Reagan’s Ex-Envoy Says She Hired Bloch

U.S. diplomat Felix Bloch knew the identities of undercover CIA agents and had access to secret State Department cables during the period that he is suspected of spying for the Soviet Union, his former boss said.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Austria Helene von Damm, who picked Bloch as her deputy in 1983, said the Austrian-born diplomat had a high-security clearance that put him in a prime position to damage American security interests.

“It’s a serious blow if it’s true,” Von Damm said late Monday of the spying allegations against the 54-year-old Bloch.

Von Damm was Ronald Reagan’s personal secretary during his two terms as governor of California and was his first White House secretary. He subsequently appointed her ambassador to Austria.

Von Damm, who served in the Austrian post from 1983 to 1985, replied with a simple “yes” when asked if Bloch--as her second-in-command at the embassy--had the same top-security clearance as the ambassador and could therefore read all cable traffic to and from the embassy.

In addition, he could monitor reports about embassy situations around the world and knew the identity of the undercover CIA station chief at the embassy, she said.

The FBI said Bloch had unauthorized contact with the Soviet Union, though no charges have been filed against him.

Von Damm, in an interview with ORF Austrian television, said she hired Bloch in mid-1983.

While initially pleased, she said she later saw telltale signs that Bloch “was not completely loyal.”

She told her successor, Ronald Lauder, that Bloch was “trying very hard to profile himself.”

Lauder later told Von Damm that her suspicions about Bloch’s ambitions were correct, she said. Bloch’s term of office was running out but Lauder says he “speeded up” the process, and Bloch was sent back to Washington in 1987.

Von Damm resigned Jan. 15, 1986. She later wrote that her resignation was forced by Nancy Reagan because of her marriage to a playboy Vienna hotelier, from whom she is now divorced, and because some photographs of her in Vienna newspapers had revealed excessive decolletage.