Biography
John Discoe Smith was a State Department communications technician and code clerk who served at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi from 1955 to 1959. He resigned from the department in December 1959 and disappeared from public view by mid-1960. Soviet authorities revealed in October 1967 that he was living in the USSR. Articles and a book published under Smith’s name alleged that he had performed work for the CIA in India and implicated the agency in covert operations. U.S. officials denied the claims, and contemporary reporting described his departure as rooted in personal instability rather than high politics.
