By Genc KONDI
Interview with Frits Hoekstra, former official of the BVD (Dutch Secret Service) during the 1970s and 1980s, head of the communism section
Memorie.al / In mid-2004, the book “In the Service of the BVD” became a real bestseller in Dutch bookstores. From the first days after its publication, it was noticed that it made some sensational revelations about the means and methods used in the recent past by the Dutch state, in cooperation with the American CIA, to disrupt the extreme left movement, which had somewhat strengthened its positions in Western Europe, after the departure of the traditional communist parties, of the East and the West, from their previous positions, which were dominated by the ultimate goal of taking power by force.
Frits Hoekstra, a former official of the BVD (Dutch Secret Service) during the 1970s and 1980s, head of the communism section, suddenly brings to light a topic forgotten over the years. He has not received official authorization to publish his memoirs, and the Dutch state has even threatened him with legal action. But the former spy, now retired, believes that with these publications he is not causing any harm to his country.
On the contrary, it is shown how cleverly he and his colleagues infiltrated this movement, going as far as Albania and China. To return with pockets full of dollars…! With understandable difficulty at the time, he agreed to give a telephone interview, which we are publishing as follows.
Mr. Hoekstra, did you foresee the success of your book on this scale?
If my book sold so quickly and had this unexpected resonance, I dedicate it to the fact that everything I have written truthfully reflects a certain, very important segment of the Cold War, that of espionage. Before becoming a writer and business management consultant, I was for years a career officer in the Dutch Secret Service, formerly called “BVD”.
I was an officer, analyst and then head of the Counterintelligence branch of the BVD. During the 1970s, I was in charge of the branch dedicated to the fight against the communist movement, then of the Counterintelligence branch targeting East Germany and Czechoslovakia.
In what ways did you proceed in the fight against the communist movement?
Our mission was, first, to infiltrate agents into the extreme left currents within the country, the currents that we considered in the 1970s and 1980s to be the most dangerous, but, secondly, to destabilize the “official” Dutch Communist Party, a relatively powerful political entity that had accepted the parliamentary political path and refused to speak out either in favor of Moscow or Beijing.
After the 1960s, the situation in the international communist movement changed and, in addition to Moscow, Beijing also appeared on the scene with the clear tendency to appear as another center of world communism, in alliance with the communists of Tirana. Several very small communist groups emerged in the Netherlands, which called themselves Marxist-Leninists. Faced with the risk that they would unite in a more powerful movement that could restore revolutionary practices in the West, our service found it appropriate to create a new Marxist-Leninist party, from scratch.
Did you unite your people with real communist activists?
Not at all. The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of the Netherlands, for ten years, followed the “right path”, published its newspaper “De Kommunist” and distributed various tracts at the exits of factories, which called for the organization of the proletarian revolution. But the Communist Party of the Netherlands (Marxist-Leninist), although it consisted of members who grouped themselves in cells of four, never really existed.
It was a creature of the Dutch Secret Service, which cooperated closely with the American CIA, its branch in The Hague. None of its members were communist activists, Maoists, Trotskyists, pacifists, anarchists, etc. Simply, four BVD employees were engaged full-time for ten consecutive years to carry out political activities.
What was the operation called and who was its leader?
The operation was codenamed “Mongol”, as it was linked to political movements based in China. The operational leadership at the highest level was neither from me nor from the director of the BVD. It was led by a senior CIA officer, who was specially sent by the USA to The Hague. Meanwhile, the role of the party chairman was played with virtuosity by Peter Boevé, under the pseudonym “Chris Petersen”.
The Secretary General of the Dutch Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), managed to deceive even the highest Albanian and Chinese leaders. This former teacher with a black beard, who was considered an infallible revolutionary, the only Dutch Maoist known by Tirana and Beijing, appeared in photographs with all the important officials of Albania and China. He often went to Copenhagen, but no one knows why: to have fun or to meet a Russian agent. Only he knows this…!
How were your “activists” received in Tirana and Beijing?
I know this from their reports. In your country (Albania), you must have many people who have experienced such a thing, or have even been organizers of receptions, parties, congresses. I know that they were received with flowers, as continuers of the work of Marx and Lenin, at a time when the major communist parties, Tirana and Beijing, accused them of “revisionism”, “betrayal of the fundamental principles of the Marxist movement”, they were received as the only honest communists worthy of this name. On the other hand, they were treated as special friends.
Albania had rich traditions of hospitality, while China was a large country and had no qualms about throwing a few thousand dollars into a friend’s pocket when he left. The destination of these funds was the spread of Marxist-Leninist ideas, through propaganda tools, which in the West coast quite a bit.
How much money did Albanian communist leaders give to this party?
I cannot give an exact figure, for various reasons, including the fact that the Ministry of the Interior, which currently covers the Dutch Secret Service, denied me access to official archives.
Was the entire amount of money received really used to expand the activity of this party?
Part of it was. This was decided by the BVD chiefs. The rest was used for other purposes of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. In fact, the financial assistance that this party received meant that no funds went to a real Marxist-Leninist party in the Netherlands. According to BVD analyses, at that time, the Marxist-Leninist movement in the country was very small, but it made a lot of noise, it was very audible.
The unwashed come out in the open
By Hans de Vreij, Radio Netherland
A problem has arisen for the Dutch Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD): for the first time in its history, one of its former employees is coming out in the open, publishing his memoirs without authorization.
The case concerns 58-year-old Frits Hoekstra, a former employee of the AIVD’s predecessor, which was then called the BVD (Internal Security Service), who has published a book in which he gives details about various practices of Dutch Intelligence, such as the infiltration of agents into left-wing and communist movements during the 1970s and 1980s. The AIVD is studying the possibility of taking legal action against him.
The fact that former spies or counterintelligence agents leak secrets is nothing new. Dozens of books have been published in the United States and Great Britain about the activities of the Intelligence Service. Until now, the AIVD has always managed to force its former employees to adhere to the oath of secrecy. With the publication of the book “In the Service of the BVD” (In Dienst van de BVD) in early October, Hoekstra broke this rule.
To prepare this book, Hoekstra, who left the service in 1987, asked the AIVD for its cooperation, but his request was rejected. Instead, he received a stern letter warning him that he could be prosecuted if he made state secrets public. The Dutch Interior Minister, Johan Remkes, who is responsible for the country’s intelligence services, declared in parliament on October 14 this year that he does not agree with former AIVD/BVD employees writing books.
He ordered an investigation to determine whether the author has leaked state secrets or violated the right to privacy of the people mentioned in the book. “If necessary, we will proceed with criminal prosecution,” the minister said.
The illusions that followed the ideological conflict
In the late 1950s, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, announced important changes in the political line. This led to the separation of a minority from the traditional communist militants, which was more closely linked to the part of Marxist ideology that called for the violent overthrow of power.
These groups created their own parties, mainly in the West, but also in some Eastern countries, such as Poland, calling themselves Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties. The Party of Labor of Albania, after openly declaring the conflict with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the ‘Socialist Camp’ of the time, and forming a political and ideological front with the Chinese communists, had the illusion that in these groups it would find the nucleus for the reorganization of the communist movement, on traditional bases.
In the 1960s, but especially in the next two decades, Tirana – like Beijing – became places of pilgrimage for all sorts of groups, which, in fact, represented very small parties, in many cases with four or five members, with the exception of Brazil. Despite a lifelong desire, Enver Hoxha was unable to organize a “Marxist-Leninist International” with these parties and these elements.
But the ALP took on, among other things, the task of providing financial assistance to them, since it was in power. Albanian Counterintelligence agents never discovered any “enemies” among those who were considered the hope of the future proletarian “revolution” in the West. The case of the Dutch Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) is the first of its kind. However, Albanian opinion has also been rumored in the past about Fosko Dinuç’s “Marxists” in Italy, who received funds from Albania and used them to develop their business there, etc.
Other activities of the BVD
“The BVD also successfully penetrated radical organizations of the extreme left, such as the West German RAF (‘Rote Armee Fraktion’ – ‘Red Army Faction’)”, – Hoekstra writes in his memoirs. “We remained inside this organization the whole time. We were so well positioned in the cells of this group that we managed to prevent various actions, thanks to the reliability of our source”.
Frits Hoekstra points out that, as far as he knows, neither the East Germans nor the Soviet KGB managed to infiltrate the BVD. This could rank the Dutch Secret Service as the most successful of many Western services during the Cold War. Neither the CIA nor the British MI5 and MI6 enjoyed such a luxury! Memorie.al
