Context of '1967: Stalin’s Daughter Defects to West, Aided by CIA Officer'

Svetlana Stalin, daughter of deceased Soviet leader Josef Stalin, defects to the West. The defection is arranged by the CIA’s station chief in India, David Blee, after Svetlana asks for asylum at the US embassy in Delhi. While officials in Washington are undecided about what to do about her request, Blee puts her on a plane and spirits her out of India to the West. The New York Times will later call this episode “one of Mr. Blee’s biggest early triumphs.” [New York Times, 8/17/2000; Los Angeles Times, 8/18/2000; Guardian, 8/22/2000]

David Blee, a former head of the CIA’s Soviet division (see 1971), is appointed head of counterintelligence at the agency. [New York Times, 8/17/2000; Los Angeles Times, 8/18/2000]

Former CIA manager David Blee dies at the age of 83 at his home in Bethseda, Maryland. In recognition of the significance of his career (see 1971), the New York Times’s obituary calls him “a legendary American spymaster who played a critical role in dispelling the climate of paranoia that paralyzed the Central Intelligence Agency’s espionage operations against the Soviet Union in the 1960s.” [New York Times, 8/17/2000; Los Angeles Times, 8/18/2000; Guardian, 8/22/2000]