Top Marine Vows Action in Spy Cases

The nation’s top Marine on Thursday promised corrective action “regardless of the consequences” in the cases of four former Marine embassy guards who have been arrested on suspicion of espionage or improper contacts with Soviets.

“No group is more embarrassed by these events and more concerned” about the potential damage to national security than the Marines, said Gen. Paul X. Kelley, commandant of the Marine Corps.

Kelley, testifying before a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee about the Marines’ budget, declined to discuss details of the scandal on grounds that it would be “imprudent” to talk about a pending case.

Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) said: “I think we ought to execute people convicted of treason.”

Kelley answered that “anybody guilty of treason in the generic sense, I would support that.”

No one has been charged with treason in the current cases and Kelley noted that he was not referring to any specific case.

Hollings said the government should fix responsibility for what went wrong at the U.S. embassies in the Soviet Union.

Kelley replied that there is “nobody in the Marine Corps, or in the country, that wants to fix responsibility in the Marine Corps chain of command more than the commandant . . . (and) when we can fix responsibility, individuals will be held responsible.”

“I can only beg your patience while we make a concerted effort” to investigate the cases, he said. “It’s a matter of highest priority to determine the facts and take corrective action. I promise we’re not leaving any stone unturned, regardless of the consequences.”