„Sapere aude” - A Szegedi Történészhallgatók Egyesületének Második Konferenciájának tanulmánykötete

Egy „amerikai kém” Csehszlovákiában – Noel Haviland Field csehszlovák kapcsolatai Bessenyei Vanda The name of Noel Haviland Field is well known due to the Rajk-trial. However, he was also a key figure in the early stages of the infamous Czechoslovakian Slánskýtrial. In both cases he served as a starting point when the search for the internal enemy within the party apparatus began in 1948. Due to his past, spent in the USA, the Spanish Civil War and the Unitarian Service Committee, he had a wide network of contacts with different communists. Thus, he was the perfect person for laying the groundwork for a political trial.

However, Noel Field’s main goal with these connections after the Second World War was not to build up a spy network in the Eastern European bloc as the fabricated accusations would suggest, but to help the countries through the Service Committee.

This short study focuses on and presents Field’s Czechoslovakian connections, confirming that he used these connections to get information about the country so the Service Committe could provide adequate assistance to the country.

Keywords: Czechoslovkia, Noel Field, political trials, communism