Freds Ziedonids Launags was born on June 7, 1919, in Latvia. CIA’s Soviet Russia Division used him Launags as a contract agent from 1951 through 1959. CIA Pseudonyms and cryptonyms used for him included:
CHURGIN,Raymond S.
LAUNAGS, Alfredo
VANAGS, Alfreds (penname in 1950)
GANGIS, Alfreds
JANSON, Arnold (alias)
GOLTEDOE, Louis G.
TAURENS, P. (penname in 1952)
CAMBARO/1 (AECAMBARO 1)
LAGZDINS, Alfreds (during the mission in Spain1955/56)
HAHN, Cleveland O.
AEHAWKEYE / 1
Immediately after World War Two, anti-Soviet partisans known as the “Brothers of the Forest” were active in Latvia, but by the end of the 1940s, their activity was limited due to the success of the government forces. Launags was one of the anti-Soviet partisans known as “The Forest Brothers.” and killed a Soviet officer in June 1945. On October 31, 1945, he and seventeen others managed to escape Latvia on a small fishing boat. After a 20-hour trip they arrived in Sweden.
In Sweden he was very active with Latvian refugees and the Swedish government. Also, Captain Jurgen HVID of the Danish intelligence service in 1950 went to Sweden and requested Launags' assistance in locating agents for dispatch to Latvia, offering the recruits 400 kr. monthly while in training for about one year and additional compensations while on missions. Hvids claimed the Danish intelilligence service had specially built speed boat and training school for qualified recruits. Launags did not accept the offer.
CIA recruited Launags in Sweden in 1951 under Project ZRLYNCH and transported him to Germany to participate in training of REDSOX agents, who were dispatched in Latvia in 1952. REDSOX operations included, “Illegal actions directed at Soviet targets that included but was not limited to intelligence gathering, recruitment of sources, and using agents for spot targets for sabotage” However, all agents used in these operations were exposed and eventualy the Latvian security forces "either killed or captured" all of them.
Launags was utilized two years for general support purposes. In 1955 he indicated on an official medical history that he had been nervous since the end of WWII and attemtped suicide in 1951. After examination by official medical staff, he was "found to have had a brief psychotic episode in 1951 and always had a schizoid type of relationship with people with many obsessive-compulsive defenses." His coworkers referred to Launags as a "character" and he was assigned temporary duties in 1955.
CIA subsequently sent him in Spain on a six-month assignment for propaganda broadcasts to Latvia via Radio Nacional de España:
Louis C. GOLTEDGE, who is a covert associate under contract with Project AEMARSH, is being sent to Madrid, Spain, for 3-4 months on a temporary assignment involving a PP activity. A PP project covering this activity is being formulated and will be submitted for approval upon completion. However, since it is anticipated that there will be some delay involved before a fully qualified PP expert can be recruited for the new project, GOLTEDGE has been assigned to Madrid temporarily to provide the required assistance, so that the necessary work may be started immediately.
During his assignment in Madrid, Launags, “[H]ad many paranoid projections and felt that he was under constant surveillance and that even his colleagues hated him.” Moreover, “He got involved in an argument and broke off relations with the local Latvian diplomat, felt that Spanish officials were suspicious of him. Because of his acid criticism of the Spanish way of life and the Franco regime.” After three months, he returned to the United States
Launags wrote an undated report entitled “Review of my activities in 1956/57” that included the following passage:
Briefing of K.VIDENIEKS for his work in Madrid as well as interviewing him during his stay here (February - May, 1957) on many persons of interest in Latvia as well as abroad discussions about the broadcasts from Madrid. However, I have got no instructions whether I should participate at these broadcasts (by writing features, for instance) or not; in Oct./Nov., 1956, I prepared only four features though in the previous six month (April to September ) I had prepared 27 features for the broadcasts from Madrid. Since nobody has told me whether I am supposed to participate in this project or not, I have stayed out of it almost completely mainly because 1 don't want to disturb my colleague, Mr. SINGER, who is in charge of this project. I am not sure whether my attitude is right or wrong.
CIA returned Launags to the United States because, “His behavior became erratic, he began to imagine he was being followed and then, less than one year after his arrival, he had to be returned to the U.S. because he had come to the attention of the local authorities and began to cause a series of embarrassing problems.” Although Launags was seen as a possible danger to CIA operations and himself, the Agency continued to use him for years. For example, CIA reassigned Launags in 1958 to Germany, where he performed foreign intelligence operations in the Baltic under the direction of CIA's Frankfurt Station, including recruiting and debriefing. One documents states, "The same pattern of paranoid projection, loss of contact with reality, and a constant delusional framework of reference occurred in his recent PCS to Germany."
After nine months Launags was forced to return from his German assignment in 1959, after he displayed evidence of mental instability: “An acute paranoid schizophrenic reaction with depressive features.” Agency mental health experts diagnosed him as "a paranoid schizophrenic" and placed him in a hospital.
A related document using Launags’ pseudonym Raymond S. Churgin stated, " This same pattern of paranoid projection, loss of contact with reality, and a constant delusional framework of reference occurred in his recent PCS to Germany. The Subject apparently again experienced an acute paranoid schizophrenic reaction from which he recovered during the time that he was under examination by the Psychiatric Staff" Moreover, “He feels inferior and markedly inadequate because of his incomplete education and because of his futile efforts to effect the freedom of his homeland. He feels guilty for having deserted ‘the real battleground’ which is it the area of his own homeland.”
CIA dismissed Launags effective December 31, 1959, once they had repeated confirmation of his psychological instability:
Subject is considered unsuitable for further operational usage and will very likely never be cleared for any overseas activity in the future. He presents a management problem in regard to further assignment or termination of employment. It is unlikely that he will give up the dream of freeing his homeland by clandestine means despite the fact that he may no longer be employed as a contract agent of CIA. As such, he presents a security problem.
A month following his dismissal CIA staff met with Launags to take back a 7.6 5mm German made Walther automatic pistol that he had retained and to gather information about his current activities. CIA used the false pretense of wanting to give Launags another assignment. CIA had multiple employees from the Medical Staff and Office of Security present for the meeting as he turned over the weapon to them..
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