Julijonas Būtėnas: A Lithuanian Cold War Martyr ©

 

On April 18-19, 1951, for the second infiltration, the CIA doubleton team of Julijonas Būtėnas  (“Steve”) and Jonas Kukauskas-Kukis (“Jack”) were dropped into the Kaunas area Lithuania. Their mission was, 

• Establishment of contact with the underground resistance forces in Lithuania.


• Reorganization of the underground resistance forces along more effective lines.


• Establishment of reliable wireless transmission and secret writing communication between Lithuania and. the American Zone of Germany.


• Procurement of positive and operational intelligence. 

Būtėnas was the “jumpmaster” for the parachuting of the first three agents in October 1950 He had been a journalist in Lithuania. After WWII, he was in a displaced persons camp in Würzburg, Germany, home of VLIK. He became the head of the VLIK information office and also taught English to Lithuanian refugees.

Būtėnas was recruited for intelligence work in September 1949 through officials of VLIK. He had been living in an IRO camp in Pfullingen, Germany. He was originally recruited to act as a translator and agent instructor. From 1949, Būtėnas lived in a safehouse in Munich with Luksa.  Later, from about May 1950, he lived with all the agents who were being trained for CIA dispatches, including Jonas Kakauskas-Kukis. It was not until 28 August 1950 that he was assigned to a team for dispatch

After they landed in Lithuania, Būtėnas separated from Kukauskas-Kukis and contacted the underground headquarters in the Tauras Region. As the story goes, Būtėnas and Petras Jurkšaitis (Beržas),  the commander of the underground unit were killed in a farm house in the village of Altoniskiai, by Lithuanian security forces on or about May 21, 1951. The farmer was supposedly drunk and gossiped with his neighbors, one of whom informed the security forces. 

Another version of his death is that he bit into the cyanide pill and killed himself.  However, in April 1956, the Lithuanian language newspaper "Teviskes Ziburiai" (The Lights of Homeland) published in Toronto, Canada, reported that Butenas was alive and in a forced labor camp after being caught by security forces, put on trial, and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. 

In any event, he was buried in an unmarked grave. There is a memorial cross with a parachute in Kazlų Rūda, Lithuania. On May 19, 1999, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus posthumously awarded Būtėnas the Order of the Vytis Cross, 3rd degree.