Popov, Dusko

Popov, Dusko (1912–81),Yugoslav-born British double agent, codenamed TRICYCLE, who has been described as ‘a familiar character in marginal cosmopolitan circles; energetic, raffish, charming, plausible, worldly, full of wonderful schemes, so marvellous that he came to believe them himself’ ( B. Bruce-Riggs, Intelligence and National Security, April 1992, p. 77).

Popov, a Yugoslav commercial lawyer with a German degree, was approached in 1940 to join the Abwehr. He reported this to the British who used him as a double agent during his business trips to Lisbon and elsewhere. In August 1941 the Abwehr sent him to the USA to form a new spy network and to obtain economic and military intelligence. The full facts are still not known, but it appears there was no high-level assessment of the Abwehr questionnaire, concealed in microdots on four documents, which Popov had with him and which included a number of questions about Pearl Harbor. One of the reasons put forward for this lack of interest by US intelligence is that J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI (see USA, 6), disliked and distructed the high-living Popov, but it is equally likely that he thought he was a British plant. Popov later alleged that other relevant information he supplied had also been ignored, but there is no evidence that he ever provided it.

FBI ineptitude in handling the feedback of information to the Abwehr, and German suspicions resulting from it, ended in Popov's returning to the UK in October 1942. He eventually managed to re-establish his credentials with the Abwehr and this enabled him to be used for deception purposes by the XX-committee before the Normandy landings in June 1944 (see OVERLORD). After the war Popov was decorated and awarded British citizenship.See also spies.

Bibliography

Popov, D. , Spy–Counterspy (London, 1974).