Fahy was born in
Washington D.C. in 1908 and grew up in
New York City. His father was a senior partner at Walter J. Fahy and Co, a stock exchange firm. Fahy worked for Senator
George H. Moses in the late 1920s. After the
Stock Market Crash of 1929, Fahy became a
Socialist. Fahy studied at
New York University, the
Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, San Marcus University in Peru,
Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and
Montana State University where he took courses in
animal husbandry. Fahy established several small businesses during this time. Fahy served in the
International Brigades in the
Spanish Civil War on behalf of the
Socialist Party. When Fahy returned to the U.S. after being wounded in the war in 1938, he publicly argued with Socialist Party leader
Norman Thomas on policy differences over the Spanish Civil War, and resigned from the Party in an open letter published in the Communist
Daily Worker. Afterward Fahy became Vice President of the
Hemisphere News Service under
Robert Miller, and they later hired
Joseph Gregg to manage it. Gregg and Fahy had served together in Spain. The news service was absorbed into the
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA) in 1941, an agency that coordinated diplomacy, propaganda and economic warfare in Latin America. Fahy left the CIAA and joined the
Board of Economic Warfare and held the position of Principal Intelligence Officer. In 1943 Fahy was about to become chairman of the Territorial Affairs Bureau in the Department of the Interior, Rep.
Martin Dies, Jr. placed Fahy on a list of government employees suspected as being Communists. The Kerr Commission upon hearing Fahy's testimony agreed his involvement with the Socialist party was a "youthful misadventure" and concluded Fahy had been "loyal" and "has not been guilty of any subversive activity". Fahy's alleged
code name with the Soviet Naval GRU, "MAXWELL," was deciphered in the
Venona project, although the value of these decryptions in identifying Soviet agents remains controversial. Venona transcripts allege that Fahy was transmitting information to the Soviet Naval GRU for money. The information Fahy transmitted was regarded in Moscow as very valuable. Moscow sent a message to the Washington Naval GRU to "communicate each item of information from Fahy on political questions to the Master [Soviet ambassador] and telegraph it to me with the post-script 'report to the Master'." ==References==