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English: The Polk Conspiracy by Kati Marton - Farrar, Straus and Giroux New York 1990 should be required reading for anyone considering a career in journalism or thinking about retiring someday to the DAYCOR Bacon House in Washington, D. C. It tells the story about the murder of newsman George Polk, one of Edward R. Murrow's boys, in Greece in May of 1948 while covering the civil war there. Foul play by the Greek government was suspected because of stories Polk was writing. William "Wild Bill" Donovan, a lawyer and former head of the World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was sent by the U.S. Government to investigate. The Greek Government was a recipient of Marshall Plan money and supplies and was important to the containment of Communism. Polk had questioned the validity of the newly installed monarch King George II and also had uncovered some activities of the 35 families that controlled the economy of Greece and supported George II's Royalist party. Communists were the main suspects in Polk's murder. The man convicted of the murder confessed under torture but was pardoned in 1961. The people who killed Polk were probably the ones who escorted his casket, Royalists. Polk had requested to be buried wherever he was at the time of his death, in this case Greece. Kati Martin did an excellent job researching. Polk's mother and younger brother did not buy the official story. And when his widow Rea Polk, who had gone to live in the U.S. was being harassed by the Greek Government she went to one of Donovan's "old hands" from the OSS, future Director of the CIA William Colby (1973-76). He saw to it that her complaints and concerns never saw the light of day. Early on - 1948 - the "old hands" set the trend that would be followed throughout the Cold War. The OSS was almost forced out to the intelligence community in the late 1940's. With the help of CIA Director Allen Dulles and his brother Secretary of State John Foster Dulles some of them would be the bureaucrats behind what writer Col. L. Fletcher Prouty calls "The Secret Team."