The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2022

40 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL were, indeed, the cause of Havana syndrome, someone had to be beaming them at our people. If that was true, who was doing it and why? Those questions remain unanswered to this day. Echoes of Moscow Signal As I followed the Havana syndrome story, it increasingly occurred to me that I had seen something like this before. The mention of the word “microwaves,” in particular, triggered a flood of memories, as did the stories of initial skepticism by the State Department and other agencies over the concerns of potential victims. It was Moscow Signal all over again. During the Cold War, the Soviets beamed microwaves at our embassy in Moscow for decades. It is uncertain exactly when it started, although the first use of microwaves to activate a bug- ging device in Spaso House, the ambassador’s residence, was discovered in 1951. There were other reports that the Soviets were beaming microwaves at Spaso House during Vice Presi- dent Richard Nixon’s visit to Moscow in 1959. As for the embassy, once again, reports in the unclassified realm are spotty. It is known for sure that the Soviets were bombarding the upper floors of the central wing of the chancery in the 1960s, but it is equally possible that microwaves were used against the embassy much earlier than that (we moved into the chancery on Garden Ring Road in 1953). One thing is certain: For years, our diplomats serving in Moscow were kept in the dark. This did not apply to the interagency community, however, which formed several groups to study the phenomenon and, apparently, to study our diplomats without their knowledge. Sci- entists at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory were assigned to oversee research into the phenomenon. Mean- while, blood studies were reportedly done on Embassy Moscow personnel, who were not told about the microwaves, but given the cover story that “viral studies” were being conducted. While the prevailing conclusion of all the studies was that microwaves were not harmful, a few scientists strongly objected—including Dr. Allan Frey (discoverer of the “Frey Effect,” which, among other things, noted that microwaves could cause people in the beam’s path to hear clicking sounds) and Dr. Robert Becker, who resigned his position because he believed the U.S. research program to be immoral. According to researcher Annie Jacobsen, in her book Phenomena (2017): “Becker’s government work convinced him that a microwave signal such as the Moscow Signal ‘could affect the central ner- vous system, put people to sleep, interfere with decision-making capacity and induce chronic stress.’ He believed that the Soviets had been ‘using embassy employees as test subjects for low-level EMR [electromagnetic radiation] experiments.’” Why Keep It a Secret? Good question, especially for those who were targeted. The biggest reason, most likely, was because the interagency com- munity generally believed that microwaves were not harmful. And, of course, the longer secrecy was maintained, the more dif- ficult it was to break. In addition, however, there were apparently diplomatic reasons for keep- ing the whole issue quiet. With the advent of détente in the early 1970s, no one was looking for an obstacle to diplomatic progress with the Soviets, which was accelerat- ing under the Nixon admin- istration. Eventually, however, two factors required a reevalua- tion of this policy. First, the intensity of Moscow Signal began to increase, and a second source was detected, also aimed at the upper floors of the embassy. In January 1976 the Gerald Ford adminis- tration decided that Ambassador Walter Stoessel, then our chief of mission in Moscow, had to be briefed. For those who knew him, one can only imagine what was going through his mind when he received the news. Stoessel was a diplomat’s diplomat, The first use of microwaves to activate a bugging device in Spaso House, the ambassador’s residence, was discovered in 1951. NVO/WIKIMEDIA U.S. Embassy Moscow (the old chancery) in 2008.