cover image Polk Conspiracy: Murder and Cover-Up in the Case of CBS News Correspondent George Polk

Polk Conspiracy: Murder and Cover-Up in the Case of CBS News Correspondent George Polk

Kati Marton. Farrar Straus Giroux, $22.95 (370pp) ISBN 978-0-374-13553-9

When the body of CBS newsman George Polk was found floating in Salonika Bay on May 16, 1948, the Greek government, fearing loss of U.S. aid in the civil war between the Greek Army and Communist-led guerrillas, went to great lengths to divert suspicion from the rightist regime and lay the blame on the left. Several investigations were launched, including one led by former OSS chief General William ``Wild Bill'' Donovan. Eventually the government in Athens produced a suspect, Salonika journalist Gregory Slaktopoulos, whose confession led to his trial and conviction and placed the blame for the murder squarely on the Communists. Marton's ( Wallenberg ) captivating, solidly researched inquiry presents three major arguments. First, she contends, the ``confession,'' obtained under torture, was false. Second, Polk, an outspoken critic of the royalist regime, probably doomed himself by threatening to expose its corruption. Third, investigators, including Donovan, conspired to cover up rightist sanction of the murder. The royalist regime, she concludes, in fact arranged Polk's death. Illustrations. (Oct.)