Biography
Bernon F. Mitchell was a National Security Agency cryptologist who defected with William Hamilton Martin in 1960. The two traveled to Mexico and Cuba before appearing in Moscow in September. They used a Soviet press conference to denounce U.S. electronic surveillance of allies and neutral countries and to criticize reconnaissance flights and military incursions. The United States later indicted them for disclosing classified information, but no pending prosecution has been found before their departure. Mitchell received Soviet citizenship and remained in the Soviet Union and Russia for the rest of his life.
