Sichel’s damning report on the Soviets’ strong-arm tactics in eastern Germany had made it past Lucius Clay’s desk and been disseminated by Quinn to senior officials in Truman’s White House, as well as in the War and State Departments. Learning its author was just back in New York, the SSU chief summoned Sichel, still technically on active duty, to Washington. There he was subjected to an exhausting round-robin of interviews with some of the highest officials in the Truman administration. “I think with almost everyone, there was this initial psychological resistance to hearing it,” he
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