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From Frank Clynes Aug 11, 2022
The name Simas Kuderka means nothing to the average American. In 1970, he was a radio operator on a Soviet factory ship off the coast of Massachusetts. As a Lithuanian citizen, he yearned to breathe free and he decided to defect. Jumping on the USCG Cutter Vigilant, he asked for political asylum. Commander Ralph Eustis granted it. The Russian officer appealed to the U.S. Captain in Boston, who overruled Eustis and allowed them to take him back. The state department labeled the incident Top Secret, and it might've remained that way. I was assigned to the WTEV-6 Washington news bureau at the time, and learned of it from a South Carolina tobacco lobbyist. He showed me a state department report with the word 'Secret' on the top, and said, "This ain't right. Somebody's got to expose this." Now I could finally make a difference. First I had to return to New Bedford, but I couldn't tell my bureau chief why. The Capitol telephones were suspect at the time (Watergate,) so I couldn't call the newsroom. Kuderka might still be alive, but for how long? The KGB didn't take prisoners. Back in New Bedford, the news director was furious with me. It seemed I was Hell Bent on exposing a top military secret and dragging him down with me. If I boarded the USCG Vigilant, which was now tied up at the state pier, I could consider myself fired. In the Captain's quarters, Cmdr. Eustis was in a dark place, wishing he could go back in time and relive yesterday. Then the guardsman at the gangplank called in and said a TV reporter was requesting permission to come aboard. Our conversation was brief. He told me to turn on my movie camera and he'd give me everything. Ten minutes of film. I asked how this might affect his career. "Mr. Clynes, my career was finished the minute I invited you on my ship." So was mine. No sense going back to the TV station. But for a brief moment, that interview would also be mine. I was the only cinematographer on the Channel Six payroll who owned his own sound camera. I'd stop in at the station just long enough to resign, then I'd be off to Providence to offer my story to WJAR-10. The WTEV news director had left for the day. Anchorman Truman Taylor called the general manager, who assured me that my job was secure. He also ordered us to make three copies and send them out to all national networks, not just ABC. No more secrets.... In DC, Transportation Secretary John Volpe, whose department included the USCG saw the film. President Richard Nixon first learned of it on the news, then called Premiere Gorbachev demanding the return of Simas Kudurka. It took over a year and a show trial in Moscow, but we got Simas back. Volpe fired the captain of the Port of Boston along with an Admiral, but he retained Commander Eustis to serve out his 20 years. In the military, you can't be forced to obey an illegal order. As soon as Simas received his political amnesty on a United States warship, he belonged to us.
See Commander Eustis' Story
Gobachev later deported him to New York. He was spreading dangerous ideas. But Simas eventually sneaked back and aroused the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian peoples into a huge peaceful uprising. The longest in history. The Jump - A Cold War Story They formed a human chain of two million people along a highway linking all the Baltic states.  Four hundred and twenty miles. Gobachev reportedly flew over the human chain in a single engine aircraft, to see for himself. "Can you hear us now, Mr. Gobachev?" |
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