Daniloff Reunion Report Indicated Desire to Join CIA

Adding an ironic twist to a mushrooming international dispute, alumni records reveal that Nicholas S. Daniloff '56 claimed the CIA denied him a job when he applied nearly 30 years ago.

"I had wanted, at Harvard, to become a diplomat--or, more accurately a foreign servant," Daniloff--the American journalist awaiting trial in the Soviet Union on charges of espionage--wrote in his Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report.

"As luck would have it, the U.S. Foreign Service, the CIA, [and the United States Information Agency] all found my mind lacking."

But having "seen many ironies over the last years...I am delighted to have [become] a journalist rather than becoming a diplomatic servant to other men," Daniloff, a former Nieman fellow, recalled in his reunion biography.

A spokesman for the CIA refused to comment yesterday on whether Daniloff had actually applied for a position with the spy agency.

Daniloff was ending a five-year stint as Moscow bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report when KGB agents arrested him on August 30, after he allegedly received an envelope containing Soviet secrets.

In a further development of the Daniloff case, the State Department plans to expel 25 Soviet diplomats at the United Nations as part of an ongoing effort to pressure Moscow to release the journalist, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

Administration officials believe the Soviets arrested Daniloff to gain leverage in their attempt to win the release of Gennadiv Zakharov, an employee of the United Nations. American security agents arrested the Soviet physicist and charged him with spying on August 23.

Although Daniloff was released from a jail last Friday, Soviet authorities still plan to bring him to court on charges of espionage. The American journalist previously worked in the Soviet Union for United Press International (UPI) from 1961 to 1965 and spent 1973-74 at Harvard as a Nieman fellow.

Just Joking?

But members of Daniloff's class of Nieman fellows say they doubt the correspondent's 1981 remarks indicate his desire to become a CIA spy.

"He has a very dry sense of humor and I'm sure he was just horsing around," said Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman, who served with Daniloff as a Nieman fellow.

Goodman and five other Nieman alumni denounced Daniloff's detention by Soviet officials at a press conference earlier this week at the foundation's Cambridge offices.

The Harvard affiliated Nieman Foundation offers year-long fellowships to outstanding journalists, enabling participants to explore scholarly topics free from the pressures and demands of professional journalism.

Other fellows yesterday described their detained colleague, the son of Russian parents, as a man with a passion for that nation's culture.

"He quite often talked about the important role his Russian heritage played in his upbringing and his desire to go back to the Soviet Union," said Ned A. Cline, managing editor at the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record.

Morton M. Kondracke, Washington bureau chief for Newsweek, described Daniloff as "having a balanced, realistic and pragmatic knowledge of the Soviets" and speculated that Daniloff's abduction was carefully planned in Moscow at the highest levels.

"Pinching Nick served to give the Russians leverage in the release of Zakharov while pinching Western journalists as well," Kondracke said yesterday. Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev fears that Western journalists are ruining his reformer image by reporting news contrary to party line, he added.

But it may be too late for Gorbachev to prevent his glossy image from becoming tarnished.

"The abduction of an innocent American journalist tends to project Gorbachev as being more similar to his bloated predecessors than to the reformist image to which he aspires." said Cline.

Daniloff's colleagues also speculated that his arrest could have negative repercussions in U.S.-Soviet relations, although they were unable to predict what long-term ramifications his arrest might have.

"If he's not sprung pretty fast, it could holdup the summit," said Kondracke.

Missed Opportunities

On the eve of his departure for Moscow,Daniloff seemed pessimistic in his appraisal ofdetente. "I prefer to avoid comment here on thestate of the world, other than to say that inSoviet-American relations, as in the Middle East,I am appalled by the number of missedopportunities," he wrote in his Twenty-fifthreport.

"Since I do not expect to attend theTwenty-fifth Reunion, I send good wishes to all.