Two Cold War Spies Arrested (5 APR 1965)

Photo By Erin Thompson | Robert Lee Johnston Sr. arriving at the federal courthouse in Alexandra, Virginia, 5 April 1965.  

UNITED STATES

03.29.2024

Story by Erin Thompson 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian

TWO COLD WAR SPIES ARRESTED
On 5 April 1965, the U.S. Attorney General announced the arrest of Army Sgt. Robert Lee Johnson and former soldier James Allen Mintkenbaugh on charges of selling information to the Soviet Union. Their espionage spree extended from their recruitment in 1953 until their arrests twelve years later.

Sergeant Johnson was recruited by the Soviet intelligence agency (KGB) while assigned to the G-2, U.S. Army Headquarters Command, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Berlin in 1953. Johnson’s position gave him the ability to furnish classified information relating to military installations, missile sites, and other sensitive activities to the Soviets until he was transferred out of Germany a year later. He was discharged from the Army in mid-1956 but reenlisted early the next year. He was then stationed at the Nike Missile Site in Los Angeles, California, before he moved to the missile training school at the Air Defense Center, Fort Bliss, Texas. These new postings gave Johnson access to technical manuals, films, and other training materials that he passed to James Mintkenbaugh, who in turn gave them to the Soviets.

Mintkenbaugh had been initiated into the world of espionage by Johnson in 1953 while stationed together in Berlin. Using a camera furnished to him by a Soviet contact known as “Paula,” he was tasked with taking photographs of classified materials. Mintkenbaugh was discharged from the Army in March 1956 and returned to the United States. Despite no longer being in the military, he remained in contact with his Soviet handlers and served as a courier between Johnson and the KGB while living in Washington, D.C. He also attended courses in Moscow on code writing, photography, and other skills the Soviets might need.

Between November 1959 and May 1961, Sergeant Johnson was stationed at the U.S. Army Ordnance Agency in Orleans, France, where he kept in frequent communication with a KGB agent known as “Viktor.” During this time, Johnson supplied the Soviets with information regarding the Ordnance Agency and American antitank missile capabilities. He was then transferred to the Armed Forces Courier Station at Orly Field in Paris. At the behest of the KGB, Johnson applied for and was granted a Top Secret clearance and was able to access even more highly classified materials. Some of the information was so important to national security that a spokesperson from the Department of Defense later stated: “Had we not discovered the losses [in 1965], and had there been a war, the damage might very well have been fatal.” In the fall of 1964, Johnson was assigned to work in the Pentagon and moved his family from France to Alexandria, Virginia.

The pair were eventually discovered after Mintkenbaugh confessed to his brother, who urged him to turn himself in to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Johnson, who had fled to Reno, Nevada, shortly after arriving back in the U.S., had been wanted for desertion since October 1964. Johnson was placed under surveillance to identify his Soviet contacts, which Col. William F. Strobridge later claimed was one of the most challenging surveillance projects of his career. With confessions from Mintkenbaugh and Johnson’s wife, and information from KGB defector Yuri Nosenko, the U.S. Attorney General officially announced the arrest of both men on 5 April 1965. They were indicted the following day by a federal grand jury in Alexandria and later sentenced to a minimum of twenty-five years in prison. Mintkenbaugh’s whereabouts after his sentencing are unknown. In 1972, while still in prison, Johnson was fatally stabbed over a “personal matter” by his son, Robert Lee Johnson Jr., who had recently returned home from a tour in Vietnam.


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• Date Taken: 03.29.2024
• Date Posted: 03.29.2024 16:29
• Story ID: 467415
• Location: US