middle East and Africa, not America.
asserted
research → focus → East
Yet Anderson kept cropping up.
asserted
Anderson → keep → ?
Looking into him, I would soon realize, meant staring into the void.
asserted
I → look → void
On paper, he was a respectable diplomat, a former treasury secretary whom Eisenhower twice considered presidential material.
asserted
Eisenhower → consider → paper
Outside the official record, he appeared to be something else: a spymaster, treasure hunter, wheeler-dealer, and deep state emissary.
asserted
he → appear → record
Then Anderson's name popped up somewhere I did not expect: the newly released files on John F. Kennedy's assassination.
asserted
I → pop → assassination
Most coverage of the JFK files focused on the search for a "smoking gun" proving a conspiracy in Kennedy's murder.
asserted
coverage → focus → murder
Despite disappointments on that front—and the resulting lack of media fanfare around the files—the archives include many fascinating revelations about Cold War history.
asserted
archives → result → history
Anderson's story is one of them, showing how long a shadow the U.S. government casts beyond its borders.
asserted
government → show → borders
Born in 1910 in Burleson, Texas, to cotton farmers, Anderson became a lawyer at 22 and immediately won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives.
asserted
Anderson → bear → Representatives
By the 1940s, Anderson was working for the oil industry, and caught the attention of the Eisenhower campaign in the 1950s.
asserted
Anderson → work → 1950s
Anderson's reach extended well beyond Washington.
asserted
reach → extend → Washington
After the Suez Crisis of 1956, Eisenhower sent him to the Middle East on what became known as the "Anderson Mission."
asserted
what → send → Mission
Presidents Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Nixon would continue to appoint Anderson to various official positions.
asserted
Kennedy → continue → positions
In 1964, Anderson was made a special ambassador to Panama to negotiate the canal's future.
asserted
Anderson → make → future
He ultimately failed, having refused a rapid handover to Panama, and resigned in 1973.
asserted
He → fail → 1973
After the Watergate scandal and Nixon's resignation, it seemed that Anderson was locked out of the halls of power—at least British diplomats thought so.
asserted
diplomats → seem → power
But over the years Anderson had built a formidable global consulting operation based out of One Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with a Rolodex that included foreign heads of state and international tycoons.
asserted
that → build → state
By the 1980s, the image of Anderson as a respectable statesman had begun to crack.
asserted
image → begin → statesman
He became a lobbyist and consultant for Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church—better known as "the Moonies"—and ran a curious bank in Anguilla, the Commercial Exchange Bank and Trust.
asserted
He → become → Anguilla
Anderson was paid handsomely and discreetly for his services to Moon, with the money safely tucked away in a tax-free Caribbean environment.
asserted
money → pay → environment
In 1987, facing a federal investigation headed by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudy Giuliani, Anderson pleaded guilty to tax evasion and operating an unregistered offshore bank.
asserted
Anderson → face → bank
In addition to laundering his own money, he had taken on clients, including at least one drug dealer.
asserted
he → launder → dealer
The only treasury secretary ever to have been convicted of a felony, Anderson was sentenced to a few months of house arrest and five years' probation.
asserted
Anderson → convict → arrest
He died two years later, in 1989.
asserted
He → die → 1989
So ended his overt life.
asserted
life → end → ?
But there were stories suggesting that his shadow career began much earlier.
asserted
career → be → ?
One of the most extraordinary stories comes from historians Sterling and Peggy Seagrave.
asserted
One → come → Sterling
According to their account, shortly after World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Army intelligence Maj. Edward Lansdale discovered hidden vaults of Japanese war loot in caves north of Manila—the legendary stash that came to be known as "Yamashita's Gold," named after the last Japanese military governor of the Philippines.
uncertain
that → accord → Philippines
Anderson, then serving on the secretary of war's staff, was supposedly with them.
asserted
Anderson → serve → them
Rather than declare the treasure and return it to its rightful owners, the story goes, Anderson proposed placing the wealth into secret "black gold" bank accounts around the world for future covert operations.
asserted
Anderson → declare → operations
This rumor has never been confirmed, but the JFK files did show that Anderson was running secret operations with dark money.
asserted
Anderson → confirm → money
In 1973, during the recriminations over the Watergate scandal, CIA Director William Colby had his subordinates report to him on all other potentially scandalous CIA activities.
asserted
subordinates → have → activities
The collection of reports was dubbed the "family jewels."
asserted
collection → dub → reports
…and 54 more, not listed.
