4 Comments

Forgot to mention... where did you find that new photo of them?! Did I miss one? Thanks for uploading it.

Expand full comment

There were a few of the wife / mother that a daughter put up. Some later ones I wasn't interested in. They put them up on social media. I feel like I'm intruding a little but you have to do this with these CIA secret people. I'm not interested in their private lives but I want to know what they did on the job. They are paid by public funds, they are public employees. They are hiding our history from us. We have a law on our side. The JFK Act is not being obeyed. The CIA has to show us the text of these cables about Priscilla Johnson McMillan.

Expand full comment

Here's the link to the group photo at the Potsdam Conference, which may show Mikhalevsky in the background, standing just inside the right side of doorway:

https://history.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/07/Churchill-Truman-y-Stalin-en-la-Conferencia-de-Potsdam-23-07-1945.jpg

Expand full comment

Hey Joe, in the email Mr. Mikhalevsky's grandson wrote to you, in your initial piece about him, he wrote:

"During WW2, Alex worked for the Army Mapping Service and translated at the Potsdam Conference.

"Following the Korean War, [which ended in '53] Alex spent a year advising the LAOTIAN monarchy and mapping the Ho Chi Minh trail. In exchange, he was allowed to return to the USA and did not serve in Vietnam."

It appears this mapping job was well in advance of the construction of the HCMT, since WIKI says construction commenced in 1959.

I didn't know the details of the HCMT, so I looked it up on WIKI:

"The Ho Chi Minh Trail...was a logistical network of roads and trails that ran from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the kingdoms of LAOS and Cambodia. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the Viet Cong (or "VC") and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), during the Vietnam War. Construction for the network began following the North Vietnamese invasion OF LAOS IN JULY 1959....

It was named by the U.S. after the North Vietnamese president Hồ Chí Minh....The trail ran MOSTLY IN LAOS, and was called the Trường Sơn Strategic Supply Route by the communists, after the Vietnamese name for the Annamite Range mountains in central Vietnam.[3]: 28  They further identified the trail as either West Trường Sơn (LAOS) or East Trường Sơn (Vietnam).[2]: 202  According to the U.S. National Security Agency's official history of the war, the trail system was "one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20th century".[4] The trail was able to effectively supply troops fighting in the south, an unparalleled military feat, given it was the site of the single most intense air interdiction campaign in history.

Back to his grandson's email to you...where he refers to his WWII work in the "Army Mapping Service" (Berlin?) because I just realized that photo of him sitting at the desk, with the cigarette in his hand, had a giant map on the wall behind him - maybe that's part of his mapping service work...or maybe just a map on the wall of his Berlin office.

I assumed that photo was taken in Europe due to the window style in the background, and also the phone style was 1940s (looked up google images of phone photos), most likely Berlin or Potsdam, Germany since he was stationed there. He was aide-de-camp for Gen Floyd L. Parks in the Berlin office, '45-'47.

BTW...some interesting info on Lieutenant General Floyd Lavinius Parks (9 February 1896 – 10 March 1959). According to his obit and Wiki he was tied to the Potsdam Conf in a huge way!:

" In the capacity of Commanding General, United States Sector, Berlin District, General Parks led the first U. S. troops into Berlin on July 1, 1945. In this capacity he made all administrative arrangements for the U. S. contingent of the POTSDAM CONFERENCE of the Big Three (July 15 – August 1, 1945) and received an official commendation from President Truman for their excellence."

Here's a photo of Gen Parks at the Potsdam Conf, reviewing the 2nd Armored Division, along with Gen. George Patton, John J. McCloy (yes, the one who was on the WC), then Asst Sec of War, Sec. of War Stimson, and a couple others (Mikhalevsky is not in the photo - I looked):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Lavinius_Parks#/media/File:L_to_R,_Maj._Gen._Floyd_Parks,_U._S._Commanding_General,_Berlin_area,_Gen._George_S._Patton,_Jr._Commanding_General..._-_NARA_-_198814.tif

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49347918/floyd-lavinius-parks

Expand full comment